The Zurich Summit, the film industry sidebar of the Zurich Film Festival, is leaning into the city’s reputation as a global banking hub to strengthen its role as a discreet meeting point for financiers and filmmakers.
Started as a casual get-together among Zurich fest friends — with ZFF regulars like CAA Media Finance co-head Roeg Sutherland, and Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker using the opportunity to combine a festival visit with business meetings with local financiers, the Summit has grown into what ZFF artistic director Christian Jungen calls “the Davos of the film industry,” where the leading figures of the independent film business met to exchange ideas and talk business. “Exclusivity is key for the Summit. We’re not here for the small fry; there are other formats for them,” says Jungen. “Being invited to the Summit should be an honor.”
Zurich this year is introducing a new, even more exclusive event, a pre-Summit “Film Finance Forum,” on Friday, bringing together around 20–30 bankers, investors and producers for behind-closed-doors discussions on film financing models. “It’s very small-scale,” says ZFF vice director Reta Guetg, “we’re not aiming to become a market, but we want to bring together the key players of the independent film industry with financiers and bankers here in Zurich. [There is] so much upheaval in the business at the moment, Hollywood is barely shooting in the U.S. anymore, more productions moving to Europe. Zurich has always been a bridge between the U.S. and Europe, and we see an even more important role ahead.”
The organizers see Zurich’s private banking sector — the city is home to more than 100 private banking institutions and boasts the world’s highest concentration of family offices — as an under-tapped resource for film. “Americans are looking for reliable, ‘boring’ money again, after being burned by flashy funds with strings attached,” Jungen notes. “We want to connect discreet bankers — our grey-suited Mr. Meiers and Mr. Müller — who are culturally inclined, with people from CAA or Tom Quinn from Neon.
Quinn, whose indie label has released six Palme d’Or winners in six years, will receive this year’s Game Changer Award at the Zurich Summit. “Looking back decades from now, just as Miramax defined the ’90s, Tom Quinn defines recent indie cinema,” Jungen says.
Alongside financing, the 2025 Zurich Summit will spotlight shifting distribution models, AI tools from start-ups, and YouTube’s growing dominance. Saudi Arabia’s film sector will also be in focus, with Abdul Jalil Al-Nasser of the Saudi Film Commission attending and Desert Warrior, the most expensive film ever shot in the region, getting its world premiere at ZFF.
“Michael Barker of Sony Pictures Classics told me last night he’s excited to meet the Saudis in Zurich, since he doesn’t usually cross paths with them elsewhere,” says Jungen.
For Guetg, the Summit’s role is clear: “The Summit should always reflect Zurich’s DNA as a financial hub, the world capital of family offices. It’s the ideal place to talk about film financing, and by extension, distribution, sales, new business models, AI, social media, YouTube. But financing remains at the core.”
