VIENNA FILM AWARD

The Vienna Film Award, an award sponsored by the City of Vienna and presented during the Viennale, is given to a current Austrian feature film that has been screened in the past year. The endowment of this award consists of a monetary amount provided by the City's Department of Culture, monetary support from The Harmonie Vienna Hotel, and generous non-cash prizes donated by JACQUES LEMANS. In addition to the awaard for the best Austrian film, the Vienna Film Award also awards the Special Jury Award. Each of the two awards is endowed with cash donations and non-cash assets.

Jury: Thea Ehre (Actress), LYLIT (Singer and composer), Artemis Vakianis (commercial director of the Wiener Festwochen)

Best Austrian Film:
SIGNS OF WAR, Juri Rechinsky & Pierre Crom, Ukraine/Austria 2022

Jury statement:
The main award goes to a film that touches all three of us deeply in its directness and truth. Its magnificent images come alive not only on the screen, but also in our hearts. In terms of content, it captivates us with its temporal and political relevance, leaving us speechless. Due to its oppressive topicality and its poignant simplicity, we have unanimously decided that this year's main award can only go to this work.

Special Jury Award:
EUROPA, Sudabeh Mortezai, Austria/UK 2023

Jury Statement:
We award the Special Jury Award to a film that rightly confronts us Central Europeans in a painful and unsparing way with our privileges, which we otherwise want to suppress all too readily and skillfully. The acting performance of the protagonist is outstanding and definitely has to be mentioned here as well.

VIENNALE AWARD OF THE STANDARD READER JURY

DER STANDARD organizes the Standard Audience Jury Award again this year. The jury members select a film from the festival entries that does not yet have a distributor in Austria. If the winning film subsequently finds a distributor, DER STANDARD supports the film's release with free advertising space in the newspaper.

Jury: Nadja Polzer, Jakob Thaller, Veronika Verzetnitsch

The VIENNALE AWARD OF THE STANDARD READER JURY goes to:

HOKAGE, Tsukamoto Shinya, Japan 2023

Jury Statement:
HOKAGE (SHADOW OF FIRE) by Tsukamoto Shinya is a film as a memorial that leaves a lasting impression - just as the consequences of wars continue to have an effect after the end of the war. The director plays with different genres, but for the depiction of horror he only has to use the reality of the post-war period. The visual language and the raw narrative style carry the oppressive atmosphere and the confinement of the protagonists. Against the backdrop of current world events, the film reminds us that the war is not over even when the battles on the fronts have long since been fought.

The Standard Readers' Jury would also like to give an honorable mention to the following film:

EL ECO, Tatiana Huezo, Mexico/Germany 2023

FIPRESCI AWARD (INTERNATIONAL FILM CRITICS AWARD)

FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics, was founded in 1930. The association is dedicated to the cultivation of journalistic ethics and represents the professional interests of its members. The members of FIPRESCI come from all over the world and meet in small juries at numerous film festivals to award the award of the International Federation of Film Critics. Usually they choose - as at the Viennale - from a number of first and second features by young filmmakers.

Jury: Nachum Mochiach, Giuseppe Di Salvatore, Barbara Gasser

The FIPRESCI-Award goes to:

SAVVUSANNA SÕSARAD (SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD), Anna Hints, Estonia/France/Iceland 2023 

Jury Statement:
The women's sauna meetings to which we have access are much more than mere confessions: They allow stories to circulate and feelings to be shared. Through extraordinary camerawork and an intimacy rarely achieved in films, Anna Hints approaches sensitive subjects in an organic way; a way that dares to reveal trauma on the one hand, and to bring about an empowerment that is highly contagious on the other. This film, this cinematic sisterhood is capable of much - not least of breaking taboos and making us all braver.

ERSTE BANK FILM AWARD – Vermehrt Schönes!

This year, for the 13th time, the Erste Bank Film Award, initiated and sponsored by Erste Bank, will be awarded in cooperation with the Viennale, the Deutsches Haus at NYU and the Anthology Film Archives. The Erste Bank Film Award is awarded among the Austrian film productions screening in the Viennale program via an independent jury. The Film Award allows for a stay in New York City including a work presentation at Anthology Film Archives.

Jury: Silvia Bohrn (Cultural Manager), Nicolas Mahler (Cartoonist), Boris Manner (Curator and philosopher), Jed Rapfogel (Curator Anthology Film Archives) 

The jury of the Erste Bank Film Award has decided to dedicate the award to two films. The Erste Bank Film Awards goes to:

DIE ÄNGSTLICHE VERKEHRSTEILNEHMERIN, Martha Mechow, Austria/Germany 2023 

DIE ÄNGSTLICHE VERKEHRSTEILNEHMERIN is exceptional: a film that is a voyage of discovery both intellectually and formally.

