Grand Prix
ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT by Payal Kapadia
Co-produced by Frank Hoeve (ACE The Netherlands)
and Gilles Chanial (ACE Luxemburg)

Best Director
GRAND TOUR by Miguel Gomes
Produced by Filipa Reis (ACE Portugal)
Co-produced by Tom Dercourt (ACE France)
Associate produced by Viola Fügen (ACE Germany)

Best Performance by an Actor
Jesse Plemons for KINDS OF KINDNESS by Yorgos Lanthimos
Produced by Ed Guiney (ACE Ireland)

Un Certain Regard – Best Director
ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL by Rungano Nyoni
Produced by Ed Guiney (ACE Ireland)

Un Certain Regard – Best Actress
Anasuya Sengupta for THE SHAMELESS by Konstantin Bojanov
Co-produced by Vincent Wang (ACE France)

Un Certain Regard – Special Mention
NORAH by Tawfik Alzaidi
Produced by Paul Miller (ACE Greece)

Caméra d’Or Prize
ARMAND by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
Co-produced by Koji Nelissen & Derk Jan Warrink (ACE The Netherlands)
Executive Produced by Dyveke Graver (ACE Norway)

Quinzaine – Audience Award
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE by Matthew Rankin
Produced by Sylvain Corbeil (ACE Canada)

L’Oeil D’or
THE BRINK OF DREAMS by Nada Riyadh & Ayman El Amir
Co-produced by Marc Irmer (ACE France)

COMPETITION

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT by Payal Kapadia
Co-produced by Frank Hoeve (ACE The Netherlands)
and Gilles Chanial (ACE Luxemburg)

THE APPRENTICE by Ali Abbasi
Produced by Daniel Bekerman (ACE Canada)

THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE by Magnus von Horn
Produced by Mariusz Włodarski (ACE Poland)
Co-produced by Madeleine Ekman (ACE Sweden)

GRAND TOUR by Miguel Gomes
Produced by Filipa Reis (ACE Portugal)
Co-produced by Tom Dercourt (ACE France)
Associate produced by Viola Fügen (ACE Germany)

LIMONOV: THE BALLAD OF EDDIE by Kirill Serebrennikov
Produced by Mario Gianani (ACE Italy)

KINDS OF KINDNESS by Yorgos Lanthimos
Produced by Ed Guiney (ACE Ireland)

MARCELLO MIO by Christophe Honoré
Produced by Philippe Martin & David Thion (ACE France)

MOTEL DESTINO by Karim Ainouz
Co-produced by Viola Fügen (ACE Germany)

CANNES PREMIERES

EVERYBODY LOVES TOUDA by Nabil Ayouch
Co-produced by Marleen Slot (ACE The Netherlands)
and Eva Jakobsen (ACE Denmark)

UN CERTAIN REGARD

ARMAND by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
Co-produced by Koji Nelissen & Derk Jan Warrink (ACE The Netherlands)
Executive Produced by Dyveke Graver (ACE Norway)

NORAH by Tawfik Alzaidi
Produced by Paul Miller (ACE Greece)

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL by Rungano Nyoni
Produced by Ed Guiney (ACE Ireland)

SEPTEMBER SAYS by Ariane Labed
Produced by Ed Guiney (ACE Ireland)

THE SHAMELESS by Konstantin Bojanov
Co-produced by Vincent Wang (ACE France)

THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE by Mo Harawe
Produced by Oliver Neumann (ACE Austria)

SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE

BABY by Marcelo Caetano
Co-produced by Stienette Bosklopper (ACE The Netherlands)

THE BRINK OF DREAMS by Nada Riyadh & Ayman El Amir
Produced by Marc Irmer (ACE France)

GHOST TRAIL by Jonathan Millet
Co-produced by Nicole Gerhards (ACE Germany)

SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE – SHORTS

SAUNA DAY by Anna Hints & Tushar Prakash
Produced by Evelin Penttilä (ACE Estonia)

DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT

TO A LAND UNKNOWN by Mahdi Fleifel
Co-produced by Maria Drandaki (ACE Greece)

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE by Matthew Rankin
Produced by Sylvain Corbeil (ACE Canada)

ACID

KYUKA – BEFORE SUMMER’S END by Kostis Charamountanis
Produced by Giorgos Karnavas (ACE Greece)
Co-produced by Marija Dimitrova (ACE North Macedonia)
Opening Film ACID

