Zurich Film Festival adds 11 gala premieres for 2026
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Zurich Film Festival has confirmed eleven additional Gala Premieres for its 2026 edition, rounding out a lineup already stacked with prestige and awards-season titles. Highlights include Florian Zeller's "Bunker", starring Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Jordan Firstman's "Club Kid", which triggered a fiercely contested bidding war eventually won by A24. Festival director Reta Guetg said the additions bring "outstanding voices and stories from different parts of the world" to Zurich, reflecting the festival's push to secure high-profile premieres amid the crowded autumn festival calendar.
The expanded slate also features Danny Boyle's Venice-opener "Ink", on Rupert Murdoch's rise in British tabloid media, and Lauren Miller Rogen's "Babies", starring Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick and Sharon Stone, both receiving European premieres. World premieres go to "Eurotrash", "Blood Money" and "Back to Buenos Aires" (international premiere), while further additions include Ali Asgari's "A Bit of Light", John Turturro-led "The Only Living Pickpocket in New York", Fred Cavayé's "Les Miserables", "Adult Supervision" and "Think Good" — the latter tipped by Guetg as a potential Swedish Oscar contender. The 2026 Zurich Film Festival runs from 24 September to 4 October.
- Zurich Film Festival adds 11 gala premieres to its 2026 lineup
- Includes Bardem/Cruz's "Bunker" and A24's "Club Kid"
- Festival runs 24 September to 4 October 2026
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Zurich Film Festival is one of Switzerland's leading film events, held each autumn in the city and known for attracting starry premieres during the crowded festival season that also includes Venice, Toronto and Telluride. It typically mixes newer titles with buzzy award-season contenders, giving film-makers and studios another high-profile platform to launch their work in Europe. The festival's Gala Premieres are its flagship, red-carpet screenings, usually reserved for the most anticipated films on the programme.
The 2026 edition, running from 24 September to 4 October, has now expanded its Gala lineup with eleven further titles, adding to films already announced for the festival. These new additions span a range of directors, genres and premiere types, from established film-makers to newer voices, and involve well-known actors as well as festival and awards-circuit buzz. Reta Guetg, the festival's director, oversees the programming choices behind these selections.
Understanding this story matters because it reflects how film festivals compete to secure premieres and attention each autumn, and how such placements can influence a film's visibility ahead of awards season and wider release.
Full account
The Zurich Film Festival has expanded its Gala Premieres selection for its 22nd edition, unveiling a dozen additional films with a strong roster of internationally recognised directors and cast members. The announcement comes ahead of the full unveiling of the 2026 programme, due on 9 September, and follows the festival's practice of teasing marquee titles in advance to build anticipation. Several of the newly confirmed films have already drawn attention elsewhere on the festival circuit this year, including titles heading to or fresh from Venice and Cannes.
Leading the new selection is Florian Zeller's thriller "Bunker", featuring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem as a married couple whose relationship comes under strain after the husband, an architect, agrees to secretly design a survival shelter for a billionaire convinced that catastrophe is imminent; the supporting cast includes Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger. Also joining the lineup is Danny Boyle's drama "Ink", starring Jack O'Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, about a group of media disruptors reshaping the news industry; one report frames the story explicitly around Rupert Murdoch's rise within the UK tabloid press, while the festival's own synopsis keeps the description more general. "Babies", directed by Lauren Miller Rogen and led by her husband Seth Rogen alongside Anna Kendrick, will receive its European premiere, with an ensemble that also features Issa Rae, Dan Stevens, Sharon Stone and Ed Helms. Jordan Firstman's comedy-drama "Club Kid", about a struggling New York party promoter unexpectedly confronted with fatherhood, is also included — one outlet notes it emerged from Cannes at the centre of a keenly contested distribution battle, ultimately won by A24.
A number of the additions will be receiving their first public screenings in Zurich. Frauke Finsterwalder's "Eurotrash" and the boxing drama "Blood Money" are both billed as world premieres, though the two accounts differ on the latter's credits: one names rapper Noizy and Moritz Bleibtreu among the cast without citing a director, while the other credits Enkelejd Lluca as director and describes the film as an Albanian-set story of an ex-convict pulled into underground fighting. Also newly added are Ali Asgari's "A Bit of Light", centred on an Iranian doctor confronting his own mortality, and Noah Segan's crime drama "The Only Living Pickpocket in New York", led by John Turturro. A broader set of titles detailed by one of the two reports, but not the other, rounds out the additions: Fred Cavayé's "Les Misérables", starring Vincent Lindon, Tahar Rahim, Camille Cottin and Noémie Merlant; Alex Schulmann's "Adult Supervision"; Géraldine Nakache's "Think Good"; and Mario Bechis's "Back to Buenos Aires", which will screen as an international premiere.
Festival director Reta Guetg said the new additions were intended to bring "outstanding voices and stories from different parts of the world" to Zurich, pointing to emerging talent such as Firstman alongside established figures including Asgari, whose latest work is set to premiere in competition at Venice, and highlighting headline cast members such as Cruz, Bardem and Turturro. Notably, the promotional headline refers to 11 new Gala Premieres, whereas the accompanying reports both put the figure at 12 — a discrepancy that appears to be an inconsistency in reporting rather than any change to the lineup itself. The full programme for the 22nd Zurich Film Festival is scheduled to be published on 9 September 2026.
Where outlets differ
Only one of the two reports includes festival director Reta Guetg's quote about the rationale behind the additions; the other omits it entirely.
The two accounts give conflicting attribution for 'Blood Money': one lists rapper Noizy and Moritz Bleibtreu as cast without naming a director, while the other credits Enkelejd Lluca as director and describes it as an Albanian boxing drama — the underlying source material appears inconsistent or incomplete on this point.
One report frames Danny Boyle's 'Ink' explicitly as dramatising Rupert Murdoch's rise in the UK tabloid press and notes it will open the Venice festival, detail absent from the other account.
One report notes that 'Club Kid' was the subject of a high-profile Cannes distribution bidding war won by A24 — additional context not present elsewhere.
One report lists several further titles (Les Misérables, Adult Supervision, Think Good, Back to Buenos Aires) that do not appear in the other, though this may reflect that one source text was truncated rather than a genuine editorial omission.
The promotional headline cites 11 new Gala Premieres while both underlying reports state the figure is 12, an unexplained discrepancy.
Coverage
- Variety — ‘Bunker,’ ‘Ink,’ ‘Babies’ Join Zurich Film Festival’s Gala Premieres Section
- The Hollywood Reporter — ‘Club Kid,’ ‘Bunker’ and Danny Boyle’s ‘Ink’ Added to Zurich Film Festival Lineup