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    The Film Year 2021 in Review

    We are looking back upon a festival year which can, all in all, fairly be described as hybrid; after the first six months of festivals reinventing themselves in various combinations of online and on-site events, we were treated to a pleasant sense of normality in the summer and autumn, with major festivals again welcoming audiences. A feeling which, it turned out, ought never to have been entirely trusted. All of which makes us even more delighted to be able to present an impressive report of the voyage through 2021.
     
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    GREAT FREEDOM on Oscar shortlist

    The Academy Awards have revealed a first pre-selection for Best International Feature Film at the 2022 Oscars. Austria’s entry GREAT FREEDOM by Sebastian Meise is one of the contenders on this year’s shortlist for Best International Feature Film featuring 15 films in total.

    Austrian films at international festivals

    Participations November 2021 - January 2022

    Austrian films on international screens

    Theatrical releases
    October 2016 – October 2021

    Thrilling results at European Film Awards 2021

    To the wonderful outcome for Sebastian Meise's GREAT FREEDOM – European Cinematographer, European Original Score, nominations for European Actor and University Award adds the thrilling news that QUO VADIS, AIDA? by Jasmila Žbanić, strongly supported by Vienna-based coop99 filmproduktion, Austrian funding and creative input from Austrian artists took three major awards:  European Film 2021 · European Director Jasmila Žbanić · European Actress Jasna Ðurčić.

    European Film Awards 2021: Two Excellence Awards for GREAT FREEDOM

    The European Film Academy has announced the Excellence Awards 2021, two of them went to outstanding artists who were part of the GREAT FREEDOM team: Crystel Fournier wins European Cinematography, Nils Petter & Peter Brötzmann European Original Score. On top of that, Sebastian Meise’s film is nominated for European for Best Actor (Franz Rogowski) and European University Film Award. Also in the race is the European co-production QUO VADIS, AIDA by Jasmila Žbanić, co-produced by Vienna-based coop99 filmproduktion, with nominations  in four categories.
    INTERVIEW
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    «There’s radical change in the air.»

    In 2003 Christine Dollhofer devised the Crossing Europe festival, and she spent the next 18 years searching the continent in all directions to compile a hand-picked programme which would bring home to audiences all the facets of European identity. Maintaining an overview – right across Europe, right through all the positions in the processes of creation and distribution, with reference to urgent social themes as well as constantly changing visual habits – will also characterise her new task as head of the Vienna Film Fund. A conversation with Christine Dollhofer about ideas, priorities and challenges.

    MONEYBOYS wins two awards at Cineuropa Compostela

    MONEYBOYS director C.B. Yi  takes the Best Director Award at the Cineuropa Compostela festival for an outstanding film that represents homosexuality with great sensitivity and warmth. And on top of that, the new jury honored the Cannes-entry with its Best Film award  for its brilliant aesthetic, playful images that show us a cruel and marginal reality, in which one tries to survive without losing dignity.

    Chéries Cheris Paris honors GREAT FREEDOM

    The closing night of the Chéries Chéris festival was completely under the sign of films from Austria: Serial winner GREAT FREEDOM by Sebastian Meise took the Gran Prix and the screening of MONEYBOYS by C.B. Yi brought the hip Paris LGBTQI festival to a close. Evi Romen's feature debut WHY NOT YOU was also part of the Cheries Cheris line-up.

    MONEYBOYS: Awards from Spain to Hawaii

    It is a wonderful sign of how young Austrian filmmaking is radiating around the world: C.B. Yi's powerful feature debut MONEYBOYS (a Cannes Un Certain Regard entry in 2021) took two awards on a single weekend: one in Spain, the other one in Hawaii. MONEYBOYS is the winner of the Rambal Award at the Gijón Film Festival and receives an Honorable Mention in the competition for emerging directors at the Hawaii film festival.