Superficially, it is the story of a young woman, Flippa. She finds her sister Furia in Sardinia, in a feminist commune of young women. These are trying to realize identities and relationships outside the boundaries of conventional social structures. DIE ÄNGSTLICHE VERKEHRSTEILNEHMERIN explodes notions of how films should be made and constructed. In an unpolished and anti-naturalistic style, Mechow combines elements of cinema, theater, and literature: Improvisation, poetic language, frank philosophical reflections, uninhibited flights of fancy, and even an in-depth analysis of Jane Austen's novels. These divergent elements gain coherence through the thematic seriousness of Losing Faith.

The film is animated by the conviction that Western society is in dire need of transformation, but it is also aware of the possibility of falling into the trap of self-referential self-righteousness - a theme that strikes at the heart of our contemporary times.

The Erste Bank Film Award goes to:

RICKERL, Adrian Goiginger, Austria/Germany 2023 

In RICKERL, Adrian Goiginger depicts the everyday life of a talented and unsuccessful musician and at the same time conducts an analysis of the Viennese soul. Multitalented Voodoo Jürgens skillfully embodies the main character of this film, into which biographical elements of the singer-songwriter were also woven. The protagonist's dreary everyday life between the unemployment office and layoffs is only made bearable by visits from his son, who lives apart from him, and a whimsical round in his regular pub. In this comedy, Goiginger succeeds in developing the image of a typical Viennese character without falling into clichés. Oscillating between a death wish and creative inspirations, he stumbles over himself again and again shortly before reaching a goal.

The film touches through the authentic portrayal of the main character, takes an ethnological look at the Viennese suburban milieu and shows it as a declining culture.

 

VIENNA FILM PRIZE

The Vienna Film Prize, an award sponsored by the City of Vienna and presented as part of the Viennale, is given to a current Austrian feature film that was screened in the past year. The endowment of this prize consists of a monetary amount provided by the City's Department of Culture, as well as monetary contributions from ARRI Rental and Hotel The Harmonie Vienna. Furthermore, THE GRAND POST enriches the Vienna Film Award with generous donations in kind. Two prizes are awarded at the Vienna Film Prize: the prize for the best Austrian film and the Special Jury Prize. Each of the two awards is endowed with monetary donations and non-cash assets.

Jury: Gerald Bast (Rector of the University of Applied Arts Vienna), Ingrid Brodnig (author and journalist) and Edita Malovčić (actress and singer).

Best Austrian Film:
SONNE, Kurdwin Ayub, Austria 2022

Jury statement: SONNE is a film that comes along supposedly quietly, but then leaves a loud echo. The story of three young women who achieve a bit of fame via social media shows how diverse our society is - director Kurdwin Ayub skillfully manages to break with one or the other cliché. With simple but well-considered means, a lot of history is told, internal family but also social structures and conflicts are dealt with. The acting performance of the protagonists is remarkable. The result is an entertaining, but also multi-layered and socio-politically relevant film that is well worth seeing, and you wouldn't know that it is, strictly speaking, a first feature.

Special Jury Prize:
RUBIKON, Leni Lauritsch, Austria 2022

Austrian film can also dare to do something. Director Leni Lauritsch dares to think big. In her film RUBIKON, she turns her attention to the end of the world - and takes us into space in a technically highly professional narrative. It is remarkable how many narrative levels and philosophical questions are interwoven in this film. She has thus succeeded in making a contribution that addresses current issues of our time and uses the genre of science fiction to negotiate fundamental ethical questions.

DER STANDARD READERS‘ JURY PRIZE

The Standard Readers' Jury Prize goes to a film that does not yet have a distributor in Austria and is particularly recommended for a theatrical release in Austria. If the film finds a distributor, the theatrical release is associated with free advertising space in the daily newspaper "Der Standard".

Jury: Patrick Cassidy, Florian Schwarz, Daniela Univazo

DER STANDARD READERS‘ JURY PRIZE GOES TO:

PAMFIR, Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, Ukraine/ France/ Poland/ Chile/ Luxembourg/ Germany 2022

Jury Statement: Like a drumbeat, this film drove into our bones, and we left the screening quite dazed and excited about what we had just seen. We were touched by the warmth of the characters as they try to survive in a corrupt society that wants to keep them chained in the service of the powerful. The hope that PAMFIR conveys through its striking images will stay with us for a long time. This film is not only a testament to the talent of its first-time director and lead actor, but also a time capsule for a country and community undergoing massive upheaval. It is an absolute pleasure and honor to award DER STANDARD READERS‘ JURY PRIZE to PAMFIR.

FIPRESCI PRIZE (PRIZE OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS)

The selection includes a number of first and second films by directors.

Jury: Susanne Gottlieb, Johannes Hagman, Kira Taszman

THE FIPRESCI-PRIZE GOES TO:
Cyril Schäublin, UNRUEH, Switzerland 2022

Jury Statement: Time is essential to the characters in this multifaceted story, but it passes at different rates and depends on the interests of the various factions. The time of unrest, of social upheaval, is reflected in the cleverly chosen title, which is in itself a contradiction. It suggests the unrest in the society, but tells this in a very unexciting way and refrains from obvious conflicts. For its depiction of an original international atmosphere in a small place, for its questioning of our understanding of history, and for seeing watchmaking through a prism of history, the FIPRESCI award goes to UNRUEH.

