From the dreams of young Swiss revolutionaries in the 1970s to the fantasies of a 50-year-old Lisbon dockworker who wants to run away to Sweden, two very different Swiss films are up for an award in Cannes this year.

Plans for the Charlie Chaplin heritage site near Vevey are back on track after receiving an interest-free loan of SFr10 million ($10.75 million) from Canton Vaud, and the backers hope it can open in 2014.

Swiss Press Photo awards images published in the Swiss media. The 2012 top prize went to British photographer Mark Henley, who lives in Switzerland. He found a way of showing emotion and drama in the dry subject of the economy and banks.

Many small Swiss hotels are in need of modernisation, but investors aren’t interested: it’s more profitable to put money in big establishments with large turnovers. What do you think of this trend away from small family-run businesses?

Legend has it that the monk Gallus built a hermitage 1,400 years ago in a spot that would later became the World Heritage city of St Gallen. The city’s anniversary is now being marked, but questions still linger over Gallus’ origins.

Swiss-born Daniel Humm has been handed the United States’ top chef prize, adding another award to his collection and coming hot on the heels of his restaurant’s best-ever ranking.

Until recently, beauty contests – largely derided as out-dated sexism in the rest of Europe – have been big business in Switzerland. Now, however, the winds of change are blowing away the clouds of hairspray.

Whether it's Miss Cambodia Switzerland, Miss Pole Fitness, Miss Car Lover, Miss Bikini or Miss Handicap, the chances are there's a beauty competition for you.

Swiss cartoonist Patrick Chappatte is the first non-American to be awarded the Thomas Nast Prize since its creation over 40 years ago by the Overseas Press Club of America. swissinfo.ch caught up with him in New York.