Black Movie

International Festival of Independent Films – Geneva

Committed to the defense of Asian, African, Middle Eastern and South American films, the Black Movie Festival has offered film-lovers in Geneva and French-speaking Switzerland an opportunity to discover the films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Jia Zhangke, Carlos Reygadas, Wang Bing, Hong Sang-soo, Takashi Miike, Tsai Ming-liang and João Pedro Rodrigues – for the first time. Most of those film directors, now winning kudos and prizes at the world's most prestigious film festivals (Cannes, Berlin, Venise, Busan, Toronto, Rotterdam…), were there in person when their films were being screened at Black Movie.



Sorted into thematic sections (society, politics, new urban culture, gender...), the films screened during this annual 10-day festival witness to the liveliness of an international cinematography completely ignored by commercial distribution circuits and barely visible in Switzerland. Here, audiences find all shapes and sizes of film: fiction, documentaries, experimental, animated, feature length and short films. Daring and specifically targeted programming encourages minority voices, candor, cinematographic quality and impertinence. As for the festival's competitive aspect, a Jury of international critics awards a prize from the City of Geneva to the year's finest work.



Black Movie can lay claim to global outreach, confirmed by the arrival each year of some twenty guest film directors from six continents, by the presence of and coverage by numerous foreign correspondents.



Each year, a Black Movie for Kids section offers a program for small children. Master classes and round tables are organized around the screenings to deepen analysis of issues raised by the thematic sections. Faithful to its commitment to the human and convivial (a commitment regularly praised by its visiting directors), Black Movie provides opportunities for the public to get into direct contact with the film-makers, whether in Q&A sessions organized after each session or during the central venue's memorable “Nuits Blanches”.



Black Movie's hallmark eclecticism very quickly transformed film audiences into a curious and loyal public whose fidelity has never slackened but rather grown over the years in relation to the stable offer of day and evening festival events. An average of over 30,000 festival-goers places Black Movie among Geneva's cinematographic events front-runners.

It's a small festival, but with its army of dedicated staff and pleasant volunteers – not to mention its facilities, its parties, its hilarious marketing – it's an ecosystem unto itself with in-jokes, communal history and a collective memory. In short, it has its own mythology.

“Little White Lies”, Jessica Kiang, 2016



Conversations between filmmakers, festivals and nations characterized Geneva's adventurously programmed festival of the best of developing-world cinema. Black Movie faces a challenge. Focused on the best new cinema from Asia, Africa and Latin America, the Geneva festival competes for audiences with nearly 20 rival events, all in a city of fewer than 200,000 people. Yet with a focus on informality, context and lots of talk, it appears to be thriving. Black Movie is also feeding into a trend, from Rotterdam to Edinburgh, of international festivals opening their programs to guest curators and other like-minded festivals in a way that fits its commitment to rousing audiences. As upscale metropolitan film festivals continue to proliferate and entangle with one another, Black Movie is making a case for its own relevance.

“BFI Film Forever”, Andrew Simpson, 2014



Already in several recent editions and in an ever-changing context in which we're currently seeing a certain eclipse of Asian and increased interest in Latin American cinema, rather than stepping on its fellow festival Filmar's toes, Black Movie has been moving closer to Europe. Thus, its focus has been shifting to Israel, Turkey, Greece and Romania with their proposals of original yet not fully “general public” cinema. A cinema that in its own way responds to the deep economic, moral and/or political crises these countries are experiencing, while Hollywood or Paris still pretend to be drowning in opulence. And if it's here, far from the stardust and weary formulas, that the future of contemporary cinema lies?

“Le Temps”, Norbert Creutz, 2016



The Black Movie Festival lights up Geneva every year with a thousand colors, giving lovers of independent film an excuse to dip into new works from all over the world. The Black Movie Festival has no barriers, both geographically speaking and in terms of genre (in a broad sense) as far as its program, which is rightly very open and delivers a healthy dose of provocation, is concerned.

“Cineuropa”, Muriel Del Don, 2017



One of our city's best festivals is back with as yet unscreened, innovative films with no complexes – in short, everything that's tops in the world of today's independent cinema.

“Ron Orp”, 2015



Together with the Stummfilmfestival at Filmpodium Zurich, Black Movie is the first film festival of the year in Switzerland and it shows films coming from the main international film festivals: films shown in Rotterdam, Locarno, Cannes, Venice, Berlin or Busan are brought together in Geneva to create an exceptional mosaic of movies selected by the two directors, Kate Reidy and Maria Watzlawick. Even if Black Movie's program encompasses specific thematic sections like those dedicated to gender issues or animated films for both children and adults, Filmexplorer is glad to have returned to this festival to discover and highlight what we conceive of as simply “good cinema”.

“Filmexplorer”, Ruth Baettig & Giuseppe Salvatore, 2018



At Black Movie, the words “films” and “independent” become increasingly meaningful when, as the program progresses, the films we're watching aren't simply lively and variegated: they're deeply committed. This cinema is a fabulous weapon that places its creators on the front line of battles that may be social or societal, a cinema that upsets and questions. These films hurt, disturb and shake us up. Paint it black, yes, but hope is always there. We get smacked in the face, we laugh, we cry. We feel alive, we vibrate... And it does us a whole lot of good.

“Ungrandmomentdecinema.be”, Nicolas Gilson, 2015