Biography
Anja Kofmel, born in 1982 in Lugano, Switzerland, began studying animation in 2005 at the Lucerne School of Art and Design. Her graduation film, the seven-minute animated movie "Chrigi" ("Chris", CH 2009), was shown at numerous festivals around the world and won the prize for the best school film at the International Short Film Festival in Winterthur (Switzerland).
In "Chrigi" Kofmel remembers her childhood and her mysterious cousin, whom she admired a lot and who died in 1992 during the Yugoslav wars. Further exploring this theme, she developed the concept for her first feature-length film "Chris the Swiss", an international co-production that she realized between 2014 and 2018. The animated documentary premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2018 in the Semaine de la Critique; numerous other festival participations followed (among others in Locarno, Karlovy Vary and Sao Paulo). In addition, "Chris the Swiss" was awarded the City of Zurich Film Prize. The film was released in German cinemas in January 2019.