FOCUS FANNY HERRERO

FANNY HERRERO

FOCUS FANNY HERRERO – CREATOR, WRITER – 05.11

GIFF honours one of the greatest French screenwriters of her generation: Fanny Herrero, who has been writing for hit television series since the 2000s. A two-time winner of the Globe de Cristal for Best TV Movie/TV Series, Fanny Herrero skilfully blends humour and humanity in her writing. She will participate in a moderated conference and the Festival will present episodes from the series Call My Agent! and Standing Up, as well as Call My Agent! The Movie, the long-awaited sequel to the series of the same name.

Full program here!

Tales of Swiss Innovation

EXIT VOID COLLECTIVE – 06.11

The Festival welcomes Exit Void, a Geneva-based collective of independent filmmakers founded by Emral Kadriov, Birdjan Kadriov and Alessandro Bucolo. As Guests of honour of the 2026 Tales of Swiss Innovation, they will present a selection of their music videos and discuss their work during a special evening.

More information here!

CEREMONIES

Sabu – Arrested Memory (director) – Closing Night, 07.11

COMPeTITIONS

Jacqueline Lentzou – A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra (director) – 03.11
Evita Andriopoulou– A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra (actor)– 03.11
Patrik Syversen – Dawning (director)– 31.10
Marine Atlan – La Gradiva (director)– 02.11
Nicolas Chapoulier – Les Indes (co-director) – 01.11
Pauline Julier – Les Indes (co-director) – 01.11
Lazare Minoungou – Les Indes (actor) – 01.11
Awat Ratanapintha – The Burning Giants (actor)– 07.11
Rainer Frimmel – The Loneliest Man in Town (co-director) – 05.11
Pegah Ahangarani – Rehearsals for a Revolution (director)– 03.11
Rakan Mayasi – Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep (director) – 04.11
Arne Feldhusen – Das Manko (director) – 04.11
Delphine Lehericey – Haemers (director) – 01.11
Marc Crehuet – In Vitro: Creation of Happiness (co-creator)– 31.10
Alejandra Guimerà – In Vitro: Creation of Happiness (co-creator)– 31.10
Alexandra Echkenazi – Sorority (co-creator) – 06.11
Vincent Robert – Sorority (co-creator) – 06.11
Emanuela Fanelli – Peccato (co-creator) – 06.11
Valerio Vestoso– Peccato (co-creator) – 06.11
Björn Stein – Summer of 1985 (creator) – 07.11
Victoria Martín – Many People Need to Die (creator) – 07.11
Nacho Pardo – Many People Need to Die (co-director) – 07.11
Piotr Derewenda – Variola Vera (co-creator) – 07.11
Wojciech Lepianka – Variola Vera (co-creator) – 07.11
Structurals – Captures (co-creators) – 30.10-08.11
Owelle – Captures (co-creator) – 30.10-08.11
Claudix Vanesix – Feedback VR, an Anti-Futurist Musical (creator) – 04.11
Tibor de Jong – Honeyboys (creator) – 03.11-05.11
Doris Konings – Honeyboys (director) – 03.11-05.11
Ugo Arsac – Katábasis (creator)– 04.11
Iris van der Meule – Lesbian Simulator (creator) – 06.11-07-11
Vier – Lúcido (creator) –03.11-05.11
Agnès de Cayeux – Sila – Héroïnes arctiques – 04.11-05.11
Mélanie Courtinat – Sila – Héroïnes arctiques – 04.11-05.11
Gilles Jobin – Sunset Motel (co-creator) – 30.10-08.11
Zhang Yuqi – The Pigeon Ring (co-creator) – 30.10-06-11
Joseph Bullman – Dirty Business (creator) – 07.11
Jason Watkins – Dirty Business (actor) – 07.11
Julian Rosefeldt – Euphoria (director) – 06.11
Emilie Valentin – Paradoxes (co-creator) – 04.11
Oriane Hurard – Paradoxes (producer) – 04.11
Mélanie Courtinat – Res Natura (co-creator) – 04.11-06.11
Julien Mercier– Res Natura (co-creator) – 04.11-06.11
Singing Chen – The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up (creator)– 03.11-08.11
Chin-Hsuan Sung– The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up (producer) – 03.11-08.11

