ZFICTION

Building the Mundane – The Ordinary Glamour of Production Design in Film

„Time moves on while space simply loiters.“
Doreen Massey, geographer and social scientist

The fourth Zurich’s Feature Film Conference ZFICTION.26 is about the UNspectacular in production design – everyday life as cinematic terrain. Ordinary environments, the inconspicuous living spaces, mundane street corners, generic offices and transitional zones created by production design are the homeland of narrative reality in film. These seemingly unbuilt spaces work as terra cognita for viewers – immediately recognizable and psychologically inhabitable – yet despite their social and political relevance, they remain terra incognita in film studies.

The conference examines the creative challenge of understanding and building the ordinary: How do production designers manage to transform the prosaic into a credible film environment while keeping the essence of it’s everyday nature?

Ordinary spaces of cinematic narration – like kitchens, living rooms, offices, attics, bathrooms – are examined and discussed. How do these archetypal domestic and institutional environments function as built sites for dramatic action, psychological revelation, narrative development, and the creation of authenticity? Taking into account their architectural grammar, cultural, political semiotics, and narrative use, ZFICTION.26 attempts to establish practical and film-scientific foundations for these everyday spaces.

The aim of the conference is of cartographic nature: to explore a terrain that has been neglected by theory so far. The conference positions production design of the ordinary not as a secondary craft of mere backdrops but as active agents in fictional storytelling and guarantee of authenticity.

In case studies and an interdisciplinary dialog between production design, architectural theory, cultural geography, film studies and phenomenology, ZFICTION.26 explores this largely uncharted territory – and establishes the built ordinary as a legitimate and essential field of practice and research in film, rendering it some well earned glory.

The detailed conference program and invited guests will be communicated starting mid January 2026.

 

FILMMAKERS:

Jaqueline Abrahams (The Lobster, Lady Macbeth, His House, Wallander, among others), Jason Kisvarday (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Palm Springs, Swiss Army Man, The Legend of Ochi), Kelsi Ephraim (Everything Everywhere All at Once, MaXXXine, To Catch a Killer, Swiss Army Man, among others), Beatrice Schultz (Western, Late Shift, Rivale, Someday we’ll tell each other everything, among others), Reinhild Blaschke (Gavagal, Ich war zu Hause, aber…, In the shadows, Gold, among others), Silke Fischer (including Toni Erdmann, Lore, 3 Tage in Quiberon, Unorthodox)

 

RESEARCHERS:

Francis Pheasant-Kelly (University of Wolverhampton, UK, Film Studies), Lucy Fife Donaldson (University of St. Andrews, UK, Film Studies), Jane Barnwell (University of Westminster, UK, Research and Education), Volker Pantenburg (University of Zurich, Film Studies), Fabienne Liptay (University of Zurich, Film Studies), Ute Holl (University of Basel, Media Studies), Gina Dellagiacoma (University of Zurich, Social Anthropology and Empirical Cultural Studies), Birgit Glombitza (freelance lecturer, author, dramaturge)

 

SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS:

Thomas Kissling (architect/landscape architect, VOGT office), Reynold Reynolds (visual artist)

 

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