Curt Truninger

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Curt Truninger

Curt Truninger and actress Eva Birthistle on the set of The Rendezvous in Toronto. Foto by Peter Rehak.
Born Curt Truninger
(1957-04-12) April 12, 1957
Lucerne, Switzerland
Occupation film director, screenwriter, producer, visual artist, actor

Curt Truninger (born April 12, 1957) is a Swiss filmmaker, screenplay writer and producer. He also works as visual artist and journalist/columnist and occasional actor.

Curt Truninger is a Member of the European Film Academy.

Biography

Personal life

Truninger was raised in Lucerne, where as a teenager he met American photographer and editor of Camera magazine, Allan Porter, who introduced him to the world of photography and the associated arts. Truninger was also a UNICEF Ambassador and is an accomplished amateur athlete. He divides his time between Toronto and Zurich.

Work

After graduating with a PhD in Social Sciences, Truninger went to work for Swiss Public Television. During the 1980s he was host of the film programme Neu im Kino, and honed his writing skills working for Swiss and German print media as a film and culture critic and photographer. He later worked for the German broadcaster ZDF as a contributor to the television arts programme Aspekte. Truninger has written and directed many documentaries and docu-dramas for ZDF and hosted the talk show "Begegnungen". His freelance work includes a documentary portrait of Richard Avedon, produced in collaboration with the iconic photographer himself.

After a brief excursion directing music videos, Truninger made a leap to feature films in 1996 with Waiting for Michelangelo, a crtitically-acclaimed romantic comedy, featuring Canadian star Roy Dupuis, shot in Toronto and Lucerne. It is a witty love story about four friends who are successful in life, but not in love. The film, distributed by Channel 4 in London, went on to become one of the most widely distributed Swiss films. Truninger also co-wrote the original screenplay with his long-time producer Margrit Ritzmann.

In 2001 his second feature film Dead By Monday, a black romantic comedy about love and suicide, starring Helen Baxendale (Friends,Cold Feet) and Tim Dutton (Ally McBeal, Bourne Identity) won first prize at both the Portland Festival of World Cinema and the Monaco Film Festival. It was co-produced with Wim Wenders production company Road Movies Berlin.

In 2008 Truninger and Ritzmann adapted the cult play What Happened Was by New York actor/playwright Tom Noonan, into the feature film The Rendezvous, starring Eva Birthistle (Ae Fond Kiss, Ken Loach) and Tim Dutton. The Rendezvous is a dark comic drama about two single co-workers whose attempts at romance result in an emotionally provocative evening. The World Premiere took place at the Zurich Film Festival in October 2010. The film had its Canadian Premiere in Toronto in June 2011. The US premiere took place at the Myrtle Beach International Film Festival in South Carolina in spring 2012. The film had its theatrical release for the US in Michigan in October 2012. Truninger is currently preparing his next production, Zoë’s Brilliant Plan, an ensemble comedy about four women who pretend to be in love with the same man. He also works on a new drama The Love God of Ice Cream.

As a visual artist the filmmaker participated in a group show (Songbird ART) in Davos, Switzerland, in winter 2011/12. In his film The Rendezvous, Truninger also worked as the Production Designer under the alias of Sepp de Engelberg.

Awards

Dead By Monday won Best Feature Film at the Portland Film Festival of World Cinema in 2001 and in 2003 the Angel Award for Best Picture at the Monaco Film Festival. The Rendezvous won Best Drama, Best Actress and Best Foreign Film at the Myrtle Beach International Film Festival, South Carolina, 2012

Filmography (writer-director)

Feature Films

  • 1996 Waiting for Michelangelo
  • 2001 Dead By Monday
  • 2010 The Rendezvous
  • 2013 Zoë’s Brilliant Plan (in pre-production)

Longform Documentaries (selected)

  • 1984 Dialekt-Rock (Swiss TV, SF 1)
  • 1986 Engadin: Ein Paradies verändert sich (German TV, ZDF)
  • 1987 Das Tessin der Tessiner (German TV, ZDF)
  • 1988 Nostalgie auf Zelluloid (German TV, ZDF)
  • 1989 Risorgimento der Phantasie (German TV, ZDF, Co-Dir.)
  • 1989 Kanonen für den Osterschnee (German TV, ZDF)
  • 1990 Geschichte des Semmering (German TV, ZDF)
  • 1990 Das Sofa im Park (Swiss TV, SF DRS)
  • 1991 Avedon - Kunsthaus Zürich (Producer: Richard Avedon)
  • 1992 Uluruh (longform music video)
  • 1993 Chaos am Matterhorn (German TV, ZDF/3sat)
  • 1994 Dimitris Atelier (mini-series Swiss TV SF DRS)

External links

Authority control
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