Tom Hiddleston opened the 22nd Zurich Film Festival on Thursday, September 24, 2026, collecting the Golden Eye Award at the opening night gala before the European premiere of the mountaineering drama “Tenzing.” The British actor walked the green carpet on Zurich’s Sechselautenplatz alongside co-star Willem Dafoe, greeting fans who had gathered on the square outside the main venue as the festival got underway.
“Tenzing,” directed by Australian filmmaker Jennifer Peedom, dramatizes the 1953 first ascent of Mount Everest and centers on Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa mountaineer who reached the summit with Edmund Hillary. Produced as an Apple feature, the film is set for a theatrical release on October 9 before arriving on Apple TV on October 16. Hiddleston and Dafoe both traveled to the Himalayas during production, for a shoot that took the cast to high altitude.
Festival chief executive Christian Jungen said the honor recognized an actor who “brings depth and charisma to his characters,” pointing to a range that runs from Shakespearean theater to blockbuster franchises. Hiddleston is widely known for playing Loki across a decade of Marvel films and television, a role that turned a comic-book villain into one of the studio’s most popular figures, and he has since moved between stage, streaming series and independent film.
The Golden Eye is presented to talents who have left a mark on international film, and organizers framed Hiddleston’s selection around a career built on versatility rather than a single genre. Presenting a survival epic set on the world’s highest peak gave the opening ceremony a fittingly grand backdrop, and the screening served as the film’s first showing for a European audience. Norgay’s story has rarely been told on screen with the Sherpa climber at its center, and the production leaned on that framing.
For Zurich, landing a marquee premiere and a headline star on opening night signals the festival’s ambition to sit closer to Europe’s biggest events. The 22nd edition runs through October 4, with further gala screenings and tributes to come, including the Golden Icon Award for Julianne Moore. Hiddleston’s appearance set an energetic tone for a program that leans heavily on international premieres this year. The award places him among past Golden Eye honorees recognized for their contribution to international film.
