ANIMATION IN SWITZERLAND
Animation Festivals
Along with cheese, chocolate and cuckoo clocks, now ever September, Switzerland is home to the FANTOCHE Animation Festival. This has been running since 1995 in Baden, near Zurich, and is now regarded as one of the top five animation festivals in the world, behind Annecy, Stuttgart, Ottawa and Hiroshima. The 2009 festival, which showcased the new release of Pixar's Up even had leading animators from Pixar coming to Switzerland to give workshops on how they build up characters. In 2009, for the first time the festival gave greater prominence to the theme of computer games. This field is now among Fantoche's permanent activities and the festival has established itself as an annual meeting place for professionals and all those interested in the theme.
The Zurich Film Festival began in October 2005 and became firmly established upon the national and international festival landscape within a very short period of time. This year sees the seventh one as Zurich is transformed into an eleven-day film festival capital celebrating the art of film.
The Zurich Film Festival began in October 2005 and became firmly established upon the national and international festival landscape within a very short period of time. This year sees the seventh one as Zurich is transformed into an eleven-day film festival capital celebrating the art of film.
Animation Schools
A special exhibition has been set up by the Zurich University of the Arts' game design department, with works that have been specially made for Fantoche. Also on display are some of the university's success stories.Feist, which involves a little black creature battling its way through a mysterious forest, won the students' showcase competition at the Independent Games Festival in San Francisco, one of the biggest contests of its kind. It is now being developed commercially by its makers, Adrian Stutz and Florian Faller.
The Design & Art branch of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences & Art, relaunched its dwindling animation department to before unknown heights only a few years ago – no less than half of Swiss films, are from students or recent graduates of here and the private art school Ceruleum in Lausanne.
The Design & Art branch of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences & Art, relaunched its dwindling animation department to before unknown heights only a few years ago – no less than half of Swiss films, are from students or recent graduates of here and the private art school Ceruleum in Lausanne.
When did animation become prominent in the country?
Along came Annecy, 1960, the first fully-fledged international animation only festival, just a stone’s throw away in neighbouring France, and Asia, the International Association of Animated Film, founded at the same time in the same place. Not surprising, it was the animation adepts of the region who picked up the threads, entered their first films in the thriving authors’ animation circuit and gave a body to Swiss animation by founding one of the first national chapters of Asifa, the Swiss Animated Film Group, in 1968. GSFA-STFG is the network of all animation professionals in Switzerland. Its aim is to facilitate animated series, middle length and long feature projects. Of course personal short animation projects still have to be supported correctly all the while. Moreover, the Swiss Animation Awards furthers the Swiss animation industry. The GSFA is in direct contact with the different subsidizing institutions, such as the Federal Office of Culture and its Film department, or Swiss Television SSR SRG with the Pacte de l'Audiovisuel, as well as the various regional institutions and agencies, in order to implement satisfactory solutions for the specific needs of the animators. To facilitate animation workshops for children and young people, the GSFA has founded a task group called Graines d'Animation (Seeds of Animation).
Is Swiss animation mostly commercial or experimental?
Fantoche is every bit as refreshing, fun-loving and lively as the untamable genre to which the festival is devoted. It has a particular preference for artistic films, loves experimentation and is always on the look-out for new trends and young talent.
Pingu is a Swiss stop-motion claymation TV series created by Otmar Gutmann. The series was produced by The Pygos Group and Trickfilmstudio for Swiss television. The show originally ran for four seasons from 1986 to 1998 on SF DRS.
