Richard Linklater Honored at Zurich Film Festival With Blue Moon Premiere

Richard Linklater Honored at Zurich Film Festival with Career Achievement Award

Alongside the honor, the Zurich Film Festival features a comprehensive Linklater retrospective at the Filmpodium running through November 15, 2026. The program showcases modern classics such as “Before Sunrise” (1995) and his breakthrough indie feature “Slacker” (1990).

Ethan Hawke Stars as Songwriter Lorenz Hart in “Blue Moon”

Set in late March 1943 at Sardi’s bar in New York, “Blue Moon” follows lyricist Lorenz Hart as he struggles to maintain sobriety on the opening night of “Oklahoma!”—the landmark musical written by his former partner Richard Rodgers without him. Ethan Hawke serves as the emotional anchor of the chamber piece, appearing on screen with a hairpiece and optical effects that made him 20 centimeters shorter to portray Hart during one of the final tragic evenings of his life before his death. The supporting cast features Margaret Qualley as Elizabeth Weiland, the much younger woman whom Hart pursues amidst his deep melancholy. Linklater opted to direct a biography of the lesser-known lyricist rather than major cultural figures like Elvis Presley or Bob Dylan. There is a great freedom in shooting a portrait of someone who is not so well known. It is the opposite of Elvis Presley or Bob Dylan, where people at least feel like they know them and know everything. “Blue Moon” invites people to discover something new.

Preserving the Classic Indie Approach in Modern Cinema

Despite comparisons to a theatrical play due to its strict unity of time and place, Linklater rejected the comparison during interviews following the Berlinale premiere in February 2025. He maintained that adapting a stage play directly rarely translates effectively to the medium of film because the two formats operate entirely differently. As one of America's enduring traditional independent filmmakers, Linklater continues to self-finance and handle artistic disputes without yielding to major studio compromises. You shoot the films you shoot and take the fights you have to take. I have won many battles. But sometimes lost the whole war.