ERSTE BANK’S ExtraVALUE-FILM PRIZE

This year, the ExtraVALUE Film Prize, initiated and sponsored by Erste Bank, will be awarded for the 12th time. ExtraVALUE Film Prizes will be awarded in cooperation with the Viennale, the Deutsches Haus at NYU and the Anthology Film Archives. The Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Film Prize is awarded among the Austrian film productions screening in the Viennale program via an independent jury. 

Jury: Silvia Bohrn, Kulturmanagerin; Boris Manner, Philosoph, Kurator; Jed Rapfogel, Filmprogrammer Anthology Film Archives

Jury statement:
The jury of the ExtraVALUE Film Prize has decided to dedicate the award to two short films that deal with two of the most important and fundamental areas of human experience: Sex and Death.
 

The Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Film Prize goes to Eve Heller for SINGING IN OBLIVION
Eve Heller's short film SINGING IN OBLIVION uses a variety of techniques-observational photography, found images, photograms, and rich sound design-to conjure a meditation on death, memory, and transience. The focus is the Jewish Cemetery in Vienna's Währing district, which was partially destroyed by the Nazis and is now left to decay. Heller combines her own ghostly shots of the cemetery with photograms of organic materials and fragmentary images printed from glass negatives she discovered at a flea market. The film itself becomes a kind of photogram: a physical object on which the vanished life has left its imprint, thus speaking equally of presence and absence.

The Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Film Prize goes to Jan Soldat for BILND DATE
Although Jan Soldat's BLIND DATE is in almost every respect a completely different film from Eve Heller's SINGING IN OBLIVION, it is also concerned with the relationship between the immaterial aspects of human experience and its physical manifestations, in this case desire and the body. Working with his protagonists, Jan Soldat demystifies the sexual act and draws attention to what most other films on the subject omit: the deeply human mix of awkwardness, vulnerability, social protocol, and hesitant rapprochement that frames sexual intercourse. BLIND DATE is part of a series in which Jan Soldat presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of erotic practices. BLIND DATE is radical not for its frank portrayal of sex, but for its unabashed, unsentimental, yet empathetic curiosity about the experience of two individuals coming together to satisfy their physical desires.

VIENNA FILM PRIZE

Jury: Choreographer and Dancer Christine Gaigg, Actress Aenne Schwarz and filmmaker Sebastian Brameshuber.

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, monetary support from the Hotel The Harmonie Vienna and generous material assets, sponsored by BLAUTÖNE and viennaFX. There are two awards: one for the best Austrian film and the Special Jury Prize. 

Best Austrian Film:

GROSSE FREIHEIT, Sebastian Meise, Austria/Germany 2021

Jury's statement: This visually stunning film addresses two major issues: freedom and love. It doesn’t shy away from great pathos and is masterfully delicate in detail at the same time. It traces the continuities and fault lines of social exclusion and societal standardization but without committing itself exclusively to a political cause. It feels as if we can smell the rooms when the air begins to run out. We can look into the innermost feelings of the fantastically performed and staged characters with great care and precision, follow them into every abyss but are never tempted to get too close to them or to feel superior – and precisely for that reason we can’t get rid of them.

Special Jury Prize:

BEATRIX, Milena Czernovsky, Lilith Kraxner, Austria 2021

Jury's statement: This film is imbued with the mysterious and original power of cinema; it is a bold act of nonchalance and radical reduction. We see the emptiness of everyday life, Instagram-like situations, but the way the actress appears in these actions, namely oblivious and unabashed, these moments would not actually be suitable for Instagram at all. Instead, cinematographic sensuality and intimacy emerge. Banal activities go beyond themselves: cleaning turns out to be satisfying despite being disgusting; procrastination and social sulking reveal a certain charm. Economically narrated, precisely framed – this is how aesthetic resistance arises.

STANDARD READERS‘ JURY

Jury: Jeremy Braunsberg, Robert Frenay, Marija Milosavljevic

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 went to:

KELTI, Milica Tomović, Serbia 2021

Jury's statement: An 8-year-old's birthday party becomes a stage on which several intersecting dramas play out. In one corner, the kids critique each other's Ninja Turtles costumes; in another, the adults indulge in drunken discussions and amorous adventures. Over the course of a single night, this ambitious ensemble narrative, reminiscent of Altman, explores issues of identity, intimacy, sexuality and politics. The atmosphere in 1993 Belgrade may seem somber, but as the film progresses, the director highlights moments of joy, serenity and tenderness that shine through. The performances seem lively and improvised, as if we were joining a group of friends - amidst conversations and arguments that began before we arrived and will continue after we leave. The filmmaker guides us through the world of children with a sincere and serious eye, portraying their conflicts and dilemmas with as much seriousness and tension as those of the adults. We were touched by the film's humanity, its responsiveness to the characters' weaknesses, and its empathy for their longings. We were impressed by the director's mastery of space, clarity of vision, and ability to portray a large cast of characters in a way that made them instantly familiar. The jury is happy to give this award to Milica Tomović for her outstanding debut in feature film: KELTI.

