Roman Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland didn’t stop Zurich Film Festival organizers from honouring the director with a lifetime achievement ceremony Sunday night.  

The ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and ‘Chinatown’ director was scheduled to receive the Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Eye award for lifetime achievement and to take part in a masterclass with young filmmakers when he was taken into custody at Zurich Airport on Saturday. He is now awaiting potential extradition to the U.S. on a 1977 charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.

The arrest came as a surprise because Polanski has travelled in Switzerland many times over the last three decades and even has a house in the country. CTV news says the Swiss Justice Ministry released a statement Sunday, saying the U.S. had been seeking Polanski’s arrest in various countries since 2005 but it is still unclear why the arrest is taking place now. Polanski has lived in Paris and avoided countries with US extradition since he was charged in 1977.
 
According to Variety, Zurich Film Festival organizers said in a statement that they were “shocked and dismayed” by the arrest. They decided to go ahead with the award ceremony, “A Tribute to Roman Polanski,” and the retrospective of his work on Sunday.

“Obviously we had no knowledge whatsoever of the plans to arrest Roman Polanski,” festival director Karl Spoerri told the 650 people who came to see the tribute. “The jury decided months ago to honor Roman Polanski. There was never any suggestion at any time from Polanski’s management or from Swiss authorities that Polanski would be detained.”

Outside the theatre, protesters reportedly held signs reading “Free Polanski” and “Polanski’s arrest is a disgrace for culture in Switzerland.”

And Screen Daily reports that, in place of the masterclass, the festival screened a copy of the documentary ‘Roman Polanski – Wanted and Desired’, which deals in detail with the events surrounding the sex crime allegations and suggests there was misconduct during the trial on the part of  Santa Monica Judge Laurence A. Rittenband, who has since died.

In another show of support, producer Henning Molfenter, who was scheduled to attend the Festival as a jury member, is boycotting the festival to protest Polanski’s arrest. This is according to The Hollywood Reporter. Actor Til Schweiger and composer Niki Reiser are expected to follow suit.

“There is no way I’d go to Switzerland now – you can’t watch films knowing Roman Polanski is sitting in a cell 5 km away,” Molfenter told The Hollywood Reporter.

Molfenter is a producer with Studio Babelsberg, a co-producer on Polanski’s latest project, ‘The Ghost,’ currently in post production. It is based on the bestselling novel by Robert Harris bestseller and stars Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan and Kim Cattrall.

(Photo by PR Photos)