Petra Volpe's Heldin sweeps Swiss Film Awards 2026 with four wins
With "Heldin", the Swiss-Italian screenwriter and director Petra Volpe has made a tribute to our nursing staff. It won the Swiss Film Award 2026 for Best Feature Film at the Kongresshaus Zurich on Friday evening.
The drama starring Leonie Boesch won out over four films that were also nominated in this important category: the literary adaptation "La Cache" by Lionel Baier, Nicolas Steiner's black-and-white feature film debut "Sie glauben an Engel, Herr Drowak?", the emancipatory historical drama "À bras-le-corps" by Marie-Elsa Sgualdo and Piet Baumgartner's "Bagger Drama". The latter two were nominated a total of seven times for the Swiss Film Award. In the end, they won two trophies each.
Four quartzes for "Heldin"
There were four for Petra Volpe's film, however. The best screenplay also went to the drama. Volpe was already able to shine with this award in 2017, when she was recognized in this category as the screenwriter of "The Divine Order". On Friday evening, "Heroine" also picked up a third Quartz trophy for Best Sound.
There are four awards in total because, as was already known in advance, "Heroine" was also honored with the first-ever "Box Office Quartz". This is awarded to the film with the highest box office figures. With over 207,000 admissions, "Heldin" was the most successful Swiss film.
The film vividly traces the story of the main character Leonie's care in a Swiss hospital. The ever-increasing pressure also gets under the viewer's skin. "Heldin" can currently be streamed on Netflix or Cinefile.
Best documentary also has the best music
"I Love You, I Leave You" won in the "Best Documentary" category. Filmmaker Moris Freiburghaus tells the story of the bipolar disorder of his best friend, musician Dino Brandão. The singer-songwriter, guitarist and singer finds himself in a manic phase, falling from highs to lows and vice versa.
The intimate work, which was also awarded the Golden Eye in the documentary film competition at the Zurich Film Festival, is accompanied by the music of the Dino Brandão portrayed in it. His sound provided a second Swiss Film Award on Friday evening for "I Love You, I Leave You": A second Quartz was also awarded for best film music.
Prize money is already awarded for a nomination at the Swiss Film Awards. In the two main categories "Best Feature Film" and "Best Documentary Film", each nomination is worth 25,000 francs.
