The 5th Zurich Film Festival will celebrate its opening with the world premiere of the German language comedy Lila Lila, which will screen at the Cinema Corso on Thursday night, September 24th. The announcement was made today by ZFF Directors Karl Spoerri and Nadja Schildknecht.

On hand for the world premiere screening will be the film’s lead actors Daniel Brühl (Good Bye Lenin!, The Edukators) and Hannah Herzsprung (4 Minutes, The Reader), Director Alain Gsponer (Kiki and Tiger, Rose) and the author of the bestselling book on which the film is based, Martin Suter (“A Perfect Friend”, “The Dark Side of the Moon”).

Commenting on the choice of the opening film, Schildknecht and Spoerri said: “Together with Alain Gsponer, we are extremely pleased to be presenting a film by this 33-years-young talented Swiss director, from whom we are certain to see many more excellent works. We feel this selection is fitting for a festival aiming to support young talent.”

Set in the literature world, writer Alexander Buresch (Rose, Das wahre Leben) based the screenplay for this exciting comedy on Suter’s bestselling novel bearing the same name. Falcom Media will release Lila, Lila in Swiss cinemas in 2010.

Producers Sebastian Zühr, Henning Ferber and Markus Welke from Film 1 (Sometime in August, Phantom Pain) and Swiss co-producer Andreas Fallscheer of Falcom Media will also be in attendance at the Zurich Film Festival.

In the film, David Kern’s (Daniel Brühl) debut novel storms into the bestseller lists. Too bad, then, that David is not actually the author of this tragic love story set in the 50’s. The inconspicuous waiter found the manuscript in the drawer of a bedside table he bought from a junk shop and passed it off at his own in order to impress the beautiful Marie (Hannah Herzsprung). The two become a couple and the media becomes desperate for David’s attention, but calamity takes its course when Jacky (Henry Hübchen), a run-down tramp, stands before him at an autograph session and claims to be the true author of “Lila, Lila“...

ZFF will celebrate the beginning of this eleven-day festival with an After-Party in Globus at Bellevue following the world premiere screening.

Entering just its fifth year, the Zurich Film Festival has established itself as a marquee European Festival, discovering and promoting independent voices and talent from around the world and showcasing a diverse array of international films. ZFF continues to serve as the setting for many World and European premieres.

About the Zurich Film Festival
The 5th Zurich Film Festival will take place at the cinemas Corso and Arthouse Le Paris from September 24 until October 4, 2009. A public festival for those who have already seen it all. The Zurich Film Festival will screen more than 50 Swiss and international film premieres in the International Feature Film Competition, the International Documentary Film Competition, the German-Speaking Competition and the Out of Competition series.

ZFF is organized by Spoundation Motion Picture GmbH, based in Zurich, in cooperation with local institutions and sponsors. The Zurich Film Festival cooperates with numerous distributors and producers from Switzerland and abroad. The idea to found a festival in Zurich came from Karl Spoerri. Today, the festival directors are Karl Spoerri (creative director) and Nadja Schildknecht (public relations, marketing and sponsoring).