FIPRESCI PRIZE (PRIZE OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS)

Jury: Michael Phillips (USA), Veronika Zakonjsek (Slovenia), Marietta Steinhart (Austria)
First and second films by directors are available for the selection.

The FIPRESCI Prize went to:

RE GRANCHIO, Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis, Italy/Argentina/France 2021

Jury's statement: In their visually imaginative leap from documentary to narrative filmmaking, Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis follow their outcast protagonist from his tragedy in 19th century Tuscia, Italy, to his reinvention in the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego. With a knowing eye, raw beauty and authentic language, the two filmmakers affirm the power and poetry of folklore.

ERSTE BANK’S ExtraVALUE-FILM PRIZE

Jury: Silvia Bohrn (Kulturmanagerin), Boris Manner (Philosoph, Kurator), Andreas Ungerböck (Herausgeber)

In 2021, the ExtraVALUE Film Prize, initiated and donated by Erste Bank, was awarded for the 11th time. The Erste Bank ExtraVALUE film price is awarded among the Austrian film productions curated by the Viennale via an independent jury. The ExtraVALUE Film Prize enables a stay in New York City including a work presentation at the Anthology Film Archives.

The Erste Bank´s ExtraVALUE-Film Prize went to:

GROSSE FREIHEIT, Sebastian Meise, Austria/Germany 2021

Jury's statement: GROSSE FREIHEIT is a fearless film that is political without aiming for political correctness, a film that doesn’t psychologize and has a long, suspenseful narrative arc. Restricted freedom with the accompanying measures and enforcement that are legally legitimized as normal in their respective time periods provide the framework for these magnificently told love stories. Great actors who test the limits of their art in a claustrophobic setting, excellent lighting and camera work make this film an extraordinary experience.

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VIENNA FILM PRIZE

Jury: Rapper and poetry slammer Yasmo, journalist Renata Schmidtkunz (ORF) and Kira Kirsch, artistic director and managing director of brut Wien.

The Vienna Film Award, a prize donated by the City of Vienna and awarded at the Viennale, is given to a current Austrian feature film screened the last year. The prize consists of a sum of money provided by the city's cultural department, monetary support from the Hotel The Harmonie Vienna, and generous material assets donated by the sponsors BLAUTÖNE and viennaFX. Two prizes will be awarded at the Vienna Film Prize: the prize for the best Austrian film and the jury's Special Prize. Each of the two awards is endowed with monetary donations and material assets.

Best Austrian Film
EPICENTRO

Hubert Sauper, Austria/France 2020

In a poetic and political-analytical way, Hubert Sauper has succeeded in enabling us to encounter people, especially children, in the Cuban capital of Havana. The film interweaves the beginnings of moving pictures with the visions of “the little prophets,” as Sauper calls the children of Havana. Both with his camera and the narrative strand, he is always at eye level with his self-confident, cheerful and clever protagonists. Hubert Sauper approaches all the characters with tenderness and solidarity, turning the utopias expressed by the children into possibilities that can be realized. This makes us optimistic.

Special Jury Prize
THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN
Sandra Wollner, Austria/Germany 2020

In her film THE TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN, Sandra Wollner addresses in an aesthetically extremely accomplished way a topic that will occupy our societies in the coming decades. Humans create projection screens in the form of androids that fulfill all desires and exist beyond human rights. Moral conventions that have formerly been valid become obsolete. 
The power of the images and the disturbing narrative of this film have left us ambivalent. They force us all to reflect on our own ethical ideas about love and domination, the future of human rights in the age of artificial intelligence, and the deep rift between memory and projection. Whether we like it or not.

 

STANDARD READERS' JURY AWARD

Every year the daily newspaper DER STANDARD presents its prestigious STANDARD Readers' Jury Award. An enthusiastic jury chooses from among a number of festival entries that do not yet have an Austrian distributor, providing the deserving winner a launch in Austrian movie theaters.
In addition to official notification of the winner, DER STANDARD grants advertising space in its pages when the film premieres in Austria.

SELVA TRÁGICA
Yulene Olaizola, Mexico/France/Columbia 2020

From the first to the last scene we are immersed in the rainforest, its wildlife and oppressive heat. At the Hondo river, which forms a border between Mexico and Belize, a woman flees from a British landowner and finds herself among a group of Mexican laborers extracting gum from trees. But before her oppression continues, the magical powers of the forest begin to work.
The jury was captivated by the story, which entwines a Mayan myth with the story of escaped female slaves. We were thrilled by the haunting visual language and the great sound of Yulene Olaizola’s film SELVA TRÁGICA. From beginning to end, it creates a pulsating undertow that tells of human greed, death and the beauty and cruelty of the rainforest.

 

FIPRESCI PRIZE

FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics, was founded in 1930. The association is dedicated to the cultivation of journalistic ethics and represents the professional interests of its members. The members of the FIPRESCI come from all over the world and come together in small juries at numerous film festivals to award the prize of the International Association of Film Critics. As at the Viennale, most of them choose from a series of debut works by young female directors.