HIGHLIGHTS

Cédric Kahn – A Place to Heal (director) – 01.11
Malou Khebizi– A Place to Heal (actress) – 01.11
Petra Volpe – Frank & Louis (director) – 05.11
Rudi Rosenberg – Quelques mots d’amour (director) – 03.11
The film crew – Summer Drift– 06.11
Louis Farge – Eldorado (director) – 31.10
Léa Fazer – The Ones Left Behind (co-creator, director) – 31.10
Mathilde Henzelin – The Ones Left Behind (co-creator) – 31.10
Sébastien Meier – The Ones Left Behind (co-creator) – 31.10
Farid Bentoumi – The Ones Left Behind (actor) – 31.10
Danae Dario – The Ones Left Behind (actor) – 31.10
Pol Rodríguez – Ravalear: Not for Sale (creator) – 01.11
Danielle Arbid – Singapura (co-creator) – 31.10
Victor Maes – A Long Goodbye (co-creator) – 03.11-05.11
Kate Voet – A Long Goodbye (co-creator) – 03.11-05.11
Jean Dellac – Everest: the First Ascent (co-creator) – 04.11-05.11
Voyelle Acker – Everest: the First Ascent (producer) – 04.11-05.11
François Moncarey – Future Frontiers (co-creator) – 30.10-08.11
Mélanie Courtinat – Indulto (creator) – 04.11-06.11

PULSATION

Shana Meineke – She Kept Playing (creator) – 04.11

POP TV

Marion Motin – POP TV: Focus clips Marion Motin (choreographer) – 05.11

SPECIAL EVENTS

Noémie Kocher –Unsilenced (director) – 07.11
Fleur Geffrier – Unsilenced (actor) – 07.11
Olivier Gourmet – Unsilenced (actor) – 07.11

SWISS SERIES STORYTELLING AWARD

Delegations of the nominated Swiss series

giff pro

Ulrich Fischer (Director and Creator of interactive storytelling, Memoways & Gamilab, CH) – BR.AI.N – Where Is Ava?: When Characters Live Beyond the Film – 03.11
Romed Wyder (Director and Producer, Paradigma Films SA, CH) – BR.AI.N – Where Is Ava?: When Characters Live Beyond the Film – 03.11
Oriane Hurard (Producer & COO, Atlas V, FR) – BR.AI.N / Series – Paradoxes: Reinventing How Fiction Is Made – 05.11
Marianne Levy-Leblond (Director, Digital Creation Unit, ARTE France, FR) – BR.AI.N / Series – Paradoxes: Reinventing How Fiction Is Made – 05.11
Emilie Valentin (Co-creator and Co-writer, FR) – BR.AI.N / Series – Paradoxes: Reinventing How Fiction Is Made– 05.11
Veronika Liebl (Managing Director, Ars Electronica, AT) – EXTENDED REALITIES –1996–2026: 30 Years Looking Ahead – 04.11
David Bardos (CEO, Univrse, ES) – EXTENDED REALITIES – Making The Black Mirror Experience: Rrom Intellectual Property to Location based Entertainment – 03.11
Thomas Dexmier (Vice President of Sales and Marketing EMEA, HTC VIVE, FR) – EXTENDED REALITIES – Headsets, Glasses, Interfaces: The New Tools of Immersion – 03.11
Singing Chen (Director, The Walkers Films, TW) – EXTENDED REALITIES – Singing Chen: From Cinema to Immersive, Shifting Perspectives – 05.11
Gilles Jobin (Director, Choreographer, Dancer and Producer, Cie Gilles Jobin, CH) – EXTENDED REALITIES – Sunset Motel: Live Demonstration and Visit at Studio 44 Mocaplab – 04.11
Susana Panadés Diaz (Movement Coordinator, Dancer and Mocap Integration Manager, Cie Gilles Jobin, CH) – EXTENDED REALITIES – Sunset Motel: Live Demonstration and Visit at Studio 44 Mocaplab – 04.11
Tristan Siodlak (Visual Artist, Creative Director, Nadasdy Film, CH) – EXTENDED REALITIES – Sunset Motel: Live Demonstration and Visit at Studio 44 Mocaplab – 04.11
Gregg Bywalski (Managing Director, Webedia Creators, FR) – GAMIFICATION OF CINEMA – Creators & the Audiovisual Industry: New Value Chains – 03.11
Philippe Coeytaux (Producer, AKKA Films, CH) – SERIES – Local Stories,Global Audiences: The International Potential of Swiss Series – 05.11
Etienne Daudin (Acquisition Manager, Federation International, FR) – SERIES – Local Stories,Global Audiences: The International Potential of Swiss Series – 05.11
Albin Lewi (Artistic & Editorial Director, Canneseries, FR) – SERIES – Local Stories,Global Audiences: The International Potential of Swiss Series – 05.11
Anaïs Emery (Vice President, Fondation pour la création numérique, CH) – What is Nexus? – 06.11
Paola Gazzani Marinelli (Head of programming, Fondation pour la création numérique, CH) – What is Nexus? – 06.11
Alexandre Iordachescu (Director, Fondation pour la création numérique, CH) – What is Nexus? – 06.11
Guillaume Schmid (Project Manager, Fondation pour la création numérique, CH) – What is Nexus? – 06.11

