The 56th Viennale comes to an extremely successful close today with the gala screening of the film EL ÁNGEL by Luis Ortega. The number of visitors increased to 93,200 compared to 91,700 in 2017. 

“I’m overwhelmed by the energy and warmth of this Viennale edition, which is very special to me because it’s my debut as director of the festival”, says Eva Sangiorgi. “This special atmosphere that all our guests have talked about creates lasting ties with the city and the festival. And it’s contagious.”

For the first time, this year Eva Sangiorgi was in charge of the Viennale, which featured an accentuated program as well as a series of beautiful innovations. So, for example, cinema fans, filmmakers and guests from the industry and the press were able to chat in a relaxed atmosphere at the “Aperitivi” events in the festival center and students were able to purchase discounted daytime tickets. For the first time, the Austrian Film Museum not only presented films of the Retrospective, but also features from the regular festival program and was very well utilized. Also excellently received was a special screening for pupils and apprentices that filled Vienna’s Gartenbaukino to the last seat.

Many of the 315 screenings were either sold out or well attended; the premieres at Gartenbaukino attracted a particularly large number of film fans to the cinema on Vienna’s Parkring this year. The program dedicated to Roberto Minervini turned out to be a great success and the director personally presented his films with great passion.

Among the highlights of this year’s Viennale was the program at the festival center in the Kunsthalle Wien in the Museumsquartier, which proved to be extremely varied and exciting with its mix of relaxed aperitivi, interesting film talks and book presentations, parties and DJ lines as well as exquisite concerts.

The retrospective The B-Film – Hollywood’s Low-Budget Cinema 1935-1959, organized in collaboration with the Austrian Film Museum, attracted a great deal of (international) attention. Running until December 5, it’s estimated to receive a total of 4,500 visitors.

Lav Diaz: THE BOY WHO CHOSE THE EARTH

The Viennale is pleased to announce that this year’s trailer was created by the multiple award-winning Filipino director Lav Diaz. Many of his films, outstanding also due to their length, have been shown at previous Viennale festivals. In 2014 he won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival and two years ago the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for THE WOMAN WHO LEFT.

In his trailer for the Viennale, THE BOY WHO CHOSE THE EARTH, Lav Diaz tells the story of a boy who has aspirations – he educates himself and forges plans. One day there’s a knock on the door, someone leaves and he is literally left out in the rain. Thunder cracks and lightning flashes, water pelts down and engulfs everything. Incredulously, the boy looks up to the heavens – is this supposed to be his destiny? THE BOY WHO CHOSE THE EARTH is probably the shortest film Lav Diaz has ever made – a grain rich in meaning.

“Each year, the Viennale invites great directors to enliven the brief moment preceding the film screenings. Thus the Viennale trailer represents a kind of rite of passage, leading us from the real world into the world of cinema, where everything is true, but condensed,” says Viennale director Eva Sangiorgi. “Lav Diaz is one of the great masters of contemporary cinema. His cinematic vision, his rhythm and his timing are unique and original. With his films, Diaz retraces the history of his country from the experience of an individual and thus takes it to a universal level. We celebrate the political and aesthetic power of this great little film that reveals itself in this special view of the world, illustrating its beauty and denouncing its calamity at the same time.”

THE BOY WHO CHOSE THE EARTH
Lav Diaz, PH/A 2018

Concept & realisation: Rainer Dempf
© Viennale

This year, the Viennale welcomed a total of 170 directors and actors, who came to Vienna to personally present their films at the festival.

