Late Bloomers (German: Die Herbstzeitlosen) is a 2006 Swiss German-language comedy film directed by Bettina Oberli and starring Stephanie Glaser. It follows an elderly seamstress who opens a lingerie boutique in her Emmental village, causing unrest. The film was SwitzerlandâÂÂs submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 80th Academy Awards, and Annemarie Düringer won Best Actress at the Geneva International Film Festival in 2006.
After the death of her husband, Martha withdraws from the Sunday card games in the Emmental village of Trub, worrying her friends Lisi, Hanni, and Frieda. In an effort to cheer her up, they suggest that she pursue a long-held dream, leading the eighty-year-old seamstress to open a lingerie boutique. The venture causes a stir in the village and disrupts its social routine.
The cast includes:
Bettina Oberli based Martha partly on her grandmother. Early drafts of the screenplay had Martha opening a café rather than a lingerie boutique. Filming took place in the Emmental, where production was disrupted after flooding damaged the main road below Trub.
The film was SwitzerlandâÂÂs submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 80th Academy Awards, but it did not advance to the shortlist. At the Geneva International Film Festival in 2006, Annemarie Düringer won the Prix Swissperform de la meilleure interprétation féminine, and the film won the Prix Walo for Best Film Production in Zurich in 2006. It was nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film at the 8th AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, where it lost to The Edge of Heaven.
Filmdienst described the film as a Swiss German comedy that avoided the clichés and broad sentimentality of the traditional Heimatfilm and became a charming plea for dignity and joie de vivre in old age.
The film premiered in August 2006. It was later screened at festivals including Der Neue Heimatfilm in August 2007, the Osaka European Film Festival in November 2007, the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2008, the Seattle International Film Festival in May 2008, the Shanghai International Film Festival in June 2008, and the Solothurn Film Festival in January 2015.