The Zurich Film Festival gets new bosses
From 2020, the operational management of the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) will be in new hands. An artistic director has already been found, and the search for a commercial director is underway.
Christian Jungen will be the new artistic director of the ZFF. He currently heads the culture department of the NZZ on Sunday and the editorial staff of the film magazine Fame. The latter is a joint project of the NZZ on Sunday and the ZFF, the NZZ Media Group has held a majority stake in the ZFF since 2016.
Jungen holds a PhD in film studies and has worked as a film critic for 25 years. He was also president of the Swiss Association of Film Journalists from 2011 to 2017 and a member of the Zurich Film Commission from 2013 to 2018.
He will join the ZFF as early as May 2019 and strengthen the team of current artistic director Karl Spoerri. At the beginning of 2020, Spoerri then wants to hand over the reins to him, according to a ZFF statement on Thursday.
Like his colleague Nadja Schildknecht, Karl Spoerri is a founder and partner of the ZFF. Together, they have managed the film festival for 15 years; in the future, they want to focus on advisory functions and the strategic level as members of the Board of Directors.
Schildknecht is responsible for the commercial aspects of the festival, the areas of finance, event, sponsorship and marketing. She, too, would like to hand over her duties to a successor at the beginning of 2020. The search has been initiated, the statement continues. (SDA)