International media representatives who covered the Viennale 2018 included journalists from Tagesspiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Le Monde, Canal Plus, France24 TV, RAI, Expresso, Politika, Monitor, BBC World, Cumhuriyet, Arka Pencere, Oslobodjenje. In addition, a large number of representatives from international specialist and industry publications attended the festival, including Cahiers du cinéma (F), Sight & Sound (GB), Film Comment (USA), Cinemascope (KAN), Cineuropa, mubi.com (USA), Blickpunkt:Film (D), Filmdienst (D), kinozeit.de (D), artechock.de (D), critic.de (D), epd Film (D), Cargo (D), Freitag (D), Positif (F), filmidee.it (I), Ekran (SLO), Cinephilia (GR), Altyazi (TUR), otroscines.com (ARG), Canal Once (MEX), Arterritory.com (RUS), Senses of cinema (AUS). Furthermore, we welcomed representatives of the Berlinale and the film festivals in Locarno, Lissabon, Rotterdam, Toronto, Marseille, Mar del Plata, Mexiko City, Oberhausen, London, Leipzig, Munich, Dresden, Prag, Warschau, Seoul, Jeonju City, Pingyao, Teheran, Tate Modern London and ICA London, among many others.

A total of about 600 media and industry representatives were accredited at the Viennale 2018.

We’re looking forward to seeing you again at the 2018 festival.

VIENNA FILM PRIZE
Jury: Bettina Kogler, Mira Lu Kovacs, Corinna Milborn, Doris Uhlich, Renate Wurm
The Vienna Film Prize, donated by the City of Vienna and awarded at the Viennale, goes to a current Austrian feature film that has been screened during the past year. The prize consists of a sum of money, donated by the city’s cultural department, and generous material assets, sponsored by BLAUTÖNE and viennaFX. There are two awards: one for the best Austrian film and the Special Jury Prize. Owing to the generosity and commitment of all involved, the Vienna Film Prize continues to represent encouragement and recognition of the work of Austrian filmmakers.

Best Austrian Film

Excerpt from the jury’s decision:
In a direct and unembellished way, the Viennese director Sudabeh Mortezai tells the story of Joy, a Nigerian who fights for survival in Vienna as a prostitute, caught in the system of trafficking in women and sexual exploitation. The director exposes the mechanisms and brutality of this system, using amateur actresses whose great performances create an authenticity and intensity that gets under the skin. The jury was particularly impressed by how Sudabeh Mortezai turned this reality into a film. (...) The almost unbelievable story, the impressive acting, the improvised dialogs and, finally, the camera work, which involves the viewer directly, convinced the jury unanimously. The Vienna Film Prize thus goes to JOY.

Special Jury Prize

Excerpt from the jury’s decision:
The Special Jury Prize goes to MURER – ANATOMIE EINES PROZESSES (“Murer – Anatomy of a Trial”) by Christian Frosch. This feature film chronicles the court case against the Austrian NSDAP functionary Franz Murer, also known as the “Butcher of Vilnius” due to the extermination of almost 80,000 Jews. The trial was held in Graz, Austria, in the 1960s and ended with an acquittal. In an extremely impressive way, MURER – ANATOMIE EINES PROZESSES portrays the unresolved issue of Austrian National Socialism of the post-war period, which – it can’t be put any other way – continues to this day. The jury therefore regards the film as an important contemporary document that has an enlightening effect. The court film juxtaposes the impertinence, cold-bloodedness and ignorance of the perpetrators to the pain and renewed humiliation of the victims in an extremely precise and touching way.

VIENNALE STANDARD READERS’ JURY PRIZE
Jury: Katharina Ganser, Maria Macic, Patrick Mittler, Marietta Trendl, Hans-Peter Tscheru
The Standard Readers’ Jury Prize goes to a film that does not yet have an Austrian distributor and is especially recommended for screening in Austrian cinemas. Should the award-winning film find a distributor, Der Standard supports its film run with free advertising space in its newspaper.

The STANDARD READERS’ JURY PRIZE goes to:

Excerpt from the jury’s decision:
We have chosen a film that covers the screen with stunning black-and-white visual aesthetics and is characterized by the precision of photographic shots. With these aesthetics, the director creates a cross-generational documentary about justice, dignity and the fight against racism that leaves a lasting impression. His reserved and respectful way of working produces an intimate authenticity and liveliness that is both moving and fascinating. The film reveals, without lecturing. It is an important and valuable contribution to the public discourse about the structural discrimination of Afro-Americans in the USA.

