Swiss Filmmakers Embrace English at Venice, With New Projects From Fehlbaum, Meier, Koch and Volpe
Switzerland was the country of focus at this year's Venice Production Bridge, and three of its best-known directors used the platform to lay out what comes next — each moving into English-language filmmaking for distinctly different reasons.
Tim Fehlbaum, whose Munich Olympics thriller September 5 earned a PGA Award nomination in 2025, revealed that his next project is set in Berlin and will be shot in both German and English. The film is historical, with an American perspective woven into the story (Variety). Fehlbaum's path to the project runs through a busy stretch: September 5 premiered in the Horizons Extra section at Venice in 2024 and was later profiled by The Hollywood Reporter for its examination of media ethics during the 1972 Olympic crisis (The Hollywood Reporter).
Ursula Meier is in pre-production on Quiet Land, an English-language film starring Bill Murray and Léa Seydoux. The story is set in Montana but will shoot in Alberta, with cameras expected to roll next year. Quiet Land is part of the 2026 Venice Gap-Financing Market — a platform where projects still raising money can connect with investors and sales agents. Meier wrote the script in French and then supervised its translation into English closely, rather than handing it off. Her previous film, Sisters, starred Gillian Anderson and was shortlisted for an Oscar.
Michael Koch brought Erosion to the conversation, a film that reunites him with the non-professional cast of his earlier A Piece of Sky and places them alongside English-speaking actor Peter Sarsgaard. The story observes the friction between a foreigner and local Swiss farmers in a small mountain village. Koch said the decision to work in English was built into the concept from the start: he wanted to see the Swiss mountain world "with the eyes of a stranger" (Variety). Fehlbaum, who worked with Sarsgaard on September 5, made the introduction between the actor and Koch.
All three directors appeared together on a Venice panel titled "Beyond Borders: English as the New Language in Swiss Cinema?" moderated by Variety's Nick Vivarelli. Koch pushed back gently on the framing. He does not believe English is the new language of Swiss cinema, he said, but conceded it is "a part of it" (Variety).
Petra Volpe is already a step ahead of the curve. Her first English-language feature, Frank & Louis, written with Esther Bernstorff, world-premiered at Sundance on 25 January 2026 (Swiss Films). It earned standing ovations in Park City and won the Locarno audience award on its sixth visit to that festival (Variety). The Zurich Film Festival honoured Volpe with its Golden Eye Award at a Los Angeles ceremony on 12 January 2026 (Deadline). Swiss composer Mario Batkovic wrote the score.
For a national cinema long associated with French, German, Italian and Romansh, the drift toward English is not a replacement but an addition — a practical and creative tool that lets Swiss filmmakers cast internationally, reach wider audiences, and tell stories about strangers looking in.
