Distinctive portraits on the posters, big names on the Green Carpet and stories from all over the world on the screen: from 24 September to 4 October 2026, the Zurich Film Festival once again shows just how many faces cinema can have.
Anyone walking through Zurich over the coming weeks is likely to encounter them again and again: abstract faces with large eyes, angular noses and plenty of character. They belong to the new poster of the Zurich Film Festival — and they fit perfectly with what awaits the city from 24 September to 4 October 2026. For the 22nd edition of the ZFF also has many faces: familiar and unfamiliar ones, those on the screen and those strolling along the Green Carpet. This year’s key visual was designed by ZHdK students Mimi Peneva and Nico Frei. Starting from the existing ZFF logo, they developed a modular system from which ever-new abstract portraits emerge. They stand for the diversity of people who come together at the festival — from international stars and young filmmakers to the audience.
Familiar Faces, New Roles
One of the best-known faces is expected on 26 September 2026. Naomi Watts will receive the Golden Eye Award and present her latest film, THE HOUSEWIFE. In it, she plays the mysterious wife of a man in 1960s New York who is suspected of concealing a Nazi past. When a young journalist begins to investigate, the seemingly flawless façade starts to crack. For Watts, the visit to Zurich is also an opportunity to look back on a career that gained international momentum at the latest in 2001 with David Lynch’s MULHOLLAND DRIVE.
Watts, however, is by no means the only major name. Oscar winner Julianne Moore will be honoured with the Golden Icon Award for her career and her role in THE DEBUT. American director Richard Linklater, who has made cinema history with films such as Before Sunrise and Boyhood, will receive a Career Achievement Award; a retrospective will accompany his visit. Irish writer and director Martin McDonagh, known for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin, will be honoured with the A Tribute to … Award and will bring his new film WILD HORSE NINE to Switzerland. Juliette Binoche, Tom Hiddleston and Willem Dafoe have also been announced.
When the Bunker Becomes a Luxury Project
But a film festival does not live by the names on the Green Carpet alone. This year, BUNKER, the new thriller by French director Florian Zeller, is particularly intriguing. The cast alone is impressive: Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem appear together on screen, joined by Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger. Bardem plays an architect commissioned by a tech billionaire to design a luxurious high-security bunker — a private retreat in the event of a global catastrophe. As the project progresses, his wife, played by Cruz, increasingly begins to question her husband’s values. Fear of the future, morality and the question of how far security can be bought thus become the test of a relationship. A subject that could hardly feel more timely in view of current crises.
Elsewhere, too, the ZFF is focusing on prominent casts and unusual stories. In THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK, John Turturro plays an ageing pickpocket whose profession is slowly falling out of time in the age of payment cards and smartphones. Danny Boyle, meanwhile, turns his attention to the media world in INK, while a new adaptation of Victor Hugo’s LES MISÉRABLES brings together Vincent Lindon, Tahar Rahim, Camille Cottin and Noémie Merlant, among others, in front of the camera.
Zurich as a Stage for Premieres
An international film festival, however, is not only about productions whose stars are recognised on every red carpet. Several world premieres have been announced for 2026, including ALTE LIEBE, FRAU WINKLER VERLÄSST DAS HAUS, THE HAMMER, BLOOD MONEY and EUROTRASH. Added to these are international and European premieres — and thus films that will be shown to an audience for the first time in Zurich.
For eleven days, big Hollywood names meet emerging talent, world premieres meet retrospectives, and glamorous appearances meet those quiet discoveries one had never heard of before the festival began. This year’s poster captures this mix perfectly: the Zurich Film Festival does not have just one face. It has many — and some of them we will probably not forget after these eleven days.
24 September to 4 October 2026
Zurich Film Festival 2026
