The German-Austrian co-production BORN IN EVIN, co-produced by Golden Girls Film has won the LOLA 2020 in the Best Documentary category. There was even one more Austrian co-production among the three nominees: HEIMAT IS A SPACE IN TIME by Thomas Heise, co-produced by  Navigator Film.

F:ACT Award:
WOOD by Monica Lazurean-Gorgan, Michaela Kirst, Ebba Sinzinger (world premiere)
Main Competition:
EPICENTRO by Hubert Sauper (European premiere)
Science Films:
ROBOLOVE by Maria Arlamovsky
SPACE DOGS by Elsa Kremser & Levin Peter

Special Jury Award from the Berlinale Encounters jury for her Sandra Wollner’s THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN.
Special Mention to BERLINALE DOCUMENTARY AWARD nominee NOTES FROM THE UNDERWORLD by Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel
Teddy Award for Best Documentary to Austrian director Patric Chiha for his French production SI C'ÉTAIT DE L'AMOUR.

NOTES FROM THE UNDERWORLD by Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel – one of the 21 nominees for Best Berlinale Documentary –  was awarded a Special Mention in this first-rate documentary contest. We’ve got the wonderful statement of the jury: This film is a beautifully shot portrait of characters with intense and at times, hilarious stories of old bad boys. The burst into colors and songs reconciles the underworld to the world above with the pure pleasure of cinema.

We’re proud to present two Berlinale Documentary Award nominees and a second feature film in Encounters.
Our world premieres:
Sun 23 | Panorama: NOTES FROM THE UNDERWORLD by Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel
Tue 25 | Encounters: THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN by Sandra Wollner
Tue 25 | Panorama: RUNNING ON EMPTY by Lisa Weber

Both Berlinale documentary entries made in Austria – NOTES FROM THE UNDERWORLD by Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel and RUNNING ON EMPTY by Lisa Weber – are among the 21 documentaries selected across all sections for the prestigious Berlinale distinction. The two Austrian PANORAMA contributions will be vying for the € 40,000 prize money along with new works from Rithy Panh or Jia Zhang-Ke.

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«(…) a film that weaves together vérité footage with voiceover philosophizing from Sauper himself and clips from an assortment of archive footage. In another filmmaker's hands, this might have become a message-heavy morass, but Sauper and his co-editor, veteran Yves Deschamps work the material with a remarkable fluidity and gracefulness that's consistently engaging and surprising», wrote Leslie Felperin on EPICENTRO, Hubert Sauper’s tender portrait of Cuba and winner of the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Prize.

Hubert Sauper, Austria's most adventurous and unpredictable documentarist and essayist, received the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for best Documentary at this year's Sundance festival for his film EPICENTRO.

Best Director Award to Johanna Moder’s ONCE WERE REBELS, Audience Award to Arash T. Riahi’s WHERE NO ONE KNOWS US and Best Short Film to DAS BESTE ORCHESTER DER WELT by Henning Backhaus.  The Saarbrücken juries have pointed out three productions from Austria and Maresi Riegner as Best Young Actress Award.

Encounters is a newly created competitve Berlinale section devoted to innovative cinematic visions. THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN by young director Sandra Wallner – the story of a machine and the ghosts we all carry within us – is part of the very first selection presented at this year’s 70th Berlinale (February 20 to March 1, 2020).

The Berlinale Panorama unveils its first contributors – two of the works from Austria: Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel present their insightful and moving NOTES FROM THE UNDERWORLD, Lisa Weber’s daring, long time observation on teenage inertia in RUNNING ON EMPTY.

EPICENTRO, the new documentary by Hubert Sauper, has been selected to be part of the World Cinema Documentary Competition by the 2020 Sundance Festival (January 23 to February 2). ONCE UPON A TIME IN VENEZUELA by Anabel Rodríguez Ríos, produced by Austrian producer Sepp R. Brudermann as a co-production between Venezuela, the UK, Brazil and Austria, is also among the 12 entries of the  Sundance documentary contest.

Austrian filmmaker and producer Arash T. Riahi presents his new fiction film at the Max Ophüls Prize Fiction Film Competition. OSKAR & LILLI is a bittersweet odyssey revolving around two Chechen refugee children who try to make the best of their situation, despite imminent deportation. Johanna Moder's ONCE WERE REBELS is also competing in the Fiction Film section; Anna Kirst's ARCHE NORA celebrates its world premiere in the Documentary Competition.