Michael Steiner leaves the Swiss Film Academy in protest
Published: Monday, Jan 29th 2024, 21:10
Updated At: Tuesday, Jan 30th 2024, 00:59
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Director Michael Steiner ("Mein Name ist Eugen") is leaving the Swiss Film Academy in protest. He criticizes the fact that the Swiss Film Award has degenerated into a "Prix Romandie", as this year mainly films from French-speaking Switzerland have been nominated.
This has to do with the Academy system, said member Steiner in Monday's "Faces & Stories" program on Swiss-German radio and television SRF. In 2006, Steiner himself won the Swiss Film Award for "Mein Name ist Eugen".
With "Grounding - The last days of Swissair", Steiner celebrated another great success with the public. He also directed "Sennentuntschi" (2010).
"Once you've won an award, you can vote. But if it turns out that the French-speaking Swiss only vote for the French-speaking Swiss, then the Swiss Film Prize will be useless," Steiner continued.
Academy Co-President Samir (Samir Jamal Aldin, born in Baghdad) expressed his regret at Steiner's decision. The accusation that the French-speaking Swiss voted more for their films and thus outvoted German-speaking Swiss films cannot be accepted, he said in the same program. According to Samir, roughly the same number of German-speaking Swiss voted as French-speaking Swiss.
The Federal Office of Culture, co-distributor of the Swiss Film Prize alongside SRG SSR and the Association Quartz, was quoted in the SRF program as follows: "We are convinced that the members of the Academy perform their duties with the utmost seriousness and care."
Three quarters from German-speaking Switzerland
According to its own information, the Swiss Film Academy comprises over 600 personalities from all areas of the Swiss film industry - 73% from German-speaking Switzerland, 22% from French-speaking Switzerland and just under 5% from Italian-speaking Switzerland. Its members nominate and select the winners of the Swiss Film Awards in 13 categories.
For the launch in May 2008, all award winners and those involved in the production and distribution of the award-winning feature and documentary films were included.
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