Ursula Meier

Ursula Meier (born 24 June 1971) is a French-Swiss film director and screenwriter who received the Best Director award at the 2008 Festival du Film Francophone d'Angoulême [Angoulême French-language Film Festival] for her first theatrical feature, Home, which won the 2009 Swiss Film Prize for Bester Spielfilm (Best Film) as well as Bestes Drehbuch (Best Screenplay) (shared with Antoine Jaccoud). The film also received a César nomination for Best First Film and a Best Film nomination at Argentina's Mar del Plata Film Festival.[1]

Ursula Meier
Ursula Meier in 2012
Born (1971-06-24) 24 June 1971
Besançon, France
OccupationFilm director, screenwriter

Career

A native of Besançon, the capital of the Franche-Comté region in eastern France, near the Swiss border, Ursula Meier graduated from Belgium's Institut des Arts de Diffusion [Institute of Visual Arts] and served as assistant director to the internationally-renowned Swiss auteur, Alain Tanner, on his films Fourbi [Gear] (1996) and Jonas et Lila, à demain [Jonas and Lila, 'Till Tomorrow] (1999).[2] She won her first major film award for the 1998 short, Des heures sans sommeil [Sleepless], which received the Special Jury Prize at the Festival International du Court-Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand [Clermont-Ferrand International Festival of Short Films] as well as the International Grand Prize at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival and a Best Short Fiction Film nomination at the Molodist International Film Festival in Kiev.[3] In 2002, her film Tous à table [Table Manners], which had already won the Audience Award and the Press Award at the 2001 Clermont-Ferrand Festival, as well as the Best French-Language Short Film award at the 2001 Créteil International Women's Film Festival, received a Swiss Film Prize nomination for Bester Kurzfilm [Best Short Film].

In 2003, Ursula Meier served as a member of the jury at the Brest European Short Film Festival and won the Cinema Prize—Feature Film award at Portugal's Avanca Film Festival as well as Bester Spielfilm [Best Film] Swiss Film Prize nomination for her made-for-TV movie, Strong Shoulders. In April, with the selection of Strong Shoulders for New York City's New Directors/New Films Festival at the Museum of Modern Art and Film Society of Lincoln Center, she made the journey to introduce the film and participate in question-and-answer sessions. Six years later, Home was also selected for New Directors/New Films[4] and, in April 2009, she once again made appearances at the Museum of Modern Art and The Walter Reade Theatre, introducing the New York premiere of the film.

Her 2012 film L'enfant d'en haut competed in competition at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival,[5] where it won the Special Award - Silver Bear.[6] It has also been selected as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards,[7] making the January shortlist.[8]

In 2013 she was a member of the jury at the 35th Moscow International Film Festival.[9]

In 2018, she was the Godmother of the Locarno International Film Festival's signing the SWAN pledge 5050x2020.[10]

Filmography (as screenwriter and director)

Feature films

Short films
  • 1994: À corps perdu [To the Lost Body] (with writer and co-director Cédric Havenith)
  • 1998: Des heures sans sommeil [Sleepless]
  • 2001: Tous à table [Table Manners]

Further reading

References
  1. List of awards won by Home at international film festivals
  2. New Directors/New Films '09 program guidebook
  3. Ursula Meier Arte interview (in French)
  4. Home at The Film Society of Lincoln Center
  5. "Press Release, 9th Jan". berlinale.de. 2012-01-09. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
  6. "Prizes of the International Jury 2012". Berlinale. 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  7. Blaney, Martin (21 September 2012). "Ursula Meier's Sister entered for Oscar race". Screen International. EMAP. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  8. "9 Foreign Language Films Vie For Oscar". Oscars. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  9. "Main Competition Jury". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2014-01-01. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
  10. "Locarno Festival Commits to Pledge for Gender Parity and Inclusion". 2018-07-31.
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