    Tallinn DDA Spotlight Award to GREAT FREEDOM

    It's award n° 10 on top of numerous nominations for prestigious prizes to come. Sebastian Meise's widely acclaimed drama GREAT FREEDOM won the DDA Spotlight Award at the 25th Tallinn Black Nights Festival

    Sitges Fantastic Film Festival: Double win for LUZIFER

    The Sitges Fantastic Film Festival (oct. 7-17) honors the two leading actors of Peter Brunner's LUZIFER: Susanne Jensen and Frank Rogowski won the awards for Best Female Performance and Best Male Performance at one of the world's foremost fantasy and horror film festivals.

    Young Audience Award to FOX IN A HOLE

    The Youth Jury of the 17th Augenblick Festival in Strasbourg picked Arman T. Riahi's drama set in a juvenile detention center as its favourite. With this Young Audience Award FOX IN A HOLE resumes its successful festival itinerary more than one year after its world premiere.

    MONEYBOYS: Best Film at LesGaiCineMadrid

    C.B. Yi feature debut MONEYBOYS stands out as Best Film at the 26th LesGaiCineMad, the international LGBT festival in Madrid. The jury stated, An impeccable proposal that manages to combine raw realism with visual poetics that reveals a firm narrative pulse.

    HINTERLAND: Best Screenplay at Fancine FF Málaga

    The Fancine Fantastic Film Festival of the University of Málaga awards HINTERLAND with the prize for Best Screenplay. The hunt for an obsessed serial killer set in a desolate Vienna a couple of years after the end of WW1 was written by Hanno Pinter and Robert Buchschwenter in collaboration with the film's director Stefan Ruzowitzky.

    GREAT FREEDOM: Best Feature Film at Zagreb IFF

    The  jury of the Zagreb IFF awards Sebastian Meise's EFA nominee GREAT FREEDOM as Best Feature Film, stating the following: Through the language of cinema, this movie expresses the ability of the human spirit to transcend physical confinement. The film asks the question “what freedom is and can we create our own”. The two unlikely heroes show us how to find love even in the worst moments of our recent history.

    FOX IN A HOLE sweeps four awards on one weekend

    Arman T. Riahi's vibrant drama set in a juvenile detention center won the Golden Beaver for Best Film and the Special Prize for Best Film Music at the Biberach IFF. On top of that, the German Günter Rohrbach-Foundation honored leading actress Maria Hofstätter as Best Actress and FOX IN A HOLE- director Arman T. Riahii with the Saarland Medien GmbH Award.

    Honorable Mention to MONEYBOYS

    The feature debut and Cannes Un Certain Regard-entry MONEYBOYS by C.B. Yi receives an honorable mention at the Bergen International Film Festival (October 20 to 28).

    Two Audience Awards to GREAT FREEDOM

    European Film Award nominee GREAT FREEDOM was the Audience favourite at the Queerstreifen Film Festival Regensburg as well as at Biberach International Film Festival.

    Hofer Filmtage 2021: International premiere of ANOTHER COIN FOR THE MERRY-GO-ROUND

    Hannes Starz’ feature debut ANOTHER COIN FOR THE MERRY-GO-ROUND starring Valerie Pachner and Voodoo Jürgens celebrates its international premiere at the 55th Internationale Filmtage Hof. Also screening at the Hof festival: SARGNAGEL – DER FILM by Sabine Hiebler & Gerhard Ertl and the short films EVEN DEATH IN MY ARMS IS BEAUTIFUL by Jannis Lenz and Paul Poet’s short doc on Christoph Schlingensief ATTABAMBI SCHEISSMICHAN.

    Oscars 2022: GREAT FREEDOM is the Austrian candidate for Best International Feature Film

    The Cannes winner (Jury Prize Un Certain Regard) GREAT FREEDOM by Sebastian Meise has been selected to enter the 2022 Oscar race for Best International Feature Film. Since its world premiere at Cannes the film has been collecting award after award on a dense festival circuit. It is part of the pre-selection for the European Film Award 2021 and will be released in the US by MUBI in early 2022.

    BREAD wins Pelicam Audience Award

    Harald Friedl's documentary BREAD, produced by Navigatorfilm,  wins the Audience Award at the 10th Pelicam International Environmental Film Festival in Romania.
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    Farewell, Ursula Wolschlager

    We’re immensely saddened and shocked to learn about the passing of Ursula Wolschlager, a prolific and committed producer, a passionate story developer and a visionary fighter for diversity and feminism long before these issues have gained their current importance.
    INTERVIEW
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    «We depict an extreme manifestation of Catholicism.»

