Cary Joji Fukunaga, Sine Plambech Named Zurich Film Festival’s Feature and Documentary Jury Presidents

Zurich Film Festival has confirmed its feature film competition jury will be presided over by James Bond director Cary Joji Fukunaga, while filmmaker Sine Plambech will head up the documentary competition jury.

American director and screenwriter Fukunaga (No Time to Die) will be joined on his jury by Swiss-French actress Ella Rumpf (Love Letters), Mexican director and screenwriter Fernando Eimbcke (Moscas), producer Julie Billy (The Little Sister), and Italian film editor and director Walter Fasano (Nino – Un Film Su Nino Rota). They will decide on the winner of the Golden Eye in the feature film competition.

Among the 14 movies vying for the Golden Eye is Rhys Marc Jones’ Black Church Bay, a mystery-thriller starring Tom Cullen and Joe Locke about a man whose world unravels after an intimate encounter with a younger man. Zou Jing’s A Girl Unknown, Blerta Basholli’s Dua and Pierre le Gall’s Flesh and Fuel are also included in the competition section, as are Andrina Mračnikar’s Mila / Marija, Manuela Martelli’s El Deshielo, Ramzi Bashour’s Hot Water, Fabian Stumm’s Die Ideen, Tareq Daoud’s Serife Tavsan, Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa, Mads Mengel Nielsen’s The Guest, Ghasideh Golmakani’s Head to Head, Andrius Blaževičius’s How to Divorce During the War and Ufuk Emiroglu’s Sevda.

Meanwhile, Danish anthropologist and filmmaker Sine Plambech (Heartbound) will head up the doc competition jury with Spanish cinematographer Alfredo de Juan (Edge of the Unknown), Norwegian producer Anne Köhncke (Pervert Park), Swiss director Jela Hasler (Les Nouvelles Eves) and Austrian director and producer Nikolaus Geyrhalter (Homo Sapiens).

Fourteen films are competing in the doc section, including Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco’s Cannes-premiering The Match, following the historic Argentina vs. England game at the 1986 FIFA World Cup, as well as Habiba Nosheen’s The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony and Guillaume Massart’s Le Detention.

Christian Bonke and Adam Bonke will present Perfect Road, chronicling a man living as a nomad on his bicycle for 10 years, and Elisabeth Rasmussen’s We Are Stardust, Erik Shirai’s Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing, Gar O’Rourke’s The Siege of Paradise, Simon David’s Shreckschraube and Lucas Paleocrassas’ Bugboy. Pete Muller will compete with Bucks Harbor, as will Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes’ One In a Million, Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig’s Colors of White Rock, Patrick Wally’s My Home of Wind and Sand and Arnaud Alain’s La Face Cachee De La Terre.
BUCKS HARBOR (Pete Muller, USA, 2026)

Highlights from this year’s Zurich Film Festival gala lineup include Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, Beth de Araújo’s Josephine starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan, Possible Love, the new drama from acclaimed Korean director Lee Chang-dong (Burning), and Wicker, the sci-fi fantasy rom-com from directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson starring Alexander Skarsgård, Olivia Colman, and Elizabeth Debicki. Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid and Bunker with Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz will also screen.

Julianne Moore is set to be honored with the Golden Icon Award and will accept the accolade alongside Jesse Eisenberg, who directs her in his latest feature The Debut, a musical-comedy co-starring Paul Giamatti. John Turturro will be honored with the Golden Eye Award. He’s being recognized for his performance in Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, a project that is already garnering awards buzz.

The 22nd Zurich Film Festival takes place from Sept. 24-Oct. 4.