JURIES

JURY INTERNATIONAL FEATURE COMPETITION

Marie-Elsa Sgualdo sera accompagnée dans ce Jury par quatre étudiant·es en cinéma :

MARIE-ELSA SGUALDO

PRESIDENTE OF THE JURY

Born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Marie-Elsa Sgualdo earned a bachelor’s degree in filmmaking from HEAD-Geneva (Geneva University of Art and Design) in 2010, and in 2012 a master’s degree in screenwriting from INSAS (National Higher Institute of Performing Arts) in Brussels. Her first short film, Vas-y je t’aime (2009), was screened at the Locarno Film Festival. She followed that with Bam Tchak (2010), then with On the Beach (2012), which won the Bayard d’Or for Best Short Film at the Namur International Film Festival (FIFF). Her next short film, On ne peut pas tout faire en même temps, mais on peut tout laisser tomber d’un coup (2013), was selected for Cannes’ Quinzaine des Cinéastes and screened at some fifty festivals. Silent Rebellion, her first feature film, had its world premiere in the official selection at the Venice Film Festival in 2025. Having won several international awards, the film is currently making its mark on the international scene.

Marie-Elsa Sgualdo will be accompanied in this Jury by four film students:

• Romane Demidoff, Master Cinéma (ECAL-HEAD)
• Eva Salamon Pérez, Université de Lausanne (Unil)
• August Pihlamo, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK)
• Marco R. B. Pérez, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI)

La liste complète des Guests du GIFF 2021 sera annoncée dès le 26 octobre.

JURY INTERNATIONAL SERIES COMPETITION

ALBIN LEWI

Albin Lewi is part of the founding team of the Canneseries festival since 2017, where he continues to serve as Artistic & Editorial Director. Now preparing its tenth edition, scheduled for February 12-17 2027, Canneseries is regarded as one of the leading television events worldwide. Previously, after graduating from ESSEC Business School, Lewi began his career in the Film Department of Canal+ in 2005. Three years later he joined Apple as Editorial Lead for TV & Film on iTunes, where he oversaw launches in several territories including France, Germany, and Australia, and later served as Independent TV & Movie Lead for Europe.

