Moritz de Hadeln, Swiss Director Known as "Mr. Film Festival," Dies at 85

Moritz de Hadeln, the Swiss director widely known as “Mr. Film Festival,” has died at 85. His death was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter on Monday by Christian Jungen, CEO of the Zurich Film Festival and De Hadeln’s biographer. De Hadeln died in a hospital in Nyon, Switzerland, on Saturday, July 4, after complications following a recent medical procedure. Born in England in 1940, he began in film as a documentarian and photographer, then directed Le Pele (1963) and Ombres et Mirages (1966). In 1969, he co-founded the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, later called Visions du Reel, directing it until 1979. He led Locarno, then the Berlinale from 1979—where it became the first festival to use computer technology for data processing—and later helped reshape the Venice Film Festival with Franco Bernabè. In 2018, he defended Harvey Weinstein in a Swiss opinion piece.