MI BESTIA by Camila Beltrán
Produced by Lionel Massol (ACE France)

MOST PEOPLE DIE ON SUNDAYS by Iair Said
Co-produced by Alessandro Amato (ACE Italy)

Silver Bear Jury Prize
THE EMPIRE by Bruno Dumont
Produced by Andrea Paris (ACE Italy)
Co-produced by Dorothe Beinemeier (ACE Germany), Olivier Dubois (ACE Belgium), Bertrand Faivre (ACE France), Fabrizio Mosca (ACE Italy)

Silver Bear for Best Screenplay
DYING by Matthias Glasner
Produced by Jan Krüger (ACE Germany)

Encounters Best Director
CIDADE; CAMPO by Juliana Rojas
Co-produced by Clement Dubois (ACE France) and Ingmar Trost (ACE Germany)

Grand Prix for Best Film in Generation 14plus
WHO BY FIRE by Philippe Lesage
Produced by Galilé Marion-Gauvin (ACE Canada)

Special Mention – Crystal Bear for Best Film
YOUNG HEARTS by Anthony Schatteman
Co-produced by Annabella Nezri (ACE Belgium) and Floor Onrust (ACE The Netherlands)

Second Prize – Panorama Audience Award
CROSSING by Levan Akin
Co-produced by Katja Adomeit (ACE Denmark)

Forum – Ecumenical Jury Prize
MARIA’S SILENCE by Dāvis Sīmanis
Produced by Inese Boka-Grube (ACE Latvia)

Teddy Jury Award
DYING by Matthias Glasner
Produced by Jan Krüger (ACE Germany)

Guild Film Prize
DYING by Matthias Glasner
Produced by Jan Krüger (ACE Germany)

Special Mention – AG-Kino Gilde Cinema Vision 14Plus
DISCO AFRIKA: A MALAGASY STORY by Luck Razanajaona
Co-produced by Nicole Gerhards (ACE Germany)

Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award
DYING by Matthias Glasner
Produced by Jan Krüger (ACE Germany)

Eurimages Co-Production Development Award
SCREAMING GIRL by Antonio Lukich
Produced by Vladimir Yatsenko (ACE Ukraine)
Co-produced by Jessie Fisk (ACE Ireland)

Competition

DYING by Matthias Glasner
Produced by Jan Krüger (ACE Germany)

THE EMPIRE by Bruno Dumont
Produced by Andrea Paris (ACE Italy)
Co-produced by Dorothe Beinemeier (ACE Germany), Olivier Dubois (ACE Belgium), Bertrand Faivre (ACE France), Fabrizio Mosca (ACE Italy)

FROM HILDE, WITH LOVE by Andreas Dresen
Produced by Claudia Steffen (ACE Germany)

GLORIA! by Margherita Vicario
Produced by Carlo Cresto-Dina (ACE Italy)

LANGUE ÉTRANGÈRE by Claire Burger
Co-produced by Roman Paul (ACE Germany)

WHO DO I BELONG TO by Meryam Joobeur
Produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha (ACE France)

Encounters

ARCADIA by Yorgos Zois
Produced by Maria Drandaki (ACE Greece)

CIDADE; CAMPO by Juliana Rojas
Co-produced by Clement Dubois (ACE France) and Ingmar Trost (ACE Germany)

Panorama

CROSSING by Levan Akin
Co-produced by Katja Adomeit (ACE Denmark)

THE OUTRUN by Nora Fingscheidt
Co-produced by Jakob D. Weydemann (ACE Germany)

Panorama Dokumente

AFTERWAR by Birgitte Stærmose
Produced by Misha Jaari (ACE Finland)

Generation

ABOVE THE DUST by Wang Xiaoshuai
Co-produced by Leontine Petit (ACE The Netherlands) and Erik Glijnis (ACE The Netherlands)

DISCO AFRIKA: A MALAGASY STORY by Luck Razanajaona
Co-produced by Nicole Gerhards (ACE Germany)

MY SUMMER WITH IRENE by Carlo Sironi
Produced by Giovanni Pompili (ACE Italy)

THE GREAT PHUKET by Liu Yaonan
Produced by Cyriac Auriol (ACE France)

WHO BY FIRE by Philippe Lesage
Produced by Galilé Marion-Gauvin (ACE Canada)

YOUNG HEARTS by Anthony Schatteman
Co-produced by Annabella Nezri (ACE Belgium) and Floor Onrust (ACE The Netherlands)

