AUSTRIAN FILM COMMISSION - NEWS

First films by Astrid J. Ofner and Matthias Krepp atLOCARNO

LOCARNO has announced its 70^th program with two first feature films and one co-production by Austrian filmmakers and producers:
– FAREWELL TO THE PARENTS by Astrid Johanna Ofner (Cineasti del Presente)
– SAND AND BLOOD by Matthias Krepp (Out of Competition)
– THE ICEMAN by Felix Randau (Piazza Grande)

MADEMOISELLE PARADIS by Barbara Albert in Toronto and San Sebastián

After the world premiere in TORONTO within the Platform competition, Barbara Albert’s 5^th feature film will head to SAN SEBASTIAN as a contender of the Golden Shell competition. MADEMOISELLE PARADIS takes us to Rococo Vienna and the remarkably talented blind pianist Maria Theresia Paradis who is torn between her extraordinary musical talent and her desire to to live the life of an ordinary young woman within the rules of a rigid society.
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Austrian films at international festivals

Participations July - August 2017

Austrian films on international screens

Theatrical releases
October 2016 – May 2017

«You have to be like a sensitive record.»

Astrid Johanna Ofner

In his autobiographical novel Farewell from the Parents, Peter Weiss describes the obstacle course facing a child born in the early 20^th century. In her first full-length film FAREWELL FROM THE PARENTS, Astrid Johanna Ofner brings out the poetry of this text, composed without dialogue or paragraphs, in a visual version for the big screen with subtle pacing.

«It was always a balancing act.»

Matthias Krepp, Angelika Spangel

Matthias Krepp and Angelika Spangel have assembled video material from digital channels with commentaries and accounts from Iraqi and Syrian refugees now living in Austria, forming a collage about the war, SAND AND BLOOD is an attempt to employ the gripping transposition of images and the voices of witnesses to convey some sense of the unimaginable reality of everyday life dominated by violence.

«We are being told how we should think.»

Ruth Mader's new film LIFE GUIDANCE depicts the future as an apparent copy of the present, where imperceptibly yet efficiently an extensive surveillance system draws the net tighter. We had a short talk with the director during the shooting.

«How do people look at somebody who comes into light?»

Barbara Albert has just finished shooting her new film LIGHT, set in Vienna in the late Rococo period. Light focuses on Maria Theresia Paradis, a musical prodigy who lost her sight at the age of three and her oscillation between light and shadow both in her own life and in society’s perception of her. It is the fourth feature film, produced by NGF Geyrhalterfilm. We talked to producer Michael Kitzberger.

«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.

Awards at Moscow and Valencia

Verena Altenberger wins the Silver George for Best Actress at the Moscow Film Festival for her performance in Adrian Goiginger’s THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS. The Valencia Cinema Jove festival honors Monja Art’s directorial debut SEVENTEEN with the Premio CIMA for best movie directed by a woman.

BROTHERS OF THE NIGHT on a successful giro d’Italia

After the Best Picture Award at the SICILIA QUEER Filmfest, Patric Chiha’s colorful portraits of young Bulgarian Roma garners the Best Documentary Award at MIX MILANO Festival.

«When fans get together they talk in quotations from the films.»

Karl-Martin Pold

Karl-Markus Pold is a child of the 1980s, but Bud Spencer became the hero of his childhood and, later, the object of his research. In THEY CALLED HIM SPENCER he attempts to capture the phenomenon of Bud Spencer – the personality and the cult surrounding him – in all its unbelievable facets.

Creative Energy Filmpreis to THE MIGRUMPIES

Arman T. Riahi’s media satire receives the Creative Energy Filmpreis, endowed with € 5,000, at the Filmfest Emden-Norderney. THE MIGRUMPIES was selected out of five nominated films.

«As gripping as a satanically inspired soap opera.»

... that's how The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw reviewed Michael Haneke's HAPPY END after its world premiere at the 2017 Cannes Palme d'or competition. He adds, «This is a black comedy of pure sociopathy.» more reviews

«All my films are emotional.»

It is only in a momentary depiction of three generations of bourgeois existence that Michael Haneke allows us to become aware, in his new film HAPPY END, which certainties are likely to slip away, which values to sink beneath the surface. Even when employing the transience of youthful chat media, the filmmaker succeeds in generating lasting unease about ourselves – and within ourselves.

