INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS (NON-CONVERGENT)

INTERNATIONAL FEATURES COMPETITION
Geneva International Film Festival’s International Features Competition puts the spotlight over ten films, all Swiss premieres, that turn conventions upside down and pave the way for new types of fiction with a unique approach to filmmaking, original screenwriting and innovative visions. Awarded by an international jury of experts, the Reflet d’Or prize for Best Feature Film is worth CHF 10,000.

INTERNATIONAL TV SERIES COMPETITION
Through its 25-year-old International TV Series Competition, GIFF pays tribute to the creative power of a major contemporary genre. Carried by authors who have successfully established their name and vision and who contribute to open up new prospects for contemporary TV, the ten, hand-picked pilots, all unseen in Switzerland, all compete for the Reflet d’Or prize for Best TV Series, worth CHF 10,000 and awarded by an international jury of experts.

INTERNATIONAL IMMERSIVE WORKS COMPETITION
A pioneer in the field of virtual, augmented and mixed reality, GIFF has now become one of the first film festivals in the world to host an International Immersive Works Competition, featuring a selection of ten or so digital works that transform in-depth our perception of audiovisual narratives at the start of the third millennium. All are Swiss premieres and are considered by an international jury of experts who award the Reflet d’Or, worth CHF 10,000, for best immersive work.

EUROPEAN COMPETITION (NON-CONVERGENT)

EUROPEAN SCRIPT AWARD (TV SERIES)
After Berlin and Helsinki, the GIFF now hosts the European Script Award (formerly Prix Genève) which rewards the best script for a European TV series, with a prize endowed with EUR 10,000. Three European series, selected among the most original scripts written by upcoming screenwriters, will be screened at the Festival and considered by a jury of experts.

CONVERGENT SECTIONS (OUT OF COMPETITION)

At a time of pluridisciplinarity, cross-disciplinarity and diversity, how to classify the unclassifiable? How to maintain information that is both readable and relevant?  Since last year, the GIFF has been making formats (series, films, immersive works, etc.) converge wherever it seems possible. An overall logic that creates new, more open and better themed entry points into the program.

HIGHLIGHTS
The section for all of GIFF’s major events! International and Swiss premieres, uncut versions of long-awaited TV series, special projects and in-house collaborations, awards and tributes, and unique digital installations: the Highlights spring surprises and turn the Festival upside-down.

PULSATION
A selection of film, TV and digital projects gathered from all over the word that gauge the pulse of contemporary creation with its priorities, follies and excesses. Screams of rage or of love, heart-stoppers and instant hits: an inventory in pictures of the world we live in.

BANDE ORIGINALE
Dedicated to sound as well as images, Bande originale (Soundtrack) focuses on music enhanced by images in documentaries and feature films, TV series, immersive works programs, as well as cine-concerts, and live performances: GIFF pumps up the volume and raises the temperature!

FILM & BEYOND
Each year the Film & Beyond award is awarded to an interdisciplinary audiovisual artist, the Festival’s guest of honor, for his or her entire career. It is also an opportunity to (re)discover the work of the award-winning artist, such as directors Park Chan-wook (2019), Peter Greenaway (2018), Abel Ferrara (2017) and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (2016).

GENEVA AWARD
This given for the second time at GIFF – rewards the careers of personalities who, through their artistic choices and the courage of their opinions, have been able to inspire their contemporaries. To accompany this event, a retrospective of the guest artist’s work is presented during the Festival.

SENSIBLE PROGRAM
The SENSible program aims to bring together artists, digital creators, scientists and politicians around a shared project: reintegrating human beings in our digital society. Bearing the SENSible label, a series of immersive and interactive works selected for their artistic and humanist significance are featured at GIFF. A SENSible Council will also be asked to share their thoughts and experience and to determine collectively which of the selected projects will be awarded the SENSible Prize, rewarding the work that will have stood out for its humanist qualities. This program is supported by the Leenaards Foundation.

Nicolas Dufour

Switzerland
Journalist

Nicolas Dufour, born in 1971, is a journalist at Le Temps daily newspaper. Since 2005 he has written a weekly column on the topic of TV series, which appears in the newspaper’s weekend cultural supplement and of course online. It is one of the longest-running columns covering TV series in a European general-interest daily. He contributed to the collective work Séries TV, pourquoi on est tous fans (ed. Allan Gorsën, Paris: Editions Edysseus, 2008). He has written several stories on the physical settings of various TV series, including Twin Peaks (Washington State) and Treme (New Orleans), and met with the main creators of various Danish TV series in Copenhagen. 

Elena Hazanov

Russia / Switzerland
Director, Producer and Writer

Elena Hazanov is a director, producer and screenwriter. During her graduate studies, she shot her first short films and worked at the same time as an assistant director (Jonas et Lila, à demain by Alain Tanner, Neutre by Xavier Ruiz). In 1999, she directed Salade(s) russe(s), Best Short Film Award at the Festival Cinéma Tout Écran. Her first feature film, Love Express, was released in 2004, followed by La Traductrice (2006) and Sam (2013), the latter of which won the Audience Award at the 43rd São Paulo Mostra and the Best Feature Film Award at the 52nd New York Film Festival. Elena Hazanov also has seven documentaries to her credit, as well as numerous television productions, including the television films Les Caprices de Marianne and the series L’heure du secret, broadcast by RTS.

Raphaël Nieuwjaer

France
Movie reviewer

Raphaël Nieuwjaer is a film critic. He has co-edited the magazine Débordements since it was launched in 2012 and is a regular contributor to a number of publications (Cahiers du Cinéma, Images Documentaires, AOC, etc.). He lectures at university and in organizations focused on visual image education. In 2014, he contributed to the collective work Breaking Bad, Série Blanche (ed. Emmanuel Burdeau, Paris: Les Prairies ordinaires). For the first paper issue of Débordements, he wrote two long articles on David Simon (Tombeaux d’Amérique I and II, on The Wire and Generation Kill, respectively) and coordinated the other articles on Simon’s significant body of work for television. In 2019 he co-edited the collective work Richard Linklater, cinéaste du moment (Paris: Post-éditions & Centre Pompidou).