Swiss Producer Marcel Hoehn will receive the 12th Zurich Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Hoehn’s production company, T&C Film, has hugely influenced the Swiss film scene over the past 40 years. To celebrate the company’s 40th anniversary, the festival will show a comprehensive selection of his most important works.

Marcel Hoehn is regarded as the most successful producer of the New Swiss Cinema. His career began in 1978 with Rolf Lyssy’s DIE SCHWEIZERMACHER. He has since produced more than 40 fiction and documentary films, collaborating with such eminent directors as Daniel Schmid, Francesco Rosi, Sandra Nettelbeck, Fredi M. Murer and Christoph Schaub.

Said ZFF Co-directors Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri: „Marcel Hoehn has influenced the Swiss cinema landscape with sustained passion and a highly developed sense of entrepreneurialism for the past four decades.” They continued: “Many of his productions are considered to be classics. Hoehn has not only written Swiss film history, he has also written international film history.”

T&C Film – A Success Story

Marcel Hoehn was born 1947 in Zurich, where he continues to live today. He learned his craft while working in various positions, most notably as an assistant director, director of commissioned films and as a unit/production manager. He founded the production company T&C Film AG in Zurich in 1976, a year in which the company was also able to profit greatly from a high demand for advertisement films. In 1978, Hoehn produced Rolf Lyssy’s comedy DIE SCHWEIZERMACHER – it attracted a total of one million cinemagoers, making it the biggest box office hit in Swiss film production history.

Hoehn garnered international attention following collaborations with Grisons-born director Daniel Schmid: HÉCATE was invited to screen in competition at the 1983 Berlin Film Festival and BERESINA ODER DIE LETZTEN TAGE DER SCHWEIZ (1999) screened in the „Un certain regard“ section at Cannes. Further successes included IL BACIO DI TOSCA (1984) and THE WRITTEN FACE (1995). Following the death of Schmid, Hoehn produced the portrait DANIEL SCHMID – LE CHAT QUI PENSE in 2010.

Promoting Swiss Film

Hoehn has produced numerous films with such Swiss filmmakers as Christoph Schaub (STILLE LIEBE, 2001; JEUNE HOMME, 2006; GIULIAS VERSCHWINDEN, 2009), Bruno Moll (BRAIN CONCERT, 1998) and the Swiss contemporary artist duo Fischli/Weiss, including the cult film DER LAUF DER DINGE (1987).

International successes include AFTER DARKNESS (1985) by Switzerland’s Dominique Othenin-Girard, which stars John Hurt and Julian Sands and screened in competition at the Berlinale, Fredi M. Murer’s classic VOLLMOND (1998) and the co-productions LA TREGUA (1997) by Francesco Rosi starring John Turturro, SECRET DÉFENSE (1998) by Jacques Rivette and BELLA MARTHA (2001) by Sandra Nettelbeck.

Hoehn’s commitment to promoting film and professionalising and raising international awareness of Swiss film in particular spans decades. He garnered the Zurich Film Award in 1999 for his achievements as a producer and took home the Honorary Swiss Film Award in March 2011.

Marcel Hoehn was a guest at the ZFF in 2014 with Belinda Sallin’s film DARK STAR: HR GIGERS WELT. The presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award takes place on September 27, 2016 during the ‘Zürcher Filmnacht’. Twelve of his most important films will be screened in a comprehensive retrospective of his works.