OCTOBER 17 TO 29
The 62nd Viennale celebrates its official closing today, Tuesday, with the gala screening of the film DAHOMEY by Mati Diop. After the extremely pleasing visitor numbers of the previous year and this year's promising advance sales, we are delighted to report another very well-attended edition at the end of the festival and even an increase compared to 2023. In 13 festival days, 75,800 people attended film screenings at the Viennale, which corresponds to an occupancy rate of 76.3%.
This year's supporting program took place in a new format: the Viennale Zentralino hosted six interesting talks and masterclasses with Joshua Oppenheimer, Albert Serra and Bruno Dumont, among others, which transformed the upper floor of the Metro Kinokulturhaus into a place for concentrated discussion and reflection on the films and filmmaking. The highly coveted Viennale parties took place this time in three established club institutions and filled the locations to capacity – no wonder with DJs such as Viennale returnee Lars Eidinger, Mambo Chick, Sarah Farina or the filmmakers Arash T. Riahi, Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter.
“It was a wonderful edition, which of course had to deal with the political climate of uncertainty and concern and the conflict situations on so many fronts internationally,” says Viennale director Eva Sangiorgi about the past two festival weeks. “Audience participation has been exceptional, and the generosity of the guests has encouraged encounters, discussions and many reflections which, I am convinced, have given us all the feeling of being part of a community that does not want to adapt to violence, but opposes it through the many languages of cinema.”
The Viennale 2024 once again offered plenty of highlights, including the opening gala with the shortest opening film ever shown at the Viennale, C’EST PAS MOI by Leos Carax, an unconventional, essayistic film that Eva Sangiorgi immediately declared a manifesto for this edition of the festival. Not entirely unexpectedly, the bigger hits of the festival year created a tingling atmosphere and sold-out auditoriums - also in the Gartenbaukino with its 736 seats, of which only a few remained empty at this Viennale: as seen with Jesse Eisenbergs A REAL PAIN, Sean Bakers ANORA, Aaron Schimbergs A DIFFERENT MAN and EMILIA PÉREZ by Jacques Audiard, to name but a few. A particularly great experience was Brady Corbet's THE BRUTALIST, which was played from a 70mm print delivered fresh from the factory. Andreas Dresen's impressive film IN LIEBE, EURE HILDE triggered unusually strong feedback - accompanied by a performance by the extraordinary actress Liv Lisa Fries.
Director Mohammad Rasoulof, who only fled Iran this year, gave audiences a very special cinema experience with his visit to Vienna and the moving discussions after the screenings of his film DANEH ANJEER MOGHADAS (THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG). Joshua Oppenheimer once again inspired the audience with his post - apocalyptic musical THE END and his brilliant thoughts on filmmaking during his master class at the Zentralino.
There was a particularly big buzz around Austrian films at this Viennale, starting with Kurdwin Ayubs film MOND, which has already won numerous awards elsewhere, Alexander Horwath's impressive essay film HENRY FONDA FOR PRESIDENT, Mo Harawe's THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE and DEAR BEAUTIFUL BELOVED by Juri Rechinsky or BLUISH by Lilith Kraxner and Milena Czernovsky, to name but a few.
The “smaller” programs were also well received by the Viennese audience, especially the thoroughly experimental monograph by the Mexican collective Los Ingrávidos and the historiography “Newly Restored”. The retrospective on Robert Kramer, which was realized together with the Film Museum, also attracted a great deal of attention from national and international specialist audiences.
In addition, this year's Viennale was also able to welcome many great guests who presented their films, including the aforementioned Mohammad Rasoulof, Liv Lisa Fries and Joshua Oppenheimer, as well as Nele Wohlatz, Bruno Dumont, Radu Jude, Alain Guiraudie, Roberto Minervini, Bernard Eisenschitz, Miguel Gomes, Luca Guadagnino, Florentina Holzinger, Romuald Karmakar, Rusudan Glurjidze, Denis Lavant, Tsai Ming-liang, Albrecht Schuch and many more.
We would also like to thank the national and numerous international media for the strong interest and great feedback on this year's festival and are very much looking forward to the 63rd Viennale 2025!