AUSTRIAN FILM COMMISSION - NEWS

69^thBerlinale (february 7 to 17, 2019):
the Austrian line-up

On top of Marie Kreutzer's Golden Bear contender THE GROUND BENEATH MY FEET the Berlinale 2019 hosts the world premiere of Nikolaus Geyrhalter's new film EARTH as well as the first feature film of performance artists Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska with their haunting and witty Super-8-approach to Elfriede Jelinek's major novel THE CHILDREN OF THE DEAD. Both films are selected by the Berlinale Forum.

Young Austrian cinema sweeps 7 awards at MOP Saarbrücken

Each of the three Austrian contenders in the main Max Ophüls Prize competition took at least one major award: JOY by Sudabeh Mortezai the MOPs for the socially relevant film and best young actress Joy Alphonsus, NEVRLAND by Gregor Schmidinger the MOPs of the Youth Jury and for best young actor Simon Frühwirth, KAVIAR by Elena Tikhonova the MOP Audience Award.

Austrian films at international festivals

Participations November 2018 - January 2019

Austrian films on international screens

Theatrical releases
October 2016 – November 2018

World premieres of KAVIAR and NEVRLAND at 40^th Festival Max Ophüls Prize

Young Austrian cinema is represented with two world premieres of two feature debuts in the main Max Ophüls Prize Competition: the culture clash comedy KAVIAR by Elena Tikhonova and NEVRLAND by Gregor Schmidinger, a terrifying coming-of-age journey of a young man into his own self.

Berlinale 2019: Marie Kreutzer’s new film in Golden Bear competition

THE GROUND BENEATH MY FEET, Marie Kreutzer’s fourth feature film about two unequal sisters, starring Valerie Pachner, Pia Hierzegger and Mavie Hörbiger has been unveiled as one of the contenders of the 69^th Berlinale competition.

«What does being grown-up really mean?»

For his debut feature film Gregor Schmidinger has created a Nevrland between being a child and being grown-up, between reality and fantasy, between the genuine and the staged self. He sends his protagonists Jakob and Kristjan, offspring of Generation Y, into this world on a terrifying journey from the surface to their individual depths. A conversation with Gregor Schmidinger (director) and Ulrich Gehmacher (producer).

JOY reaches for Golden Star at Marrakech

After Venice, London and Chicago Sudabeh Mortezai’s JOY takes again a major award: The 17^th Marrakech film festival honors her second feature film with its main prize, the Etoile d’or.

Sundance with thrilling voices from Austria

The 35^th SUNDANCE Festival (January 24 to February 3) has reveiled its program with 112 long feature films including thrilling voices from Austria: Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala present their first English language movie THE LODGE in the Midnight programm. Richard Ladkani’s SEA OF SHADOWS is part of the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

New Yorker puts THE WALDHEIM WALTZ on its Best Movies 2018-list

The New Yorker magazine has selected THE WALDHEIM WALTZ by Ruth Beckermann, Austria’s entry to compete for the Foreign Language Award, among the 40 best movies of the year.

Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s THE BORDER FENCE competes at IDFA

The Austrian film year ends with a film about frontiers – on the political agenda, in everyday life, in our minds ... Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s accurate observation THE BORDER FENCE is part of the 31^stIDFA main competition. Also screening in Amsterdam: THE WALDHEIM WALTZ by Ruth Beckermann in the Masters selection and Amsterdam Human Rights Award Nominee CHAOS by Sara Fattahi in Best of Fests and Main Focus Program.

«At the moment we are working in both worlds.»

Following the resounding success of their debut feature film Goodnight Mommy, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala headed off across the Atlantic. Now, after the episode The Trud for The Field Guide to Evil (world premiere at the 2018 South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas) they are back with another full-length feature that aims to scare us out of our wits. THE LODGE was made in association with the British genre institution Hammer Films and will be shown in the Midnight section of the Sundance Festival. A conversation about projects here and there, and the forthcoming remake of Goodnight Mommy.