ZABIJ TO I WYJEDZ Z TEGO MIASTA
Mariusz Wilczyński, Poland 2019

The FIPRESCI award goes to Kill It and Leave This Town by Mariusz Wilczynski for its strikingly imaginative and raw  use of animation to tell a personal story that walks on the thin line between nightmares, dreams and shards of childhood memories.  Disturbing, uncompromising  and puzzling at the same time. A haunting story that goes deep into the psyche, history and culture of Poland and yet manages to transform it to a universal story about loss, memory, childhood and love.

 

Erste Bank ExtraVALUE-FILM Prize

Erste Bank, long-standing main sponsor of the Viennale, is awarding the ExtraVALUE Film Award for the 10th time this year. The ExtraVALUE Film Award enables a stay in New York, combined with a presentation of the works in the New York Anthology Film Archives. Due to the difficult travel and residence conditions worldwide, the ExtraVALUE Film Award will be offered as a cash prize in 2020.

ZAHO ZAY
Georg Tiller, Maéva Ranaïvojaona, Austria, France, Madagascar 2020

ZAHO ZAY is a precise, complex and conscious cinematic meditation on the human condition. The protagonist, a guard in a Madagascan prison, fantasizes about the return of her father, who left her when she was a child. Between supervising the humiliating rituals of the prisoners’ daily roll call, shaving the heads of the condemned and distributing food, she dreams of a mythical father, an unreachable outlaw, who wanders through a biography of crimes and whose deeds are determined neither by reason nor emotion. Only the dice he throws decide on the progress of his actions. This dialectic of freedom and imprisonment, chance and order in the film’s narrative also becomes the pivotal point of its construction on other levels. At the beginning, the voice of the narrator, who increasingly transforms the text into a poem, seems to belong to the author of the script. In the course of time, however, the voice shifts to the protagonist, merging with the images of the final part of the film to become a hallucinatory poem. The cinematic gaze also oscillates between documentary and staged positions. When a colonial view by the filmmakers still flashes up in the sequences in the prison yard, it disappears in the dreamlike apparitions of the father. These movements between different forms of representation turn into an indistinguishable whole. The slow rhythm, the precise editing and the perfect interlocking of seemingly incoherent elements transform ZAHO ZAY into something unmistakable, into a work that goes beyond the genres of feature film or documentary. 

Erste Bank ExtraVALUE-Film Prize Appreciation

BITTE WARTEN
Pavel Cuzuioc, Austria 2020

BITTE WARTEN – PLEASE HOLD THE LINE is a quiet film that has a humorous and clever take on the subject of communication technology. It follows telecommunication technicians on their call-outs to households in the countryside, mostly in small villages, which also includes travelling to some neighboring eastern countries bordering the EU. We gain insight into personal stories, into other realities of life. The connecting factor is that telecommunication is always also a chain of never-ending absurdities to which we’re all exposed. A recurring theme in the film is the people’s criticism of the bad programs that they are sold. This film is definitely not one of them.

 

VIENNA FILM PRIZE
Jury: Alexander Charim, Herwig Kempinger, Helga Rössler

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, monetary support from the Hotel The Harmonie Vienna 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

SPACE DOGS, Elsa Kremser, Levin Peter, Austria/Germany 2019

Excerpt from the jury’s decision:
SPACE DOGS by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter tells the story of Laika, the first dog in space, of her brutal upbringing and her lonely death in the service of Soviet propaganda. And it searches for Laika’s spirit in today’s Moscow, following some street dogs as they move through the city.  In order to do so, the film is shot from a dog’s eye view, looking through their eyes at the strange world of humans, of whom we mostly only see legs. So it’s not about a human world with dogs, but about a dog world in which, by chance, there are also people. We see these dogs angry and tired, lonely and playful, proud and vicious, tender and hungry. We see how the animals are used and abused by humans and nevertheless remain themselves, even if this is sometimes not nice to look at.

The viewer gets very close to these dogs, due to the panting, dancing and agility conveyed by Yunus Roy Imer’s  great camerawork. Before seeing this film, we didn’t know that we actually wanted to get so close to Moscow’s street dogs. This film is full of experiences we haven’t had before, and full of images we’ve never seen. It is brutal, strange, poetic, startling and surprising. It isn’t a documentary, although it’s about reality; it isn’t a feature film, although we can see inside the dogs’ souls. This film has invented its own form. A jury colleague said: “After this film, you need a schnapps.” What better compliment can there be?

Special Jury Prize

BEWEGUNGEN EINES NAHEN BERGS, Sebastian Brameshuber, Austria/France 2019

Excerpt from the jury’s decision:
SLOW DOWN. MEN AT WORK.
An African parallel economy in Styria, from which interested Hungarians and locals also profit. The Hungarian car-dealer couple envies Cliff, the Nigerian mechanic, who will soon send his car parts to Africa to sell them there: “In December in Africa – just sun? No jacket? That’s good!”A calm, poetic and touching film that raises more questions than it answers; a film that doesn’t know beforehand what it will find.