FIPRESCI PRIZE (PRIZE OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS)
Jury: Andrey Arnold (Die Presse), Heidi Strobel (Film-Dienst), Yeşim Tabak (Arka Pencere)
The FIPRESCI PRIZE is awarded to the first or second film of a young director.

The FIPRESCI Prize goes to:

Excerpt from the jury’s decision:
Sensation, sexuality, confusion. Performance, insistence, resistance ... Escalation and distraction. Detachment... or commitment? These are only some of the notions throbbing throughout our winning film. They let us reflect on the creative potential of 1968 and its echoes today. This film is a hypnotic collage, a vibrant composition, a powerful drum roll that leads us into a moment of silence ... The FIPRESCI jury decided to award the FIPRESCI Prize to NE TRAVAILLE PAS by César Vayssié.

ERSTE BANK’S ExtraVALUE FILM AWARD
Jury: Silvia Bohrn, Franz Schwartz, Boris Manner
Erste Bank’s ExtraVALUE Film Award was awarded for the eighth time at the Viennale 2018. An independent jury selected an award winner from films by Austrian directors shown at the festival. The prize includes a two-month residency in New York and a presentation of the winner’s work in that city. Erste Bank’s ExtraVALUE Film Award is realized in collaboration with the Viennale, the Deutsches Haus at NYU, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York and Anthology Film Archives.

This year’s ExtraVALUE Film Award goes ex aequo to:

Excerpt from the jury’s decision:
Erste Bank’s ExtraVALUE Film Award 2018 goes to Sara Fattahi for CHAOS.
Three women, stranded in different places, try to put into words the deadly losses and traumas they suffered during the war in Syria. In atmospheric and, in part, dream-like images, the film follows the rhythm of the protagonists’ futile attempts to put into words the unspeakable, the death of a loved one. CHAOS is a meditation on silence and quiescence. A question about the place of female speech. A film that addresses the possibility and impossibility of memory. A film that reflects its own limits of representation and transcends them by assuming the notion of a poem.

Erste Bank’s ExtraVALUE Film Award 2018 goes to Wolfgang Fischer for STYX:
The journey of the German doctor Rike, who embarks on a solo sailing trip from Gibraltar, becomes an existential challenge to her. A cinematic event reminiscent of an experimental arrangement to explore the human capacity for empathy, and yet painfully outdone by reality. Caught between maritime law and official orders, a woman makes a final decision, risking her existence.

A selection of the best photos of the Viennale 2018:

Among the highlights of the Viennale 2018 was the program at the festival center in the Kunsthalle Wien in the Museumsquartier, which proved to be extremely varied and exciting with its mix of interesting film talks and book presentations, parties and DJ lines as well as exquisite concerts. With the Viennale Aperitivi, festival director Eva Sangiorgi brought Italian flair to the Viennale and invited on selected days to an aperitivo in the festival centre, where cinema fans, filmmakers* and industry guests could get into conversation.

The list of DJs was once again exciting in 2018: Mina, Erica Fatna, DJ Badre, Hanna, Andrés, Flo Real, Adam Brandis, Schmieds Puls DJ-Set, DJ Hertzbube, J'aime Julien, Lil Promise, Sofie, Therese Terror, Ulrich Rois, Radio Martiko, Gümix and Shanti Roots, Dj Makosa & Sugar B, DJ Scheibosan and Graf Hadik. Furthermore, Viennale filmmakers* were invited to perform their musical inspirations and favourite songs on one evening on the turntables.

More highlights were the Master Class by Mariano Llinás (LA FLOR), the conversation between Jean-François Stévenin and Yann Dedet, and the well-attended book presentation on "Angeschlossen und gleichgeschaltet: Kino in Österreich 1938-1945".