    A single location dominates Ruth Mader’s new film SERVIAM – I WILL SERVE: a Catholic girls’ boarding school for the daughters of wealthy families. The film is set in the 1980s, and money seems to count more than faith in this atmosphere, where girls-only schools were as natural a part of life as landline phones. One of the sisters takes her mission seriously and attempts to guide her pupils on a spiritual path – not necessarily to the benefit of their mental state. Ruth Mader filmed her thriller in association with epo-film during the 2021 summer vacation and has now begun postproduction work.

    Fantastic Fest 2021:  Franz Rogowski awarded Best Actor

    The most renowned US genre film festival in Austin/Texas, the Fantastic Fest (Sept 23 to 30) has bestowed the Best Actor Award on Franz Rogowski for his outstanding performances in two competition entries:  LUZIFER by Peter Brunner and FREAKS OUT  by Gabriele Mainetti. In LUZIFER Rogowski plays a young man, barely mastering the spoken word, who lives in the mountains closely tied to his mother and in a very tight relationship to nature.

    World premiere of CHASING THE LINE at Zurich Film Festival

    Franz Klammer’s historic Olympic downhill race of 1976 revived on the big screen: a gala night will be dedicated to the world premiere of Andreas Schmied’s vibrant CHASING THE LINE at the 17th ZFF. Another gala screening for Annecy entry WELCOME TO SIEGHEILKIRCHEN and two contenders to the Fokus competition – GREAT FREEDOM and ROOM WITHOUT A VIEW – add to a strong Austrian presence at this year’s Zurich Film Festival (Sept 23 to Oct. 3)

    GREAT FREEDOM wins three awards at Valenciennes

    It's harvest time: Sebastian Meise's GREAT FREEDOM returns from the Valenciennes Film Festival (September 24 to 29) with no less than three awards: Grand Prix, Best Actor Award to Franz Rogowski and a Special Mention from the critics jury.

    Austrian films sweep 3 awards at SCHWERIN Filmkunstfest

    A remarkable closing ceremony for Austrian filmmakers at the Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg Vorpommern in the German town of Schwerin with no less than three awards: David Clay Diaz garnered the Flying Ox Award for best feature film for his directorial debut ME, WE Arash T. Riahi followed with the LEO Children & Youth Film Award for OSKAR & LILLI and Hubert Sauper’s EPICENTRO took the prize for Best Cinematography.

    DACHS Screenplay Award to FOX IN A HOLE

    Arman T. Riahi, the director and screenwriter of FOX IN A HOLE has been honored with this year's DACHS Screenplay Award of the Five Lakes Film Festival. The prize, endowed with 3,000 euros, is awarded each year to the author of a current feature film from Germany, Austria, Switzerland or South Tyrol (DACHS). This screenplay is: dense, touching, strong, demanding, quirky, but also arouses curiosity, stated the jury.

    Deutscher Schauspielpreis to Maria Hofstätter

    The German Actors Association gave away their annual awards in acknowledgement of outstanding acting performances in film and television. In the category Best Actress in a leading part, Austrian actress Maria Hofstätter receives the Deutscher Schauspielpreis 2021 for her role as the unconventional prison teacher Elisabeth Berger in Arman T. Riahi’s FOX IN A HOLE.

    LUZIFER wins Boccalino d’oro

    Peter Brunner’s new film LUZIFER wins the Boccalino d’oro for Best Director at the 74th Locarno Film Festival. The Boccalino d’oro is an award given away by the Independent Critics Jury in five categories. LUZIFER starring Franz Rogowski and Susanne Jensen was produced by Vienna-based Ulrich Seidl Film Production.