CHAOS wins at Mar del Plata

Sara Fattahi’s CHAOS wins the Altered States competition at the Mar del Plata Film Festival ex-aequo with the film Casanovagen by Luise Donschen.”The director left her native country but took the war with her.”, observes the jury in its particularly accurate statement.

Tribute to Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel at GIJON

The 56^th Festival Internacional de Cine in GIJÒN (November 16 to 24) dedicates a tribute to TIZZA COVI and RAINER FRIMMEL screening MISTER UNIVERSO, THE SHINE OF DAY, LA PIVELLINA, BABOOSKA and honored the filmmakers with the Premio de Honor del Festival at the opening ceremony.

Sevilla awards Joy for her "masterful interpretation"

Joy Anwulika Alphonsus wins the Best Actress Award at the Sevilla film festival: „ she carries the film through her captivating, open, honest, intelligent and authentic performance. A masterful interpretation of an indomitable drama." concludes the jury. It’s award n° 6 since the Venice premiere for Sudabeh Mortezai’s JOY shortly after winning the Vienna Film Prize 2018.

COPS reaps 4 awards at Skopje, Nantes and Braunschweig

What a crop for COPS by Stefan Lukacs within two festival weekends: Best Screenplay at the Skopje Cinedays Festival of European film, Univerciné Jury Prize + Audience Award at the Nantes Univerciné Allemand Festival, Best Young Actress Award to Anna Suk at the Braunschweig Film Festival.

«In a global context, fences don't solve anything.»

Nikolaus Geyrhalter

The Austrian government's announcement that it would set up a fence at the Brenner border crossing to ensure refugees didn't stream into the country through Italy prompted Nikolaus Geyrhalter to set off for Tyrol, to capture the creation of this defensive edifice in THE BORDER FENCE.

JOY all over –
with major awards in London and Chicago

Sudabeh Mortezai’s second feature film, recently awarded in Venice, garners major distinctions in LONDON and CHICAGO: Best Film Award at the 62^nd BFI London Film Festival ("a provocative and unique film offering a devastating portrait of human resilience in the most inhuman of environments") and Silver Hugo: Special Jury Prize at the 54^th Chicago IFF

DOK Leipzig with THE DAYS AND THE YEAR and a tribute to Ruth Beckermann

The 61^th DOK Leipzig hosts the world premiere of Othmar Schmiderer’s THE DAYS AND THE YEAR and pays tribute to Ruth Beckermann with a special program including early works as well as the Austrian Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film – THE WALDHEIM WALTZ. Ruth Beckermann is also jury member of the Next Masters competition

L’ANIMALE wins Zurich Focus competition

Austrian contenders in focus at the Zurich closing ceremony: L’ANIMALE by Katharina Mückstein took the Best Film award of the Focus Switzerland/Germany/Austria competition. WELCOME TO SODOM by Christian Krönes and Florian Weigensamer returns from the 14th Zurich film festival with a Special Mention of the Focus jury and the Ecumenical Film Award.

film comment on JOY: Impressively distilled in plot and style

Impressively distilled in plot and style, Joy nonetheless explores (but does not untie) a formidable knot of issues around money, migration, motherhood, race, policing, pragmatism, and violence both personal and systemic. Read more of Nick Davis’ thoughts on JOY in film comment.

... and further more prizes to Austrian docs

The JIHLAVA Testimony On Nature-section honors WELCOME TO SODOM as its most outstanding contribution, SAND AND BLOOD receives a Special Mention at the Romanian ASTRA Festival and UTOPIA REVISITED by Kurt Langbein wins the Grande Prémio at CINEECO Festival at Serra da Estrella.

THE WALDHEIM WALTZ – "film of the week" by Spiegel.online

WALDHEIM’S WALTZ by Ruth Beckermann hits the screens in Germany and Switzerland and enchants the critics ...

Variety: «formally stunning and politically seething»

«Schleinzer’s film takes a chillingly but aptly clinical view of a life treated as an amusing human experiment by all but the man living it.»Read more of Variety’s astute review of Markus Schleinzer’s sophomore film ANGELO, released at Toronto and San Sebastián.

