Zurich Film Festival has added a slew of gala premieres to its lineup, including Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz‘s Venice-bound Bunker and Jordan Firstman‘s Cannes breakout Club Kid.
Florian Zeller’s Bunker, also starring Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger, follows a renowned architect offered the chance to secretly design a survival bunker for a billionaire who is convinced that the end of the world is near. As he lets himself be seduced by this morally ambiguous project, his wife begins to question their marriage.
Club Kid, which launched this year’s most exciting bidding war (won by A24), follows a washed-up New York party promoter whose life is thrown off balance when he unexpectedly finds himself responsible for a son he never knew about.
Also added to the Zurich lineup is Danny Boyle’s Venice opener Ink, a drama about Rupert Murdoch’s rise to media power in the world of the U.K. tabloids starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy.
Earning its European premiere will be Babies from Lauren Miller Rogen, starring the director’s husband, Seth Rogen, alongside Anna Kendrick, Issa Rae, Dan Stevens, Sharon Stone and Ed Helms. The comedy follows a happily married couple, surrounded by friends with kids, who are forced to confront their indecision about becoming parents when their divorced friend and her daughter move in.
Eurotrash from Frauke Finsterwalder will have its world premiere in Zurich, the festival confirmed Monday, following a writer called Philipp who embarks with his terminally ill and hopelessly drunk mother, Helene, on a road trip through Switzerland. Another world premiere comes from Enkelejd Lluca and Blood Money, an Albanian boxing drama about an ex-convict called Arion drawn into a brutal underground fighting arena.
Ali Asgari’s A Bit of Light joins the lineup, a drama bout a disillusioned Iranian doctor (Misagh Zareh) who is determined to end his life, and spends one final day visiting his siblings and mother to prepare them for his departure.
Crime-thriller The Only Living Pickpocket in New York from Noah Segan is also set to screen, starring John Turturro as an aging pickpocket who plies his trade with ever-diminishing returns in a drastically changed New York, as is Fred Cavayé’s Les Miserables, led by Vincent Lindon, Tahar Rahim, Camille Cottin and Noemie Merlant.
These features are joined in the Swiss city by Alex Schulmann’s Adult Supervision, about three middle-aged fathers who chaperone their teenage daughters on a rowdy school trip to a remote archipelago island, and Think Good from Geraldine Nakache, a drama about a woman who falls in love only to find herself entirely controlled by her new partner.
Finally, Mario Bechis’ Back to Buenos Aires will receive its international premiere. The movie follows an Italian doctor, Mariano Guerra, who returns to Argentina after 33 years to testify at the trial against the former military officers who abducted, tortured, and enslaved him during the military dictatorship.
“With these eleven additional Gala Premieres, we are bringing outstanding voices and stories from different parts of the world to Zurich,” said festival director Reta Guetg with the announcement. “The programme ranges from the promising Club Kid by Jordan Firstman to new works by acclaimed filmmakers such as Ali Asgari, whose latest film will premiere in competition in Venice.”
“The films also feature major names in front of the camera, including Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and John Turturro. With Adult Supervision, we are also presenting a film that is already being tipped as a potential Swedish Oscar contender,” she added. “We are very much looking forward to celebrating these films with our audience at ZFF.”
The 2026 Zurich Film Festival runs Sep. 24-Oct. 4.
