Zurich Film Festival Unveils First 2026 Gala Titles: Stallone Biopic, Lee Chang-dong Return, Casey Affleck Mystery
The Zurich Film Festival has announced its first wave of gala premieres for the 2026 edition, and the lineup spans a Stallone origin story, a new drama from Lee Chang-dong, and a Casey Affleck-directed mystery. The festival runs from September 9 to October 10 (Deadline).
Peter Farrelly's I Play Rocky will receive its European premiere in Zurich, following an earlier berth in the Toronto International Film Festival's 2026 Special Presentations program (Variety). The biopic stars Anthony Ippolito as a young Sylvester Stallone — an unknown actor who writes a screenplay called Rocky that a studio is desperate to buy, only to refuse sale unless he gets to play the lead himself. The cast includes Matt Dillon, Stephan James, AnnaSophia Robb, PJ Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, and Jay Duplass.
Channing Tatum appears in two gala selections. He stars alongside Gemma Chan and Mason Lily Reeves in Josephine, directed by Beth de Araújo, a drama about an eight-year-old girl who witnesses a violent crime. Chan plays the mother who wants to help her process it; Tatum plays the father who wants to prepare her for life's harsh realities (Deadline).
Casey Affleck directs Company, a 2026 mystery co-produced by Canada, the United States, and the UAE. The cast features Nick Nolte, Ben Mendelsohn, Adelaide Clemens, Scoot McNairy, Emily Alyn Lind, and Caylee Cowan. Plot details remain under wraps.
South Korean master Lee Chang-dong returns with Possible Love, a 2026 drama starring Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, and Cho Yeo-jeong. The film follows two married couples on different paths — Mi-ok and her laid-off husband Ho-seok, documentary filmmaker Ye-ji, and her affluent husband Sang-woo — whose hidden desires intertwine. Lee's previous film, Burning, premiered at Cannes in 2018; Possible Love is his first feature since.
Swiss audiences get a homegrown gala in 111 – Echoes from Halifax, directed by Mauro Mueller, a Switzerland-Canada co-production receiving its European premiere. The drama examines the September 2, 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111 off Halifax, Nova Scotia, and how relatives, helpers, and local residents cope with the tragedy. The cast includes Ursina Lardi, Kris Holden-Ried, Djebril Zonga, Fathia Youssouf, and Natalie Brown.
Two German films will hold their world premieres at the festival: Love, After All by Andreas Dresen and How Can I Help by Doris Dörrie. Both are fixtures of German-language cinema — Dresen's Stopped on Track won the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2011, and Dörrie has been directing for over four decades.
The Zurich Film Festival confirmed these nine gala premieres ahead of its full 2026 program, with additional titles still to be announced.
For festival-goers and industry buyers alike, the early slate signals a blend of star-driven English-language cinema and international auteur work — a programming pattern Zurich has leaned into as it builds its profile in the autumn festival corridor between Venice (late August/early September) and the BFI London Film Festival (October).