    HINTERLAND wins Piazza Grande Audience Award

    Stefan Ruzowitzky’s gripping thriller set in Vienna in the aftermath of WW 1 has struck the largest jury of all.The latest work of the Austrian Oscar-winning director took the Prix du public UBS. After a triumphant Piazza Grande premiere, the picture is sure to make a name for itself among cinephiles and genre enthusiasts on an international scale, thanks to excellent performances, tight editing, and Benedict Neuenfels’ stunning cinematography, which gives the film an unnatural sheen while simultaneously highlighting the stark reality of a war-torn country for 99 very tense minutes. Max Borg, www.pardo.com

    GREAT FREEDOM wins three awards at Sarajevo

    The Sarajevo Heart beats in favor of GREAT FREEDOM: The Cannes winner (Jury Award Un Certain Regard) directed by Sebastian Meise, produced by FreibeuterFilm returns from the 27th Sarajevo Film Festival with no less than three awards in its pockets:
    • Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film
    • Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actor Georg Friedrich
    • CICAE Arthouse Cinema Award

    Andreas Horvath is mentor of the efp Future Frames session 2021

    Austrian director Andreas Horvath is this year’s mentor at the efp Future Frames meeting for young talents at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. The director of Lilian (Cannes, Director’s Fortnight 2019), Earth’s Golden Playground and This Ain’t No Heartland will hold a master class and give insight into his cinematic approach and visual language.
     
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    Screen Daily on HINTERLAND: «The Third Man meets Se7en»

    Screen Daily critic Neil Young wrote, “The film imaginatively deploys green-screen technology to conjure off-kilter visions of the Austrian capital a century ago.(…) HINTERLAND successfully avoids being swallowed up by its own aesthetic via the narrative’s propulsive momentum and the magnetic central performance by Murathan Muslu.”
    INTERVIEW
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    «The whole world was out of line»

    Stefan Ruzowitzky
    Peter Perg’s world has become completely out of line. In 1914, when he left to fight in the First World War, full of optimism, it was for his Emperor… But when he returns from prisoner of war camp several years after the war finishes with a handful of his men, it is to discover that only a fraction of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire now calls itself Austria. Stefan Ruzowitzky filmed his actors for HINTERLAND using blue screen technology. The dark lanes, the façades and structures of desolate Vienna which appears completely out of line were all created on the computer, providing a grim background to the hunt for an obsessed serial killer.

    INTERVIEW
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    «He is the last and the first who speaks his language.»

    Peter Brunner
    Johannes lives with his deeply religious mother in an Alpine hut surrounded by nature, close to God but far from the despised people down in the valley. A young man with the mind of a child, he can barely master the spoken word and is unconditionally tied to his mother, who has attempted to protect him by defining the world in simple terms as consisting of God and the forces of evil. Peter Brunner is a filmmaker who explores in images the rifts within his characters. In LUZIFER he brings about a collision between fanaticism and freedom which is a depiction of blind faith and its misunderstandings. LUZIFER, featuring Franz Rogowski and Susanne Jensen in the main roles, has been made by Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion.

    KARINA RESSLER is member of the Locarno First Film Jury

    As an important place for young talent and discoveries, every year the Locarno Film Festival invites a jury composed of three personalities from the world of cinema to award the best first films presented as international or world premieres in all the sections (except Semaine de la Critique and Panorama Suisse).This year it's up to Austrian editor Karina Ressler, director and producer Amjad Abu Alala and filmmaker Katharina Wyss to judge the first time entries at the Locarno festvial.

    GREAT FREEDOM wins Jury Prize at Un Certain Regard

    Sebastian Meise returns from Cannes with one of the top awards of the Un Certain Regard section. The jury under the presidency of Andrea Arnold awarded Sebastian Meise’s captivating drama GREAT FREEDOM with the Jury Prize. This second feature film starring Franz Rogowski and Georg Friedrich, produced by Austrian FreibeuterFilm and German Rohfilm Productions, was one of 20 contenders in a line-up that refocused on the discovery of emerging filmmakers this year.

    THR on GREAT FREEDOM: «Stark, shocking and beautiful.»

