Fot.

Polish premiere: "Chris The Swiss", reż. Anja Kofmel

For adults
Full-lenght films
Croatia, January 1992. In the midst of the Yugoslav Wars, Chris, a young Swiss journalist is found dead in mysterious circumstances.

He was wearing the uniform of an international mercenary group. Anja Kofmel was his cousin. As a little girl, she used to admire this handsome young man; now a grown-up woman, she decides to investigate his story, trying to understand what really was the involvement of Chris in the conflict…

Chris The Swiss is the story of a young Swiss who got lost in a dark and brutal world.

http://christheswiss.net/

Selected rewards and nominations:

  • Cannes Critic's Week 2018 – Competition
  • Animafest Zagreb FF 2018 – Golden Zagreb Award
  • Midnight Sun FF 2018 - Gems of New Cinema
  • Annecy IFF 2018 - Out of Competition
  • Karlovy Vary IFF 2018 - Another View Section
  • Melbourne IFF 2018 - Animation Section
  • Sarajevo IFF 2018 - Kinoscope Programme
  • Vancouver IFF 2018 - Impact Section
  • Mill Valley FF 2018 - Animation Nation Section
  • São Paulo IFF 2018 - New Filmmakers Competition
  • DOK Leipzig 2018 - International Programme
  • Leeds IFF 2018 - Cinema Versa - Opening Film
  • Minsk Listapad IFF 2018 - Documentary Competition
  • Seville EFF 2018 - New Waves Non-Fiction Competition - Cinephiles of the Future Competition - Eurimages Competition
  • IDFA 2018 - Best of Fests
  • Movies on War 2018
  • Les Sommets du Cinéma d'Animation 2018
  • Animasivo 2018 - Opening Film2018 – Grand Jury Prize for best featurefilm
  • Anibar Animation Festival
  • Trieste Film Festival 2019 - Best Documentary and Best Film

Anja Kofmel was born in 1982 in Lugano and grew up near Zurich. She finished her compulsory schooling with the receipt of the federal diploma in 2002.

She studied Animation at Lucerne School of Design and Art (HSLU), where she was enrolled between 2005 and 2009. During that time, Anja spent a semester at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris. In 2009, she completed her studies and received a diploma in visual design, specialising in animation. Her diploma project was Chrigi, an award-winning and highly acclaimed short film dealing with the brutal murder of her cousin Christian Würtenberg.

After receiving her diploma, Anja focused on working as an independent animation and documentary filmmaker as well as an illustrator. Always keen on furthering her studies, she attended various workshops in the field of storytelling, storyboarding and production. For example, the Temple Clark workshops or the Kami Naghdi Film Law Development Production and Exploitation Deals both held in London (UK).

Between 2015 and 2017, she spent most of her time in Croatia and Germany leading an international team of animators as the director and artistic leader of the Anima Doc

Chris the Swiss, which is a more elaborate examination of the murder of her cousin. During that time, she also founded her own production company called Asako GmbH in Zurich.

Filmography:

  • 2018, Chris the Swiss (anima-Doc film, feature)
  • 2009, Chrigi (animated short film)
  • 2006, Boxer Box (animated short film)
  • 2005, Je Suisse (animated short film)
  • 2004, Strichcode (animated short film)