Acclaimed by press and audience after its world premiere at the Berlinale Forum, Johannes Holzhausens multilayered portray
of the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum, THE GRAT MUSEUM, was awarded the Caligary Film Award a distinction conferred
on a stylistically and thematically innovative film screened at the Berlinale Forum.
The prize sponsored by the Bundesverband kommunale Filmarbeit and the magazine film-dienst includes prize money of 4,000 euros
divided in equal shares between the director Johannes Holzhausen and the German distributor Real Fiction.
The jury statement :
Followed by beautifully gliding camera, a man on a scooter pushes himself through the endless corridors of Vienna's Museum
of Art History and comes to a stop at a copy machine. A more visually sumptuous presentation of the balancing act between
culture and bureaucracy is hardly possible. The film is full of such ironically tinged references, as well as endearingly
delineated protagonists who dedicate their blood, sweat and tears to the conservation of art objects. The director succeeds
at taking an informative, humorous and intelligent look behind the curtains of a major museum, a museum that must assert itself
against international competition.
The jury members:
Rolf Rüdiger Hamacher (Journalist, FILMDIENST)
Claudia Cornelius (PR and curator, Cinémathèque Leipzig)
Marit Vahjen (Chairwoman of the International Film Festival Braunschweig)
THE GREAT MUSEUM
directed by Johannes Holzhausen (Navigator Film (A))
International sales: Wide House
This documentary portrays one of the most important museums in the world, Vienna Museum of Art History. An extensive
look behind the scenes at this fascinating institutions employs a number of charismatic protagonists ant the varied routine
there to show us the museums special world.
The Caligari Prize went to Austrian productions in
2007 Kurz davor ist es passiert by Anja Salomonowitz
1996 Charms Zwischenfälle by Michael Kreihsl