 

VIENNALE STANDARD READERS’ JURY PRIZE
Jury: Maximilian Gurschler, Astrid Kaltenegger, Barbara Macek, Agnes Peterseil, Philip Stöger       

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:

DYLDA, Kantemir Balagov, Russia 2019

Excerpt from the jury’s decision:
Emotionally moving and using powerful colors, director Kantemir Balagov tells the story of two young women who return from World War II and take care of the war-wounded in a military hospital in Leningrad. He repeatedly breaks with expectations and relentlessly contrasts moments of serenity with the bitter seriousness of life in a military hospital.
The film adopts a radically subjective and, above all, female perspective to show the destructive consequences of war, and the irreparable emotional damage, but also the power that arises from rebelling against past horrors that extend all the way into the present.

 

FIPRESCI PRIZE (PRIZE OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS)
Jury: Žiga Brdnik (Casopis Večer, Film magazine Ekran, Dialogi), Magdalena Miedl (Salzburger Nachrichten, ORF.at), Alejandra Trelles (La Diaria, Brecha)

The FIPRESCI PRIZE is awarded to the first or second film of a young director.

The FIPRESCI Prize goes to:

GIRAFFE, Anna Sofie Hartmann, Germany/Denmark 2019

Excerpt from the jury’s decision:

The FIPRESCI award goes to a film that sublimely talks about personal and everyday history. Through a love story between the East and the West, the mature and the maturing, it skillfully – and as close to life as it gets – intertwines different times: the past, the present and the future. It does so through two powerful and opposing metaphors of human prowess and natural beauty, a tunnel and a giraffe. The prize goes to the film GIRAFFE by Anne Sofie Hartmann.

 

ERSTE BANK’S ExtraVALUE FILM AWARD
Jury: Silvia Bohrn, Boris Manner, Jed Rapfogel

Erste Bank’s ExtraVALUE Film Award was awarded for the nineth time at the Viennale 2019. 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 and Anthology Film Archives. This year’s ExtraVALUE Film Award goes ex aequo to:

SPACE DOGS, Elsa Kremser, Levin Peter, A/D 2019
and
L’AVENIR? DE F.V.G.?, Friedl vom Gröller, A/F 2018

Excerpt from the jury’s decision:
Erste Bank’s ExtraVALUE Film Award 2019 goes to Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter for SPACE DOGS:
A truly original hybrid that combines not only documentary and fictional elements but even different modes of non-fiction, SPACE DOGS is predicated on the story of Laika, the Moscow street dog who was the first resident of planet Earth to travel into space. By means of an invented fairy tale by which Laika’s ghost haunts the planet to this day, it is at once a meditation on the historical role of dogs and monkeys in early space exploration (via extraordinary archival footage) and a contemporary study of the stray dogs of Moscow, as they roam the streets by day and night. By shooting from a vantage close to the ground, the filmmakers adopt the perspective of the dogs both philosophically and literally. The result is a kind of city symphony in which the city is made strange as refracted through the eyes of its non-human inhabitants. A profound and rigorously unsentimental film about animals that encompasses both cinema verité and science-fiction fabulism, SPACE DOGS is by extension about those residents of a city who are overlooked, undervalued, and exploited.

Erste Bank’s ExtraVALUE Film Award 2019 goes to Friedl vom Gröller for L’AVENIR? DE F.V.G.?
One of the most recent short films by the dizzyingly prolific Friedl vom Gröller, L’AVENIR? DE F.V.G.? is a work whose brevity and playfulness belie its astonishing inventiveness, evocativeness, and formal expansiveness. It is a portrait of two individuals – a deaf woman and her elderly Senegalese friend – as well as of two forms of non-spoken language that are both radically different from each other and (presumably) incomprehensible to most audiences: sign language and fortune telling with cowrie shells. The spectacle of unfamiliar forms of signification, and the mystery of the fortune teller’s magic, stand in inspired contrast to the everyday normality of the setting: a public laundromat. Through the structure and expressive power of the film itself, the women’s respective languages take on a cinematic meaning that renders them comprehensible even to the sign-language or fortune-telling illiterate.

 

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

JOY
Sudabeh Mortezai, Austria 2018

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

MURER – ANATOMIE EINES PROZESSES
Christian Frosch, Austria/Luxembourg 2017

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:

WHAT YOU GONNA DO WHEN THE WORLD’S ON FIRE?
Roberto Minervini, Italy/USA/France 2018

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:

NE TRAVAILLE PAS (1968-2018)
César Vassyié, France 2018

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:

CHAOS
Sara Fattahi, Austria/Syria/Lebanon/Qatar 2018

STYX
Wolfgang Fischer, Germany/Austria 2018

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.

 

2017 the VIENNA FILM AWARD was awarded to:

Feature
DIE LIEBHABERIN, Lukas Valenta Rinner, A/Südkorea/Argentinien 2016

Documentary
UNTITLED, Michael Glawogger, Monika Willi, A/D 2017

Jury: Gregor Eichinger, Till Fellner, Olga Flor, Bettina Hering, Voodoo Jürgens.

