The 10th edition of the Zurich Film Festival, scheduled to be held from Sept. 24 to Oct. 5, will have fewer categories and a larger pool of prize money than in years past.
The festival committee website has announced that henceforth, the competition section of the ZFF will include just three categories - International Feature Film, International Documentary Film and Focus: Switzerland, Austria and Germany.
Earlier, the competition section of the festival included four categories - International Feature Film, International Documentary Film, German-language Feature Film and German-language Documentary Film.
The ZFF awards a Golden Eye for the best film in each category.
According to Yahoo, the best films in the International Feature Film and International Documentary Film categories this year will receive a Golden Eye along with $28,000 (25,000 Swiss francs) as prize money, while the best film in the Focus category will receive a Golden Eye and $22,500 (20,000 Swiss francs).
In addition, the best films in each of the above categories will receive distribution support worth $112,000 (100,000 Swiss francs). The ZFF has also kept its commitment to promote Swiss films by announcing that it will offer an additional $11,200 (10,000 Swiss francs) to a film produced locally and included in the ZFF program.
In 2013, the festival screened 122 films, up from 111 in 2012. In all, there were 259 screenings and 71,000 visitors last year, compared to 58,000 attendees the year before. .
Every year, top film personalities from across the globe attend the ZFF, with 2013's high profile guests including Hugh Jackman, Stephen Frears, Harvey Weinstein, James Gray, Marc Forster, Alfonso Cuaron, James McAvoy, Michael Haneke and Melissa Leo.
