Winterthur prepares packed line-up

The 21st edition of Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, which runs from 7-12 November 2017, looks set to provide a feast of special events and programmes for the short film goer.

This year’s Country in Focus at the festival will be Greece. With Greek cinema becoming lauded around the same time as the economic crisis in the country began to manifest itself, this section will focus on the bold new voices coming from the country whilst examining the New Greek Cinema of the 1960s.

The festival’s Main Focus will include films from ten Southeast Asian countries, among them Thailand, the Philippines, and Myanmar. The film promise to be as diverse as the region itself, addressing themes ranging from politics and memory to family, tradition, and sexuality. Linked in with the Main Focus, Thai filmmaker Pimpaka Towira will be the festival’s Person in Focus for 2017. As the country’s first female director who has made a name for herself among international critics and cinephiles, she is a key voice of contemporary Thai cinema.

The festival will also pay homage to revolutionary Swiss filmmaker Fredi M. Murer while Tricky Bodies, Animated Dreams will see Polish women animators address themes like physicality and sexuality from a female perspective. And in collaboration with the 'Swiss Initiative – Culture Projects Sudan', Winterthur will present a selection of current Sudanese shorts. The festival will be introducing a programme dedicated exclusively to films from the Zurich area while, also for the first time, there will be three Virtual Reality screenings.

For more information on the festival visit HERE

11 September 2017, by Laurence Boyce