In 2017 the Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Film Award  was awarded to:

 

GWENDOLYN, Ruth Kaaserer, A 2017

Jury: Silvia Bohrn, Nicolas Mahler, Boris Manner.

 

 

2017 the FIPRESCI-PRIZE was awarded to:

DISTANT CONSTELLATION, Shevaun Mizrahi, USA/Türkei 2017

Jury: Robenson Eksiel (Flix.gr), Iryna Marholina (Seance.ru), Michael Omasta (FALTER)

 

In 2017 the STANDARD READERS JURY AWARD was awarded to:

L’INSULTE, Ziad Doueiri, F/Libanon 2017

Jury: Robert Jolly, Gabriele Keller, Michael Schober, Selina Ströbele, Julia Tanzer.

2016 the FIPRESCI-PRIZE was awarded to:

BODKIN RAS, Kaweh Modiri, Niederlande/Belgien 2016

Jury: Petra Erdmann (Radio FM4), Beat Glur (Berner Kulturagenda), Suncica Unevska (Nova Makedonija Daily; Film Plus; Kinopis)

 

 

In 2016 the WIENER FILMPREIS was awarded to:

Feature
THANK YOU FOR BOMBING, Barbara Eder, A 2015

Documentary
HOLZ ERDE FLEISCH, Sigmund Steiner, A 2016

Jury: Valerie Fritsch, Miriam Hie, Rudi Klein, Teresa Rotschopf, Hans-Peter Wipplinger

In 2016 the STANDARD READERS JURY AWARD was awarded to:

UNDER THE SHADOW, Babak Anvari, Iran/Jordanien/Katar/Großbritannien 2016

Jury: Hannes Fuchshofer, Maria Hirsch, Thomas Leitner, Fransa Routhin, Barbara Sorger

In 2016 the Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Film Award was awarded to:

 

MISTER UNIVERSO
Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel, A/I 2016

 

 

 

MOGHEN PARIS – UND SIE ZIEHEN MIT
Katharina Copony, A/I 2016

 

 

Jury: Silvia Bohrn, Boris Manner, Franz Schwartz

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:

A UMA HORA INCERTA, Carlos Saboga, Portugal 2015

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

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 2014 the WIENER FILMPREIS was awarded to:

Feature
MACONDO, Sudabeh Mortezai, A 2014

 

Documentary
WE COME AS FRIENDS, Hubert Sauper, F/A 2013

 

Jury: Andreas Beck, Arno Geiger, Philipp Hochmair, Eva Jantschitsch, Elke Siliva Krystufek

 

In 2013 the FIPRESCI PRIZE was awarded to:

COURT, Chaitanya Tamhane, India/2014

 

Jury:  Demetrios Matheou (Sight and Sound - Großbritannien), Nil Kural (Milliyet – Türkei),
Hans Christian Leitich (ORF.AT- Österreich)

In 2014 the STANDARD READERS JURY AWARD was awarded to:

BIRD PEOPLE, Pascale Ferran, F 2014

 

Jury: David Avazzadeh, Claudia Göstel, Barbara Heißler, Franz Schörkhuber, Arabella Strassner

In 2014 the Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Film Award was awarded to:

 

MACONDO, Sudabeh Mortezai, A 2014
 

 

 

 

EDEN’S EDGE (THREE SHORTS ON THE CALIFORNIAN DESERT), Gerhard Treml, Leo Calice, A/USA 2014

 

Jury: Silvia Bohrn, Franz Schwartz , Martin Rauchbauer

In 2013 the WIENER FILMPREIS was awarded to:

Kategorie Spielfilm
PARADIES: LIEBE
Ulrich Seidl, D/F/A 2012

 

Kategorie Dokumentarfilm
SICKFUCKPEOPLE
Juri Rechinsky, A/Ukraine 2012

Jury: Marie Colbin, Christine König, Magdalena Miedl, Robert Schindel, Oliver Welter

In 2013 the FIPRESCI-PREIS was awarded to:

GRAND CENTRAL
Rebecca Zlotowski, F/A 2013

Jury: Eithne Mary O’Neill (Positif, Frankreich), Pascal Blum (Tagesanzeiger, Schweiz), Krzysztof Kwiatkowski (Wprost/Kino, Polen), Alexandra Seibel (Kurier/Kolik, Österreich)

In 2013, the STANDARD READERS JURY AWARD goes to:

DAS MERKWÜRDIGE KÄTZCHEN
Ramon Zürcher, D 2013

Jury: Marcus Fischer, Sarah Al-Hashimi, Oliver Kossegg, Almud Krejza, Ute Waditschatka

In 2013 the Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Film Award was awarded to:

 

SHIRLEY – VISIONS OF REALITY
Gustav Deutsch, A 2013
 

 

 

SICKFUCKPEOPLE
Juri Rechinsky, A/Ukraine 2012

 

Jury: Silvia Bohrn, Franz Schwartz, Werner Brix

In 2012 the Erste Bank ExtraVALUE was awarded to:

 

DER GLANZ DES TAGES
Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel, A 2012

The Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Kurzfilmpreis (for Short Movies) is awarded to:
Kurdwin Ayub - for her eight films at Viennale 2012.