Busan IFF hosts ANGELO and THE TOBACCONIST

After acclaimed American and European premieres in Toronto and San Sebastián, Markus Schleinzer's second feature film ANGELO completes a first round across the globe in no less than four weeks. The Busan IFF hosts ANGELO together with Nikolas Leytner's THE TOBACCONIST in its Flash Forward competition.

ANGELO flies over to San Sebastián

After a critically acclaimed world premiere at TIFF, Markus Schleinzer’s ANGELO flies over to San Sebastián to embark immediately on its European premiere within the Golden Shell competition.The first San Sebastián screening of ANGELO is scheduled for Tuesday 25. Indiewire is featuring ANGELO among seven outstanding Toronto entries highly recommended to US distributors.

«The star that shines so brightly also illuminates the master it serves.»

Markus Schleinzer

Markus Schleinzer’s highly anticipated 2^nd feature film has premiered at TIFF. Inspired by the fragmentary nature of the mysterious, extraordinary biography of Angelo Soliman he has created an artistic interplay of light and shadow, projecting thought-provoking impulses on identity and freedom into the present day.

Zurich Film Festival: Four Austrians in Focus

The Focus Switzerland/Germany/Austria competition hosts the world premiere of Eva Spreitzhofer’s humorous reaction to tendencies to redirect religion into the center of social debates – WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DESERVE THIS? and three more of our 2018 highlights: ANGELO by Markus Schleinzer, L’ANIMALE by Katharina Mückstein and WELCOME TO SODOM by Christian Krönes and Florian Weigensamer.

«A fine story for a film.»

Nikolaus Leytner

Even though the Vienna of Robert Seethaler’s novel THE TOBACCONIST s one where Sigmund Freud still buys his cigars from the little shop round the corner, the barbaric regime of the Nazis is clearly rearing its ugly head. Only for a brief period is the job of a tobacconist an opportunity for 17-year-old Franz from Lake Attersee to learn something about the world and gain a basic training in resistance. Nikolaus Leytner has created a film version of this bestseller about the rapid awakening of a young dreamer, with Simon Morzé in the leading role.

JOYful Venice Days

Sudabeh Mortezai’s second feature JOY takes two of the major awards given away within the Giornate degli autori sidebar. JOY is the first winner of the newly launched HEARST AWARD for Best Film by a female director, and also received the EUROPA CINEMAS LABEL, that supports the theatrical release and the visibility of the winning film throughout Europe.

«It's a patriarchal instrument of suppression.»

Eva Spreitzhofer

Wanda's world seems to be in order. But one day her daughter Nina turns up, her head wrapped in a scarf, declaring that she has converted to Islam. Wanda’s life, her entire moral concept based on tolerance and feminism, is shaken to the core. In her feature film debut WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DESERVE THIS? Eva Spreitzhofer adopts a witty approach to the absurdities of a social debate which has recently become dominated by religious considerations.

Screen International: « ... a genuinely arresting arthouse must-watch»

«Markus Schleinzer’s supremely assured second feature is, in its own way, as profoundly uncomfortable as his 2011 debut, Michael; (...) Inspired by the life of Viennese ‘Court Moor’ Angelo Soliman, ANGELO is a mesmerising portrait of a man of quiet dignity whose very humanity is denied by those around.» A review by Screen International. Read more.

Variety: «A standout in this year’s Venice Days program»

«Austrian-Iranian filmmaker Sudabeh Mortezai doubles down on the promise of 'Macondo' with a tough, fully inhabited portrayal of Nigerian migrant sex workers.» Read more of Variety's enthusiastic review of the Venice Hearst Award-winner JOY

WALDHEIM’S WALTZ: Austria’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film

The Berlinale Best Documentary winner has been selected the Austrian submission for the 2019 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. WALDHEIM’S WALTZ by Ruth Beckermann is the astute revisiting of the 1986 Waldheim affair that lead to the collapse of Austria’s comforting narrative of being the first nazi victim. „Clear, impassioned, but never polemical“, Variety

« ... drastically, essentially different»

The New Yorker took a close and sensitive look at Sara Fattahi’s Pardo-winning essay CHAOS: «It’s a conversational film about silence, a visually complex film about invisibility, a film about the possibility of making a film about the war and what’s been lost in it.»

