FOREVER…FOREVER opens Viennale 2026 – WIENER BLUES: THE LONELIEST MAN IN TOWN closes the festival.
We are pleased to announce the opening and closing films of this year’s Viennale today. For the first time, two Austrian productions will frame the festival, which takes place from October 22 to November 3.
The 64th Viennale will open on Thursday, October 22, with FOREVER…FOREVER by Austrian filmmaker Johann Lurf. The 21-minute film will be projected in 70mm at the Gartenbaukino and is part of the tradition of an exceptionally vibrant Austrian short and experimental film scene that has been making important contributions internationally for many years. With this special choice for the opening film, the Viennale is deliberately putting this cinematic form in the spotlight. Musician Dorian Concept will enrich the evening with his irresistible, eclectic virtuosity.
As part of the traditional closing gala on Tuesday, November 3, the Viennale will screen WIENER BLUES: THE LONELIEST MAN IN TOWN by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel. At the center of the film is Viennese blues legend Al Cook, who will also be a guest at the Gartenbaukino on this festive evening.
“With its opening and closing films, the festival draws an arc across everything that matters to us about cinema,” says Viennale Director Eva Sangiorgi. “At the beginning stands the fascinating power of an art that emerged from technology and continues to develop alongside it: an art that seduces our senses while at the same time allowing thought to transcend the limits of the human scale – towards what our bodies are unable to grasp: cosmos, time and space. At the end stands great auteur cinema that captures reality in an unmistakable way, with humanity and poetry.
Two remarkable films that honor the tradition of cinema by carrying it forward in their own very particular ways, with great craftsmanship and sincerity. Two films that, despite all their differences, place their trust in the power of the gaze. Two of the most precious discoveries of the international film year – and at the same time a wonderful occasion to celebrate an extraordinary year for Austrian cinema.”
FOREVER…FOREVER
Johann Lurf, Austria, France 2026
An experiment in time, light, and space: 22 months, day and night, through all the seasons, the same and yet always different view of the Ottenstein reservoir in the Waldviertel region of Lower Austria, presented by 70mm wizard Johann Lurf. With the images of his self-constructed camera, which autonomously combines light metering, still and moving images, accompanied by the ever-flowing subsonic soundscape of Jung An Tagen, he will make the Gartenbaukino glow and, almost in passing, define what holds this fragile creature called cinema together at its very core. (german original by Bernd Brehmer)
WIENER BLUES: THE LONELIEST MAN IN TOWN
Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel, Österreich 2026
Alois Koch, who has lived all his life on Ungargasse in Vienna’s Third District, longs for the Mississippi Delta. Because he has the blues – and plays it. Known as Al Cook, the man with the pompadour has long been an institution in Vienna. Now Covi and Frimmel, virtuoso border-crossers at the edges of documentary filmmaking, tell a moving story with him. The Loneliest Man in Town is supposed to give up his apartment; the building is going to be demolished. What remains when the landlord turns into a holding company? Half artist portrait, half blues ballad, this film shows how to preserve one’s dignity in modern times. (german original by Bert Rebhandl)
The full programme will be published on October 13, 2026!