La Ligne

Ursula Meier, of Swiss and French nationalities, is currently Senior Fellow at Istituto Svizzero. She studied filmmaking in Belgium. The success of her short films allowed her to focus on her own fictions and documentaries. She was then chosen to participate in the Arte TV film series Masculin Féminin and directed Des épaules solides (“Strong Shoulders”) which screened worldwide in festivals (included Section ACID at the Cannes Film Festival 2004). In 2008, her first feature film Home, with Isabelle Huppert, Olivier Gourmet and Kacey Mottet Klein, was selected for the Cannes Critics Week and received numerous awards and nominations worldwide (including three French César nominations). In November 2009, Ursula Meier founded Bande à part Films together with filmmakers Lionel Baier, Frédéric Mermoud and Jean-Stéphane Bron. In 2012, L’Enfant d’en haut (“Sister”) with Léa Seydoux, Kacey Mottet Klein et Gillian Anderson, received a Silver Bear-Special Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. It was also nominated for the Independent Spirit Awards-Best Foreign Film and the actor Kacey Mottet Klein was nominated at the French César for Best New Male Actor. The film was awarded, like Home, three Quartz at the Swiss Film Awards, including Best Feature Film, and represented Switzerland again at the Oscars. In 2014, she took part in the collective film Les ponts de Sarajevo (“Bridges of Sarajevo”) presented out of competition in the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2018, she directed Berlinale’s Panorama entry Journal de ma tête (“Diary of my mind”), with Fanny Ardant and Kacey Mottet Klein, a TV film she made as part of the Ondes de choc (“Shock Waves”) collection, inspired by Swiss news stories. In 2021, she shot La ligne (“The Line”) with Stéphanie Blanchoud and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. The film is part of Berlinale’s 2022 main competition and received three Quartz at the Swiss Film Awards. She is currently working on her first English language project, Quiet Land, which has received the Suissimage Prize.