Jonas Raeber’s SWAMP studio in Lucerne, just celebrating its 15th anniversary of producing commissioned work and TV content, taking credit for a string of highly successful shorts of authors such as Claudius Gentinetta (‘Poldek’ 2004) as well as his own (e.g. ~‘Gruezi’ 1995, ‘Credo’ 2001); or Zoltan Horvath of Nadasdy Film, Geneva, author of the acclaimed short ‘Nosferatu Tango’ (2002), who engages in TV co-productions with France and just released his latest work, ‘Under the Skin’ (2008); or finallyCinemagination, the company of the twin authors Samuel and Frederic Guillaume with friend Benoit Dreyer, producers of the most prestigious – and expensive – effort of Swiss animation ever, the puppet-animated feature ‘Max & Co’ (audience award in Annecy 2007), as well as the two puppet films by Claude Barras shown at LIAF this year.
Pingu is a Swiss stop-motion claymation TV series created by Otmar Gutmann. The series was produced by The Pygos Group and Trickfilmstudio for Swiss television. The show originally ran for four seasons from 1986 to 1998 on SF DRS.
Jonas Raeber’s SWAMP studio in Lucerne, just celebrating its 15th anniversary of producing commissioned work and TV content, taking credit for a string of highly successful shorts of authors such as Claudius Gentinetta (‘Poldek’ 2004) as well as his own (e.g. ~‘Gruezi’ 1995, ‘Credo’ 2001); or Zoltan Horvath of Nadasdy Film, Geneva, author of the acclaimed short ‘Nosferatu Tango’ (2002), who engages in TV co-productions with France and just released his latest work, ‘Under the Skin’ (2008); or finallyCinemagination, the company of the twin authors Samuel and Frederic Guillaume with friend Benoit Dreyer, producers of the most prestigious – and expensive – effort of Swiss animation ever, the puppet-animated feature ‘Max & Co’ (audience award in Annecy 2007), as well as the two puppet films by Claude Barras shown at LIAF this year.
GEORGES SCHWIZGEBEL - Award winning Swiss animator, famous for animations painted on glass. Born 1944, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts et des Arts Décoratifs, Geneva. In 1971 he founded Studio GDS, with fellow animators Claude Luyet and Daniel Suter, where they produced and directed animated films. From 1986 to 1995 he worked on retrospectives and exhibitions, among others, in Nuremberg, Stuttgart, New York and Tokyo. He was awarded Swiss Film Prize in 2002, Best Short Film for “La jeune fille et les nuages”. His film, The Man With No Shadow was included in the Animation Show of Shows.
His 2011 short film Romance, a co-production of the National Film Board of Canada and two Swiss studios, was named Best Animated Short at the Genie Awards, Canada’s equivalent of the Oscars.
His 2011 short film Romance, a co-production of the National Film Board of Canada and two Swiss studios, was named Best Animated Short at the Genie Awards, Canada’s equivalent of the Oscars.
http://www.studio-gds.ch/
Are Switzerland's politics a hindrance to animating?
Because another characteristic feature of Swiss animation is its prevailing form of production: an individual enterprise, structured by the rhythm imposed by mostly solitary, excessively long labour (compared to the duration of the result), with generally rather basic, limited infrastructure, the difficulties of financing a product with no proper market, and the necessity for most protagonists to make a living besides – none of it likely to make the life of an author more attractive. Although the Swiss Animated Film Group counts more than 100 members for quite some time already, the active core of Swiss animation never consisted of more than some thirty individuals – amongst them LIAF-participants Isabelle Favez, Claudius Gentinetta and Claude Barras –, while well over two thirds of those who entered the scene with a first film never managed to make a second.
Max & Co. - With its budget of CHF 30 million (€14 million), the Swiss Federal Office of Culture subsidised CHF 1.5 million.
Max & Co. - With its budget of CHF 30 million (€14 million), the Swiss Federal Office of Culture subsidised CHF 1.5 million.
Is there a nationally predominant animation medium?
“There is no such thing as a Swiss animated cinema, even though it is possible to dedicate a whole book to it. Surely, animated film makers do exist in Switzerland, but their work does not bear any other particular national sign except its common place of origin.”Roland Cosandey. Swiss animators usually express themselves in the short format. Swiss films circulate at festivals and on television screens worldwide.