Forum

IN THE BELLY OF A TIGER by Siddartha Jatla
Produced by Patrice Nezan (ACE France)

MARIA’S SILENCE by Dāvis Sīmanis
Produced by Inese Boka-Grube (ACE Latvia)

THE NIGHTS STILL SMELL OF GUNPOWDER by Inadelso Cossa
Co-produced by Frank Hoeve (ACE The Netherlands)

OASIS OF NOW by Chee Sum Chia
Produced by Fran Borgia (ACE Singapore)

REAS by Lola Arias
Produced by Ingmar Trost (ACE Germany)

Berlinale Specials

AT AVERROES & ROSA PARKS by Nicolas Philibert
Produced by Milena Poylo (ACE France)

CUCKOO by Tilman Singer
Produced by Markus Halberschmidt (ACE Germany)

EXERGUE – ON DOCUMENTA 14 by Dimitris Athiridis
Co-produced by Yorgos Tsourgiannis (ACE Greece)

TREASURE by Julia von Heinz
Produced by Fabian Gasmia (ACE Germany)

DAVOS 1917 by Jan-Eric Mack, Anca Miruna Lăzărescu and Christian Theede will premiere at Zurich Film Festival 2023. The project was developed during the ACE Series Special 2 by Ivan Madeo, and produced with his colleague and business partner Stefan Eichenberger (ACE Switzerland)

As World War I ravages Europe, the noble resort town of Davos seems like an oasis of peace. Behind the scenes, however, a relentless battle between secret agents of the world powers is raging in neutral Switzerland. The young nurse Johanna Gabathuler unexpectedly gets caught between the fronts of the spies. To save her illegitimate daughter, she becomes embroiled in a deadly game with the German secret service. Set against the breathtaking mountain panorama of the Grisons, the spy thriller DAVOS 1917 unfolds a politically explosive chapter in European history.

How did the ACE Series Special benefit you as a producer, and your ACE project?
The Series Special 2 Programme was a great benefit for DAVOS 1917 both on the development level and on the project presentation level with our series bible. I will never forget the valuable dramaturgical exchange with Emmanuel Oberg. He was a tremendous blessing that I was happy to share with our head writer Adrian Illien. With my fellow producers, I was able to discuss a variety of financing scenarios even before we knew how the final financial setup for our high-budget series would come together. Another extremely valuable aspect was the exchange with colleagues from the programme about the production challenges we face day by day, not only on a legal, financial and negotiation level but also on a psychological and emotional level. Because our profession is truly extraordinary and affects our personal lives profoundly.

What was the most challenging in getting this series from script to screen?
The first difficulty for us and our writers’ room was to tell a story that is set in a small village in the middle of the Alps but is still as internationally relevant as possible – and in a way that never feels constructed. I think we succeeded quite well thanks to numerous research on the true events during World War I as well as the cross-national cooperation of dedicated writers, producers, and commissioning editors from Swiss Television SRF and German Television ARD Degeto. The second major difficulty was the endless script revisions that were necessary due to the constant inflation, be it because of Covid, be it because of the Ukraine war. We finished financing and writing our series DAVOS 1917 half a dozen times before we had to tap additional sources of funding and face simplifications and cost reductions at the script level.

What’s ahead for you and your company? What are you currently working on?
The variety of films we are currently working on at Contrast Film is as large as inspiring. In Locarno, we have just premiered OF LIVING WITHOUT ILLUSION by Katharina Lüdin, a first feature that is now touring the festivals. At the other end of the budget scale are two big productions that we will premiere at the Zurich Film Festival: our TV series DAVOS 1917 starring Dominique Devenport, Jeanette Hain and David Kross as well as the co-produced feature film STELLA. A LIFE by Kilian Riedhof, a multi-country co-production led by Letterbox Filmproduktion Hamburg and starring a mesmerising Paula Beer. Furthermore, we are in post-production of our historical feature THE TRAITOR by Michael Krummenacher with Luna Wedler, Fabian Hinrichs and the fascinating new talent Dimitri Krebs as well as in post-production of the documentary CAN LOVE BE SIN by Martin Witz, a Locarno veteran. We are also involved as a minority partner in STRAY BODIES, a film by Elina Psykou as a co-production between Greece, Switzerland, Italy, and Bulgaria. On top of that, several co-productions are in the pipeline and new series are in development. So, there is some work, but also excitement ahead for the company.

More information on the ACE Series Special can be found here.