    The Hollywood Reporter critic David Rooney wrote, Chronicling an ignominious chapter in queer history, Great Freedom is also a contemplative psychological study of the effects of incarceration, and beyond that, an unconventional love story, tender but unsentimental. read more

    LOCARNO 2021 with new films from Stefan Ruzowitzky and Peter Brunner

    The 74th Locarno Festival (August 4 to 14) has announced its selection that includes two new films from Austria. Stefan Ruzowitzky will present HINTERLAND on the Piazza Grande, Peter Brunner’s LUZIFER is a contender in the main competition for the Pardo d’oro 2021. The Swiss, German and Austrian co-production MONTE VERITÀ will also celebrate its world premiere on the Piazza Grande.

    MUBI signs multi-territory deal for GREAT FREEDOM

    Streamer and theatrical distributor MUBI has signed a multi-territory deal for Sebastian Meise’s second feature GREAT FREEDOM, which premiered in Cannes' Un Certain Regard. The deal closed with sales outfit The Match Factory covers North America, UK, Ireland, LATAM (excluding Mexico), Turkey and India.

    JESSICA HAUSNER is part of the jury of the 74th CANNES festival

    Together with jury president Spike Lee, five women and 3 men of seven nationalities, coming from five continents, will judge the 24 films of the 2021 international Competition and award the PALME D’OR 2021.
    INTERVIEW
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    «Imagine you live in a world where love is forbidden by law.»

    Sebastian Meise
    When the state dictates which love is allowed to exist, it puts lives at stake. As a gay man Hans Hoffman is thrown into a concentration camp under the Nazis; immediately after being liberated by the Allies he is put back behind bars, because the passion in his heart is against the law. Both in the Nazi dictatorship and also in the democracy which follows. Sebastian Meise’s GREAT FREEDOM casts a subtle light on elements of society (and of societies) which are still concealed. His protagonist Hans represents countless lives which were destroyed because regimes abused one of the most fundamental human rights by means of social discrimination and legal persecution – and, in too many cases, this is still happening.
    INTERVIEW
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    «Like an extended prison.»

    By the middle of March only 21 of the scheduled 32 shooting days for Sebastian Meise’s second feature film GREAT FREEDOM Freedom, with Georg Friedrich and Franz Rogowski in the leading roles, were in the can when everything was shut down. But at the end of June FreibeuterFilm was the first production company to resume filming, and they finished the shoot. A conversation with the producers about their current feature film GREAT FREEDOM, Stefan Ruzowitzky’s HINTERLAND and the new approach to production, in zones and on Zoom.
    INTERVIEW
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    «In capitalism everything becomes a commodity: a person’s lifetime, his body, his being.»

    C.B. Yi
    Fei is a boy from the countryside. At some point he is drawn to the city, or financial necessity forces him to make the move. His family is only too happy to accept the good money he earns as a male prostitute, but by taking this step he has sacrificed his place in the village and in the family. C.B. Yi, in his feature film debut MONEYBOYS, depicts the desolation of not only one young man but a whole generation which can all too easily find itself in a dead end between the financial and moral pressures exerted by society.

    Cannes 2021: GREAT FREEDOM and MONEYBOYS at Un Certain Regard

    The Cannes Festival – this year scheduled for a summer edition from July 6 to 17 – has announced its Official Selection 2021: We are thrilled to announce that two Austrian co-productions will be part of the Un Certain Regard selection 2021: GREAT FREEDOM by Sebastian Meise and MONEYBOYS by C. B. Yi.
    Lukas Valenta Rinner’s new project LANDSCAPES OF FEAR is invited to the Cinéfondation’s L’Atelier, Magdalena Lauritsch’s (not yet finished) debut RUBIKON is one of the seven genre films picked for the Frontières Buyers Showcase at the Marché du Film.
    INTERVIEW
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    «He was a memory worker. Day and night.»

    Marko Feingold (1913 – 2019) was arrested soon after the Nazis seized power and survived six years during the reign of terror in various concentration camps. After the liberation he built up a new existence for himself in Austria, and throughout his long life he never tired of raising his voice to warn against forgetting or denying that period. At the age of 105 he gave an exclusive interview to the filmmakers Christian Krönes, Florian Weigensamer, Christian Kermer and Roland Schrotthofer; in the documentary film A JEWISH LIFE his fearless determination to fight on and survive refuses to be silenced.

