Tribute to… Award for Michael Haneke whom filmfestivals.com awarded with Festival Film of the Year for Amour

Zurich, Switzerland – August 29, 2013 – The 9^th Zurich Film Festival, taking place September 26^th – October 6^th, will present its coveted A Tribute to… Award to Austrian screenwriter, TV, film, theatre and opera director, Michael Haneke, thus honouring an extraordinary artist whose work continues to shine on the European film landscape. A comprehensive retrospective of five representative productions will allow an insight into the ‘world of Haneke’. The ceremony will take place during the Award Night on October 5^th.

Born 1942 in Vienna, Haneke initially studied philosophy, psychology and dramatics in his hometown, before changing relatively quickly to television. Michael Haneke worked from 1967 as an editor and dramatic advisor for Südwestfunk in Baden-Baden, taking the step to independence just three years later. His first international breakthrough came with the 1989 drama THE SEVENTH CONTINENT, about a family that plunged for no apparent reason from normalcy into a (self) murderous maelstrom. This was followed by further huge international successes such as BENNY’S VIDEO (1992), FUNNY GAMES (1997), THE PIANO TEACHER (2001), CACHÈ (2005), THE WHITE RIBBON (2009) and AMOUR (2011), which garnered an Oscar® for Best Foreign Language Film.

“We’re all capable of anything,” said Michael Haneke in an interview. “We simply have to be in the right situation“. This, ‘right situation’, and its consequences, is central to the Austrian perfectionist’s oeuvre. He insists on applying a set of formal and narrative standards that are currently threatened with extinction by the deluge of mass-produced films – and exemplify what the art of film can be.

A long list of honours and awards, from Oscar® to Golden Globe, from Golden Palm and César to European Film Award, and a veritable list of almost every revered film trophy possible, pays tribute to his unquestionable prowess. Haneke’s singular ability to make visible the familiar aspects of everyday madness lurking behind the façade of conventional orderliness was attested to in a recent homage.

Again and again, Haneke brings us face to face with the fatal consequences of suppression, emotional petrifaction and spiritual glaciation.

Occasionally he does this quite drastically. But the imagination of evil, as the moralist Haneke conjures it up in, say, the alleged cinema scandal FUNNY GAMES, leaves him with no other choice.

Recreated scene for scene in the USA in 2007, FUNNY GAMES forms part of the small retrospective laid on by the ZFF to draw the public into the ‚world of Haneke’. It will be joined by THE PIANO TEACHER, a literary adaptation of Jelinek’s novel; CACHÈ, a family drama tackling the suppression of guilt; THE WHITE RIBBON, a disturbing village chronicle and, last but not least, the magisterial chamber play AMOUR, which celebrated its premiere last year at the 8^th Zurich Film Festival.

About the Zurich Film Festival

Entering its ninth year, the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) has established itself as one of the world’s top Films Festivals, discovering and promoting independent voices and talent from around the world, showcasing a diverse array of international films and serving as the setting for many World and European premieres.

The aim of the Zurich Film Festival is to offer audiences an insight into the work of young, upcoming filmmakers from around the globe and to promote the exchange of ideas between established film workers, young talent and the public.

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 and Nadja Schildknecht, who serve as Directors of the Festival.

The Zurich Film Festival is generously supported by its main sponsors: Credit Suisse, upc cablecom, Die Schweizerische Post and Audi.