For four days, film enthusiasts were able to watch 46 international feature films at the Odeon and Excelsior cinemas, 26 of them as Swiss premieres. With 140 guests in the auditorium, the French production VERMINES (2023) was the most popular film. The brilliant highlight of the festival was the awards ceremony in the full auditorium of Cinemas Excelsior on Saturday evening, April 27.

‍WE ARE ZOMBIES won the audience award

‍The Canadian-French horror comedy WE ARE ZOMBIES (2023) by the directing trio François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell enthralled the audience and won the coveted “Eye of the Beholder” award and CHF 5,000 prize money. With 7.3 out of 10 possible points, the film left the four competitors from the Official Competition behind. In an emotional live video call, the director and the two directors were visibly moved to thank the audience and the festival organization. The film WE ARE ZOMBIES is set in a world where people coexist with the undead and like to use them as cheap labor or for scientific experiments. A group of petty crooks is paying off undead family members, but in doing so gets in the way of the business model of an overpowering mega corporation.

The Canadian directing trio has already celebrated international success in the past with genre films such as TURBO KID (2015) or SUMMER OF 84 (2018). Her new work also appealed to the Brugggore audience.

Claudio Simonetti's Goblin enthralled at the Brugg Salt House

‍Undoubtedly the most important event of the festival was the performance of Italian prog rock legends and soundtrack inventor Claudio Simonett's Goblin on Thursday evening, April 25. Her musical style accompanies countless classic films, and in the 70s and 80s, Goblin made a name for themselves, especially among horror movie fans. At Salzhaus Brugg, they set Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA (1977) to music in front of over 200 guests and then played a cross-section of their work as a best-of show.

The event was a source of nerve for the organisers in the short term. The band only arrived 30 minutes before the door opened, around five hours late. As a result, the start of the concert was delayed by just over an hour. In spite of everything, the fans kept their good spirits and were rewarded for their patience. After the two-hour show, the approachable Italian band took plenty of time for autographs and photos. Particularly stubborn fans were able to get hold of up to thirty signatures on records, VHS tapes and original movie posters.

Q&As and film talks

‍Zurich director and producer Paul Grau presented his film MAD FOXES (Switzerland/Spain 1981) on Saturday afternoon, April 27, and then answered questions during an exciting film discussion. MAD FOXES was created in just two weeks and with an eight-page script. The film is an almost forgotten representative of exploitation cinema in the 70s and 80s and shows that back then there was also a subculture of low-budget filmmakers in Switzerland who attracted international attention with wild productions.

There were also online Q&As for the Official Competition films ABERRANCE, BEST WISHES TO ALL, WE ARE ZOMBIES and LAST STRAW.

With continuous growth steps into the future

‍With 3,200 individual tickets sold, the fourth edition of the festival was once again able to win significantly (as of 2023:2310 individual tickets). Guests from all over German-speaking Switzerland and occasional guests from Romandie and Germany visited the festival and ensured fully booked hotels and a good atmosphere in the movie theaters.

It is already clear that the fifth edition of the BRUGGGORE Film Festival will take place from April 22 to 26, 2025. With an enlarged organizing committee, they plan to counter the increasing effort. They also want to make greater use of synergies with other festivals and cultural institutions in the region. The festival motto 2025 and the new festival appearance will be announced at the beginning of December 2024.