Ursula Meier

Ursula Meier (born 24 June 1971) is a French-Swiss film director and screenwriter.[1]

Ursula Meier
Meier in 2012
Born (1971-06-24) 24 June 1971
Besançon, France
Occupation(s)Film 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 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 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 Kyiv.[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 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 a nomination for the Swiss Film Prize as best feature film 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. The film had premiered at Semaine de la Critique section at Cannes Film Festival in May 2008.[5]

Her 2012 film L'enfant d'en haut premiered in competition at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival,[6] where it won the Special Award - Silver Bear.[7] It has also been selected as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards,[8] making the January shortlist.[9]

In 2013 she was a member of the jury at the 35th Moscow International Film Festival.[10]

She took part in the collective film Bridges of Sarajevo, together with twelve other renowned directors. The film premiered within the Special Screenings at Cannes Film Festival in 2014.[11]

In 2018, she was the president of the Jury for the Caméra d'Or, the award for the best first feature at Cannes Film Festival,[12] and was the Godmother of the Locarno International Film Festival's signing the SWAN pledge 5050x2020.[13]

The Line (La Ligne), her next feature, premiered again in the competition at Berlin Film Festival in 2022.[14]

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)
  • 2015: Kacey Mottet Klein, Naissance d'un acteur (Kacey Mottet Klein, Birth of an actor), short film

Awards and nominations (selection)

For Kacey Mottet Klein, Naissance d'un acteur (Kacey Mottet Klein, Birth of an actor):[15]

For Home:[16]

  • Best Director award at the Festival du Film Francophone d'Angoulême
  • Swiss Film Award for best feature film as well as best screenplay (with Antoine Jaccoud)
  • César for Best first feature film (nomination)
  • Best Film at Argentina's Mar del Plata Film Festival (nomination)[17]
  • Festival International du Cinéma d'Auteur de Rabat, Best Screenplay (with Antoine Jaccoud)
  • Festival du film francophone Athens, Grand Prize of the city of Athènes
  • Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata, ADF Award Best Photographer (Agnès Godard)
  • Reykjavik International Film Festival, FIPRESCI Award
  • Paris, SACD Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques, Prix SACD Nouveau Talent Cinéma
  • Mostra internacional de films de dones, Prix du public
  • Flying Broom Women's Film Festival, FIPRESCI Award

For L'enfant d'en haut (Sister): [18]

References
  1. "Ursula Meier". swissfilms. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  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. "Home". Semaine de la Critique du Festival de Cannes (in French). Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  6. "Press Release, 9th Jan". berlinale.de. 2012-01-09. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
  7. "Prizes of the International Jury 2012". Berlinale. 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  8. Blaney, Martin (21 September 2012). "Ursula Meier's Sister entered for Oscar race". Screen International. EMAP. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  9. "9 Foreign Language Films Vie For Oscar". Oscars. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  10. "Main Competition Jury". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2014-01-01. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
  11. "LES PONTS DE SARAJEVO - Festival de Cannes". www.festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  12. "Ursula MEIER - Festival de Cannes 2022". www.festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  13. "Locarno Festival Commits to Pledge for Gender Parity and Inclusion". 2018-07-31.
  14. "La ligne | The Line | Die Linie". www.berlinale.de. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  15. "Kacey Mottet Klein, naissance d'un acteur". swissfilms. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  16. "Home". swissfilms. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  17. List of awards won by Home at international film festivals
  18. "Sister". swissfilms. Retrieved 2022-04-24.

Further reading
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