Swiss Film Prize 2023 – “Drii Winter” is the best feature film – culture

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Michael Koch’s silent drama from Isenthal was awarded best feature film at the Swiss Film Prize 2023. “La ligne” also brought in three prizes.

“Drii Winter” was ahead of the curve from the start, if you will: successfully launched in the competition at the Berlinale 2022 and submitted by Switzerland (unsuccessfully) for the Oscars, it was in 4:3 format and in long shots over Lake Lucerne filmed alpine tragedy well placed to win the Swiss Film Prize.

“Drii Winter” won as best feature film in particular against the watchmaker history film “Unrueh” by Cyril Schäublin and the family drama “La ligne” by Ursula Meier. Both were also premiered as part of the Berlinale selection in 2022, where they met with a positive response.

«La ligne» has won three awards

With «La ligne», Ursula Meier wins the Swiss Film Prize for the best screenplay, which she wrote together with her longtime writing partner Antoine Jaccoud and her leading actress Stéphanie Blanchoud. Blanchoud also won Best Actress, and young Elli Spagnolo Best Supporting Actress.

Ursula Meier thus indirectly attests what was already known about her: that she has a sure hand when casting her films and discovering talent, and that she understands a lot about acting.

A deserved award for «Cascadeuses»

Meier can also look back on another success: she co-produced the stunt woman portrait “Cascadeuses” by Elena Avdija, which won a “Golden Eye” at its premiere at the Zurich Film Festival 2022. It has now been awarded the Swiss Film Prize for the best documentary film.

A convincing choice: “Cascadeuses” follows the original approach of combining the description of a spectacular profession with a reflection on violence against women. A well-deserved award for a strong film – and this in the face of strong competition.

A good vintage

In general, the Swiss Film Academy could not do much wrong when awarding its prizes this year: the Swiss film industry currently has interesting voices, strong signatures, formal risks and important topics to offer. It would have hit high quality movies either way.

This current high artistic standard also explains that there are critically acclaimed films like “(Im-)mortels”, “Foudre” and “Unrueh” didn’t make it into the top ranks: They all would have had the best chance of winning a main prize in a weaker vintage.

Swiss Film Prize 2023 – All winners

Best Feature Film	“Three Winters” by Michael Koch
Best Documentary	«Cascadeuses» von Elena Avdija
Best Short Film	“I am black” von Juliana Fanjul, Rachel M’Bon
Best Animated Film	«The Record» by Jonathan Laskar
Best Screenplay	“The line” – Stephanie Blanchoud, Ursula Meier, Antoine Jaccoud
Best Actress	Stephanie Blanchoud (Margaret) in “The line”
Best Actor	Manfred Liechti in “Peter K. – Alone against the state”
Best performance in a supporting role	Elli Spanish (Marion) in «La ligne»
Best film music	“Lightning” – Nicolas Rabaeus
Best Camera	«Unrueh» – Silvan Hillmann
Best assembly	“(Im)mortals” – Karine Sudan
Bester Ton	“Lightning” – Carlos Ibañez-Diaz, Denis dry
Best graduation film	“Bear” – Morgane Frund (HSLU)