Ben Affleck’s 1970s thriller “Argo,” Oliver Stone’s lush crime tale “Savages” and Michael Haneke’s dour drama “Amour” are among the 111 films selected to screen at the Zurich Film Festival on Thursday.
The festival, which runs Sept. 20 to 30, unveiled its full lineup Thursday morning — at 111, the biggest slate of films ever for the festival.
The Gala Premieres section includes a litany of major international titles, many of them American, such as Rian Johnson’s “Looper,” Lee Toland Krieger’s “Celeste and Jesse Forever” and Nicholas Jarecki’s “Arbitrage.”
“Savages,” also in Gala Premieres, will open the festival. "Argo" is coming off a barn-burning play at Telluride where it jumped into the Oscar conversation. "Amour" won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and was just chosen to be Austria's nominee for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.
The Zurich festival has four competitions sections — International Feature Film, International Documentary Film, German-Language Feature Film and German-Language Documentary Film.
The international feature titles competing include Benh Zeitlin’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” David Ayer’s “End of Watch” and Mike Birbiglia’s “Sleepwalk with Me.”
Frank Darabont leads the jury for that section and is joined by the likes of producer Michael Shamberg and editor Pietro Scalia.
"This year's program reflects all of life's stages: Birth, childhood, teens, heyday, pensioner, death," the festival's artistic director Karl Spoerri said in a statement. "It mirrors change, development, tension and transitoriness. It is not about surrendering to boundless freedom and never-ending possibilities, but to find a smart way by setting clear boundaries."