«The fate of these people involves us all.»

Sudabeh Mortezai

When Nigerian sex workers in Europe manage to pay off their debts and buy their freedom, most of them have one overriding aim: to switch to the side of the pimps. A vicious system of winners and losers features women on both sides. In her second feature film, JOY, Sudabeh Mortezai depicts a relentless cycle where the only real aim is to survive, where morality and solidarity are luxuries that nobody in a system like this can possibly afford.

CHAOS wins Pardo d'oro Cineasti del Presente

„A film about feelings, not about fact“, that’s what Syrian born filmmaker Sara Fattahi wanted to convey by her second feature film CHAOS that takes us deep into the inner devastations which the war has inflicted upon her female protago-
nists. Forceful voices of the present that the Locarno Cineasti de Presente-jury honored with a Pardo d’oro.

Sudabeh Mortezai’s JOY to the Lido

The Venice Festival's Giornate degli Autori section will host the world premiere of Sudabeh Mortezai's much-anticipated new film JOY – the story of a young woman from Nigeria caught in the vicious cycle of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

«A mother and a friend – metaphors for Damascus»

In her second full-length film CHAOS Syrian filmmaker Sara Fattahi, who lives in Vienna, delves deep into the inner devastation which the war has inflicted upon her protagonists. CHAOS is a contender at the Locarno Cineasti des Presente competition. Read more in an interview with the director.
World Premiere on August 9

MADEMOISELLE PARADIS among 49 films recommended for EFA

The European Film Academy has released a list of 49 films recommended for a nomination for the European Film Awards 2018. On top of MADEMOISELLE PARADIS by Barbara Albert, the selection comprises also two Austrian co-productions – STYX by Wolfgang Fischer and 3 DAYS IN QUIBERON.

World premiere of ANGELO at Toronto Platform

Markus Schleinzer’s highly anticipated second feature film ANGELO is hosted for its world premiere at the Toronto platform competition. African-born Angelo Soliman (1721-96) and the fragments of his biography led the filmmaker into the Vienna of the Enlightenment and an examination of the longing for freedom, home and belonging.

ANGELO vies for Golden Shell at San Sebastián

The San Sebastián festival has unveiled the first titles to enter its 66^th main competition: ANGELO, Markus Schleinzer’s eagerly awaited second feature film, will contend for the Concha de Oro 2018 together with Claire Denis, Naomi Kawase, Simon Jaquemet, Kim Jee-Woon ...

«An extreme, excessive and ecstatic exploration of feeling.»

In his first English-language film TO THE NIGHT, Peter Brunner explores the inner world of somebody who is trapped in his suffering, condemned to extinguish the constant flaring up of his own destructive powers.

Special Mention to WELCOME TO SODOM at Filmfest Munich

Christian Krönes’ and Florian Weigensamer’s alarming documentary WELCOME TO SODOM about one if the most poisonous waste dumps on the planet returns from the Filmfest Munich with a Special Mention from the One Future Prize-jury.

«Today he’d be a must-have accessory.»

Markus Schleinzer

Markus Schleinzer, Palme d’or contender in 2011 with his directorial debut Michael, has finished shooting his second feature Angelo. A film about Angelo Soliman (1721–1796), who, abducted from Africa as a small boy, made his way into Viennese society. An enigmatic biography that inspired the filmmaker to shed some light on the idea of home and identity from a historical point of view.

«If an event is never described, it's as though it never took place.»

Christian Frosch

Until recently the name Franz Murer did not feature in Austria's collective awareness of history. The SS officer was instrumental in destroying the Jewish ghetto in Vilnius, and in 1955 he was returned to Austria from a Russian prison to be tried for his crimes. He wasn’t put to trial until eight years later. MURER – ANATOMY OF A TRIAL Christian Frosch has reappraised an outrageous case of post-war jurisdiction in Austria.

Valencia Cinema Jove honors L'ANIMALE

Katharina Mückstein's second feature film L'ANIMALE wins the Prix CIMA at the Valencia Cinema Jove festival.

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