    Screen International on SNOTTY BOY: «Meticulous and witty»

    Here are the first press reviews on SNOTTY BOY after its world premiere at the Annecy Festival.
    Screen International: meticulously and wittily detailed and like Deix himself, confrontationally iconoclastic, fearlessly tackling religious and social mores, and skewering hypocrisy and bigotry.
    Deadline: an affectionate, playful homage to Deix
    INTERVIEW
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    «Poetic, cheeky, bawdy and surprising.»

    Marcus H. Rosenmüller
    Caricaturist Manfred Deix had an unrelenting view of his compatriots: portly and deformed in stature, lecherous, reactionary and hostile to foreigners in manner: thus the Deixian depiction of the average Austrian is preserved in countless publications. Deix’s provincial childhood in the Lower Austria of the 1950s and 60s may have provided the first impulses for his drawings; it has certainly proved inspirational for the first full-length Austrian animation film, directed by Marcus H. Rosenmüller und Santiago López Jover. SNOTTY BOY borrows the spirit and silhouettes from Deix’s cosmos of characters, portraying with humor and a light touch the confines of an era which resonates down to the present day in terms of certain political attitudes.
    INTERVIEW

    «My first impression was definitely a shock.»

    Santiago López Jover
    SNOTTY BOY, Austria’s first feature length animation film, borrows the spirit and silhouettes from the unique cosmos created by late Austrian caricaturist Manfred Deix. Santiago López Jover co-directed the film together with Marcus H. Rosenmüller, adding his profound experience as animation artist to an ambitious project which respectfully translates the essence of the legendary cartoons.

    SNOTTY BOY, the first Austrian feature-length animation film, premieres at Annecy

    It's an absolute first: SNOTTY BOY, inspired by characters created by late Austrian caricaturist Manfred Deix, is the first feature length animation film produced with an Austrian funding majority. Which makes us all the more proud to announce that SNOTTY BOY has been selected to celebrate its world premiere in the main competition of the top-notch festival for animated films the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

    Anne Laurent-Delage to be new Executive Director of the AFC

    The board of the Austrian Film Commission has resolved unanimously that the Deputy Director of the AFC, Anne Laurent-Delage, who has been responsible for international relations for many years, will take the position of Executive Director from 1 July 2021.
    INTERVIEW

    «Where are we all going?»

    Jasmila Žbanić
    Aida is running. Racing desperately, helplessly between the central offices of the Crisis Unit at the UN safe area and the perimeter fence, which is secured by armed soldiers. As a local interpreter, can she possibly do anything to help the inhabitants of her home town? Get her own family in saftety? Rescue at least one of her sons? In her film QUO VADIS, AIDA? Jasmila Žbanić has captured the harrowing events of the Srebrenica massacre in 11 July 1995 with compelling immediacy, earning her an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature and the Independent Spirit Award.
    INTERVIEW
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    «An adventure film with a scary factor.»

    Daniel Geronimo Prochaska
    It’s a daring step for Sabine and her two sons, Hendrik and Eddie, moving from northern Germany to a village in the southernmost corner of Austria to begin a new life after the death of her husband. When their new house in Carinthia starts to display signs that invisible forces are at work, the boys find two courageous kids their own age in the village, and the gang of four set about exposing mysteries that have been hidden for years. THE SCARY HOUSE is Daniel Prochaska’s cinema debut, a striking bid to initiate younger audiences into horror movies with a light-hearted touch.
    INTERVIEW
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    «There is a lot at stake.»

    He rejected both the ideal line and the latest ski technology, but when Franz Klammer completed his stunning run down Mount Patscherkofel in less than two minutes he made Austrian sporting history. Elisabeth and Andreas Schmied are too young to have experienced this moment in person, but they certainly appreciate the fascination of the Klammer phenomenon. Together they wrote the screenplay for CHASING THE LINE, which focuses on the few days before the legendary Olympic event. In Andreas Schmied’s sixth cinema film he studies the man and myth that is Franz Klammer and hauls a moment of collective joy back into the present.

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