to the committee introduction

Rolf has been in the UNICA Committee since 2009 (Jury-Coordinator).

He was born in 1953 and grew up in Bern, Switzerland. After he lived for two years in Geneva he moved in 1974 to the Canton Ticino.

His passions : people, artists, traveling and especially the art of film making.

He was president of Kulturfilmgesellschaft Cinedoc in Lugano for seven years. In 1984, he founded the club CiAC - Cineamatori Ceresio and was a board member for twenty-five years, including eighteen years as president.

He managed various smaller festivals in the southern Switzerland. He was for several years a member of the Central Committee of swiss.movie and was among other things, organizer of the 75th National Film and Video Festival in Spiez BE.

He has attended the festival of UNICA every year since 2005.

In Bern in 1985 he won his first gold medal in the national competition of swiss.movie with the film Impressions of a visit. In Spiez two of the Golden Dragons were awarded for notable films, in 2002 for René Furrer  and 2003 for Cabo Verde, oltre la spiaggia. In Geneva in 2006 he was the first winner of the new main prize "Jet d'or " for the film Myriam and in 2008 the prize for the best Sound design.

Many national and international awards followed, such as the silver bear of Ebensee (Festival of the Nations ) in 2008 with the video portrait Irène Yrini.

As a member of the jury Rolf Leuenberger has many years of experience in Switzerland and abroad. We can mention the World Cup UNICA in Blankenberg (BEL) in 2005, the festivals in Ebensee (AUT), Senftenberg (DEU), Ventabren FRA) and Liechtenstein (LIE).

Since 2009 he is conseiller in the committee of the World Federation UNICA - Union International du Cinema and since 2010 UNICA in Einsiedeln, he supervise and moderates the UNICA jury.

Today Rolf Leuenberger is active as an independent filmmaker of documentary films and engaged in the construction of a Home Movie Museum.   www.afa-sessa.ch