The 53rd Viennale came to an end with the film ANOMALISA by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson. With a total of 94,100 visitors, the 2015 festival couldn’t quite reach last year’s record figure of 98,200. The utilization of available seats decreased from 81.7% to 76.4%. From a total of 377 screenings, 123 were sold out.

“As in previous years, the Viennale was once again special proof of the diversity and quality of Austrian and international cinema,” says Viennale director Hans Hurch. “The fact that the number of visitors can’t be increased arbitrarily from year to year probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone. We do, however, consider it important to continue developing the Viennale’s distinctive feature of being a city and audience festival and an internationally acclaimed film event at the same time.”

Among this year’s special programs, three were particularly popular with audiences. The most successful Viennale 2015 Special was FLESH AND BLOOD, a program on Austrian genre cinema, realized in collaboration with Filmarchiv Austria. There was also great interest in GREECE – ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, a selection of contemporary Greek films and, finally, the tribute to the young Uruguayan filmmaker Federico Veiroj.

The program IDA LUPINO – HARD, FAST AND BEAUTIFUL and the homage to the Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, who passed away this year, didn’t quite meet our expectations.

Highlights of this year’s festival included the visit of the great American actress Tippi Hedren and the screenings of Alfred Hitchcock’s MARNIE and THE BIRDS in her presence; the Austrian premieres of a number of outstanding national productions and the world premieres of films by Billy Woodberry, Jean-Marie Straub and Klaus Wyborny.

Organized in collaboration with the Filmmuseum, the great retrospective ANIMALS – A SMALL ZOOLOGY OF CINEMA, showing until November 30, will have an estimated total of 5,400 visitors.

Tsai Ming-liang: XIAO KANG

This year, the Viennale has once again succeeded in garnering a great director of world cinema for the creation of the traditional festival trailer. At the Viennale’s invitation, the Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang, known through works such as REBELS OF THE NEON GOD, THE RIVER, THE HOLE and WAYWARD CLOUD, created a short, approximately two-minute homage to Lee Kang-sheng – the actor who has appeared in almost all of Tsai Ming-liang’s films over the past thirty years and significantly influenced his entire oeuvre.

The film XIAO KANG shows Lee Kang-sheng roaming through a bamboo forest in a succession of simultaneously mysterious and unintentional movements. These again are alienated by the projection of silent black-and-white footage, accompanied only by the sound of a projector. It’s a fine, minimalist work, oscillating between dream and memory and kept entirely in the style of Tsai Ming-liang’s great films.

“More and more often, these short films initiated by the Viennale, such as the works by Stan Brakhage, Jean-Luc Godard and, most recently, Manoel de Oliveira, turn into mysterious, highly personal cinematic poems about time and memory,” says Viennale director Hans Hurch. “They are cinematographic haiku in the large flow of current images and sounds.”

XIAO KANG
by Tsai Ming-Liang
Taiwan/A 2015

Concept & realisation: Rainer Dempf
© Viennale

International media representatives who covered the Viennale 2015 included journalists from Die Zeit, FAZ, Tagesspiegel, taz, Tagesanzeiger, Expresso, Ethnos, Ta Nea, Radikal, Deutschlandradio Kultur, Radio Eins and BBC World, among others.

As in previous years, a large number of representatives from international specialist and industry publications attended the festival. These included Cahiers de cinema, Sight & Sound, Filmbulletin, Filmdienst, epd Film, cargo, De Filmkrant, Indiewire.com, mubi.com, Senses of Cinema, kinozeit.de, Filmmaker Magazine, Cinemascope, Ekran, Les Inrockuptibles, Slant Magazine, Kino, Cinematograph and Kunst und Film.

A total of almost 700 media and industry representatives were accredited at the Viennale 2015.

We’re looking forward to seeing you again at the 2016 festival.

In 2015 the FIPRESCI PRIZE was awarded to:

COMA, Sara Fattahi, Syria/Lebanon 2015

Jury:  Dunja Bialas (artechock/Germany), Ola Salwa (Kino; www.stopklatka.pl/Poland), Stefan Grissemann (profil/Austria)

In 2015 the Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Film Award was awarded to:

LAMPEDUSA IM WINTER, Jakob Brossmann, A/I/CH 2015

SELF, Claudia LArcher, A 2015

Jury: Silvia Bohrn, Franz Schwartz , Martin Rauchbauer

In 2015 the STANDARD READERS JURY AWARD was awarded to:

Jury: Antonia Aalders, Ulrike Bittmann, Richard Hemmer, Alexander Hirt, Angelika Patak

In 2015 the WIENER FILMPREIS was awarded to:

Feature
ICH SEH ICH SEH, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, A 2014

Documentary
LAMPEDUSA IM WINTER, Jakob Brossmann, A/I/CH 2015

Jury: Nicole Albiez, Dorit Margreiter, Tex Rubinowitz, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Tomas Zierhofer-Kin

Here you can find a selection of the best photos of the Viennale 2015:

4th go: Festival center again at the former Post headquarter in 2015

Discussions and musical acts were also part of the program at Dominkanerbastei 11 this year.

The festival was opened  by Andy Fletcher from Depeche Mode. Davi DB showed his musical talent. Hans Hurch aka DJ Ohanne was one of the many local acts. DJ exel. Pauls, DJ Phekt, DJ Smoab & Shantisan.warmed people up for dancing. There was a great concert from Squalloscope. Some acts like Jerusalem in my heart blurred the line between music and performance.

With Listen to Eric an evening to remember with Eric Pleskow took place. A conversation on the film HOTLINE with Silvina Landsmann was also included in the event program.