The SYDNEY festival points out 10 European woman directors

For the second time the Sydney IFF sets a focus on outstanding European women filmmakers in order to make them meet with the Australian audience and film industry. Europe! Voices of Women comprises ten films from Europe, including MISTER UNIVERSO by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel.

«One of the challenges facing me was to create lighting in non-existent rooms.»

In a society where sexual freedom is prohibited by law, the niches of double morality are opened up. In order to narrate a tale of forbidden Iran in his work TEHERAN TABOO, director Ali Soozandeh has chosen an animation technique based on images shot live with actors. We talked to Austrian DOP Martin Gschlacht who provides an insight into an unusual approach on set.

HAPPY END at the 70^th Cannes Festival

Double Palme d’or winner Michael Haneke is back at the Cannes festival presenting HAPPY END – a snapshot from the life of a bourgeois family – with Jean-Louis Trintignant, Isabelle Huppert and Mathieu Kassovitz in competition. WESTERN by German filmmaker Valeska Grisebach, co-produced by coop99 filmproduktion, is part of this year’s Un Certain Regard selection.

56^th Cannes Critics Week selects TEHRAN TABOO

First time director Ali Soozandeh chose the animation medium to provide insight into an opaque and two-faced society where sexual and moral freedom has been banished by religious law. TEHRAN TABOO, shot by Austrian DOP Martin Gschlacht and co-produced by Austrian coop99 filmproduction with German Little Dream Entertainment, is one of the seven competition entries of the 56th Cannes Critics Week

MISTER UNIVERSO awarded in Montevideo and Paris

Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel

Universally present MISTER UNIVERSO garners two awards on one weekend: the Audience Award at the Montevideo Film Festival and a Special Mention by the Prix Sauvage jury of the L’Europe autour de l’Europe festival in Paris.

SECONDO ME at
Toronto Hot Docs

After its world premiere at the Locarno Critics Week, SECONDO ME sets out for its North American premiere at the Toronto Hot Docs festival (April 27 to May 7, 2017). Pavel Cuzuioc’s directorial debut reverses the flow of attention at three opera houses by skipping the stage and portraying three cloakroom attendants. SECONDO ME is part of the World Showcase line-up

Six Austrian voices at CPH:DOX

Two thought-provoking first-time documentaries, THE THIRD OPTION by Thomas Fürhapter (vying for Dox:Award) and FREE LUNCH SOCIETY by Christian Tod (eligible for the Politiken Audience Award) will celebrate their world premiere in Copenhagen. HOMO SAPIENS, MISTER UNIVERSO, SAFARI and UNTITLED add to a strong Austrian presence at the upcoming CPH: DOX festival.

Saas Fee Crystal Larch to HIDDEN RESERVES

The Saas Fee Filmfest honors Valentin Hitz’ HIDDEN RESERVES with its main award, the Crystal Larch, the Critics Choice went to the German-Austrian co-production THE EREMITES by Ronny Trocker.

COLD HELL wins Jury Prize at Beaune

The feature film jury of the Festival International du Film Policier at Beaune awards Stefan Ruzowitzy’s COLD HELL with the Jury Prize. The distinction went ex aequo to the Spanish production The Fury of a Patient Man by Raúl Arévalo.

WILD MOUSE charms German audience

On German screens since March 9, WILD MOUSE scored the best opening weekend ever of an Austrian movie released in Germany. With 37,000 viewers (previews included even 50,100) Josef Hader’s directorial debut made the second most successful release right behind Oscar winner Moonlight last weekend.

«What is normality? What is disability?»

Thomas Fürhapter

If the results of prenatal diagnosis indicate anomalies, prospective parents are faced with an extremely serious decision. In The Third Option Thomas Fürhapter goes beyond a focus on free choice and individual destinies; he employs a stringent documentary structure to examine social consensus about normality and disability, questioning the true nature of freedom in a society marked by striving for optimization and normalization.

«Curiosity and the desire to improve the world.»

At a time when walls, fears and cutbacks are narrowing the horizon, Christian Tod’s Free Lunch Society reflects on the concept of Unconditional Basic Income, providing a refreshing and illuminating view of the present as a vast realm of unthought-of opportunities.