PHILIPPE CONGIUSTI

Born on May 27, 1971, Philippe Congiusti is a journalist on the RTS Culture desk. He contributes to Vertigo on RTS-Première as a TV series expert and regularly appears on the Rdv Cinéma segment of the 12:45pm newscast on RTS 1. After getting his start in France in 1987 as a radio host on Clip FM and a stint at Radio Nostalgie Bourgogne, he joined RTS-Couleur3 in 1999. He produced and hosted the weekly film show Brazil until 2021, when he joined Vertigo. Between 2022 and 2023, he wrote, produced, and starred in Compactus for RTS-Espace2, a Dadaist musical radio series consisting of 60 episodes, each lasting 1 hour and 30 minutes, conceived as a zany journey through film music.

EMMELINE BERGLUND

Emmeline Berglund is a Norwegian screenwriter and series creator specialising in young adult drama with broad appeal. Her latest series, Requiem for Selina (2025), won the Series Competition at last year’s Geneva International Film Festival. The critically acclaimed drama also received awards at Series Mania and several major Norwegian television awards, and has since been sold to numerous international territories. Berglund is currently Head of Drama at the creative studio ANTI, where she is developing her next drama series, Fantasy Resort, scheduled for release in 2027.

JURY FUTURE IS SENSIBLE COMPETITION

SIMON HUSSLEIN

Simon Husslein is a Zurich based director and producer combining more than twenty years of experience in art, design, scenography, and interior architecture. He graduated from the Royal College of art in 2007 and has worked in London, Tokyo, and Shanghai for various international clients, receiving numerous international awards. In 2023, he co-founded BEYOND.PLACE, a laboratory that creates pioneering experiences for spatial computing.

FABIEN GAFFEZ

Fabien Gaffez is the General and Artistic Director of the Plaza Centre Cinéma. He was the Artistic Director of the Forum des images from 2016 to 2025. Previously, he headed the Amiens International Film Festival and was a member of the selection committee for the Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival. A philosophy graduate and an unconventional historian of cinema, he is a regular contributor to the magazine Positif and the author of several books.

REEM MORSI

Reem Morsi is an Egyptian-Canadian writer, director, and former UN human rights officer. A London Film School graduate, she wrote and directed the Telefilm-supported feature Banned and directed Virgins! for CBC Gem. Her screenplay Bootleg was developed through Cannes L’Atelier, Berlinale Script Station, TorinoFilmLab, Realness and SFFILM. Her series Humanitarians! was developed through the Authentica Series Lab and pitched at Series Mania.

JURY INTERNATIONAL IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE COMPETITION

CHOU TUNG-YEN

CHOU Tung-Yen is an award-winning Taiwanese artist and director working across theatre, cinema, and immersive technology. His work explores human presence in digital space, weaving poetic visuals with themes of queer intimacy, memory, and cross-cultural connection. Founder of Very Theatre, he creates XR works including In the Mist, Traversing the Mist, and Free UR Head, a live collective XR dance piece. His projects have been showcased at Venice Immersive, IDFA DocLab, and the Cannes Immersive Competition, inviting audiences into intimate, sensorial experiences.

MARIA GRAZIA MATTEI

Humanist and art critic Maria Grazia Mattei has been exploring digital territories for over thirty years, in a journey that in 2005 culminated with Meet the Media Guru, a platform for public discussion and debate on issues related to innovation. In 2018, with the support of Fondazione Cariplo, Mattei gave birth to MEET, the first international center for digital art and culture based in Milan.

LIZ ROSENTHAL

Liz is Curator of the Venice Biennale’s Venice Immersive, the largest annual exhibition of immersive arts. She is Executive Producer of award-winning immersive projects including Soul Paint, (Hi)story of a Painting and Goliath: Playing With Reality. Liz is founder of trail-blazing innovation company Power to the Pixel and known for leading ground-breaking programmes such as CreativeXR, Pixel Lab, The Cross-Media Forum, Red Sea Immersive and GLoW.