FICUNAM awards Patric Chiha Best Director

Patric Chiha’s wins the Best director award for the „humane, delicate and creative approach to his characters“ in BROTHERS OF THE NIGHT.

67^th Berlinale: Compass Perspektive Award to Adrian Goiginger

Adrian Goiginger

Awarded for the first time and endowed with € 5,000, the Compass Perspektive Award goes to first time director Adrian Goiginger and his sensitive homage to his mother and her battle between maternal love and her drug addiction THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS.

Silver Bear to Georg Friedrich

Georg Friedrich took the Silver Bear for Best Actor for his strong leading performance in Thomas Arslan's Bright Nights. As part fo Josef Hader's cast in Wild Mouse he gave a second key performance at the 67^th Golden Bear competiton.

«I wanted a reversal of perspective.»

Adrian Goiginger

In THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS Adrian Goiginger depicts with striking honesty his childhood years in the disturbing world of a junkie apartment and his mother, who managed to create space for him to have a good childhood despite the chaos of her own addiction.

«The blow to Georg's ego is devastating.»

In his directorial debut WILD MOUSE Josef Hader dispatches an eminent classical music reviewer on a tragi-comic rollercoaster ride, watching closely to see how a sophisticated spirit can be transformed into a wild beast as a result of a bruised ego. A conversation with the writer, director and leading actor.

«A film that never stands still.»

When Michael Glawogger embarked on a journey in December 2013 for his project UNTITLED, it was his desire to make a film that never stands still. He was not to return from that journey. Monika Willi has now edited the material created over about four and a half months, coaxing the narrative and poetic power from this film with no name – a task which was both melancholy and marked by zest for life.

Achingly personal ... genuinely profound

... that's what Screen International wrote about the moving mosaic Monika Willi, Michael Glawogger's long term editor, has composed out of images and texts gathered during the four months and 19 days of his journey for his film project UNTITLED.

«Rock me, Amadeus.»...

... that's how The Hollywood Reporter concludes its Berlinale review of Josef Hader's directorial debute WILD MOUSE ...« the film that may be the most effortlessly fun of the festival's program.

UNTITLED by Michael Glawogger and Monika Willi at Berlinale PANORAMA

More than two years after the sudden death of Michael Glawogger in April 2014, film editor Monika Willi realized a film out of the film footage produced during 4 months and 19 days of shooting in the Balkans, Italy, Northwest and West Africa. A journey into the world to observe, listen and experience, the eye attentive, courageous and raw.

Berlinale 2017:
WILD MOUSE faces Golden Bear

Josef Hader's directorial debut WILD MOUSE has been selected for the Golden Bear competition of the 67^th Berlinale. Author and director Josef Hader also plays the male lead, Georg, a renowned music critic who sets out for revenge after he has lost his prestigious job at a Vienna news paper.

Max Ophüls 2017: young Austrian cinema sweeps three main awards

Both juries and audience enchanted by new films by Austrian first time directors: Monja Art’s SEVENTEEN takes the Max Ophüls Prize 2017 and the Best Young Actress Award (Elisabeth Wabitsch), Arman T. Riahi’s first feature film THE MIGRUMPIES wins the Audience Award.

«It's a phase full of courage and energy and a lack of inhibitions.»

In SEVENTEEN Monja Art plunges into the emotional rollercoaster ride of a period in life characterized by unlimited opportunities and missed chances.

THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS is part of Perspektive Deutsches Kino

Adrian Goiginger

There’s one more Austrian directorial debut to appear at the 67th Berlinale: Perspektive Deutsches Kino invites the Austrian-German co-production THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS by first-time director Adrian Goiginger.

Berlinale Forum selects ANIMALS by Greg Zglinski

ANIMALS by Greg Zglinski, a co-production between Austria, Switzerland and Poland, adds to our line-up at the upcoming 67^th Berlinale. The unsettling drama, starring Birgit Minichmayr and Philipp Hochmair, is co-produced by Vienna-based coop99 filmproduktion.

«You can also approach clichés with respect.»

In the media satire THE MIGRUMPIES the director and the leading actors juggle with clichés about immigrants, asking why the migrant background persists in the foreground over generations. Arman T. Riahi discusses his debut as a feature film director.

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