In 2012 the Standard Readers' Award was awarded to:

LEVIATHAN
Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, USA/GB/F 2012

Jury: Barbara Anderlic, Irmgard Fuchs, Martin Kitzberger, Hedi Kuthan, Herbert Wastl
 

In 2012 the FIPRESCI Prize was awarded to:

MARGARET
Kenneth Lonergan, USA 2011

Jury: Jonathan Rosenbaum (USA), Diego Brodersen (Argentina), Victoria Smirnova Mayzel  (Russia), Alexandra Zawia (Austria)
 

In 2012 the Vienna Film Award was awarded to:

Feature Film
LIEBE
Michael Haneke, A 2012

Documentary
MEINE KEINE FAMILIE
Paul-Julien Robert, A 2012

A special mention for DANN BIN ICH JA EIN MÖRDER
Walter Manoschek, A 2012

Jury: Paulus Hochgatterer, Elfriede Ott, Markus Schinwald, Franz Adrian Wenzl, Susanne Wuest
 

In 2001 the Vienna Film Award was awarded to:

Feature Film
MICHAEL 
Markus Schleinzer, A 2011

Documentary
DER PROZESS
Gerald Igor Hauzenberger, A 2011

A special mention for DAVID WANTS TO FLY by David Sieveking,

Jury: Wolfgang Gantner, Lydia Mischkulnig, Violetta Parisini, Loretta Pflaum, Eva Poleschinski

In 2001 the FIPRESCI Prize was awarded to:

YATASTO
Hermes Paralluelo, Argentina 2011

Jury: Diego Lerer (Argentinien), Vasco Camara (Portugal), Marina Kostova (Mazedonien), Hans Langsteiner (A)

In 2011 the Standard Readers' Award was awarded to:

LUGAR MÁS PEQUEÑO
Tatiana Huezo Sánchez, Mexico 2011

Jury: Ida Dupkanic, Lisa Eder, Walter Freinbichler, Harald Retschitzegger, Katharina Wienerroither
 

In 2011 the Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Film Award was awarded for the first time:

 

DER PROZESS
Gerald Igor Hauzenberger, A 2011

Jury: Nikolas Mahler, Franz Schwartz, Verena Teissl

In addition to that, a prize for short film was awarded to:

KREIS WR. NEUSTADT
Johann Lurf, A 2011

SCHNEIDEREI (VAGINALE VI)
SOMMERURLAUB (VAGINALE VII)
Kurdwin Ayub, A 2011

In 2010 the Vienna Film Award was awarded to:

Feature Film
RAMMBOCK
Marvin Kren, D 2010

Documentary
KICK OFF
Hüseyin Tabak, A 2009

Jury: Sabine Gruber, Amina Handke, Katharina Lorenz, Hans Schabus, Martin Skerwald aka Skero

In 2010 the FIPRESCI Prize was awarded to:

PERIFERIC
Bogdan George Apetri, Rumänien/Österreich 2010

Jury: Peter Keough (USA), Anjelika Arthyuk (Russia), Roman Scheiber (Austria) und Müge Tüfenk (Turkey)

In 2010 the STANDARD Readers' Award was awarded to:

MARWENCOL
Jeff Malmberg, USA 2010

Jury: Sandra Gugic, Alejandro Ruiz, Katharina Stöger, Andrea Strommer, Christian Tschugg

In 2009 the FIPRESCI Prize was awarded to:

XIAO LI ZIX (Survival Song)
YU Guangyi, China 2008

Jury: Dennis Lim (USA), Jan Lumholdt (Schweden), Thomas Taborsky (Österreich) und Milan Vlajcic (Serbien).

In 2009 the STANDARD Readers' Jury Award was awarded to:

DARBAREYE ELLY
Asghar Farhadi, Iran 2009

Jury: Werner Dolin, Markus Gaßner, Gülcin Körpe, Katharina Majchrzak, Helga Wagner

 

IN 2009 the Vienna Film Award was awarded in two categories for the first time.

Feature Film
LOURDES
Jessica Hausner, A/F 2009

Documentary
COOKING HISTORY
Péter Kerekes, A/SK/CZ 2009

Jury: Marie-Christine Friedrich, Esther Stocker, Markus Hinterhäuser, Hans Langsteiner, Josef Winkler

In 2008 the STANDARD Readers' Jury Award was awarded to:

MOMMA'S MAN
Azazel Jacobs, USA 2008

In 2008 the Vienna Film Award was awarded to:

EIN AUGENBLICK FREIHEIT
Arash T. Riahi, A/F/Türkei 2008

Jury: Andrea Braidt, Dimitré Dinev, Michael Kerbler, Ernst Molden, Sylvie Rohrer.

In 2008 the FIPRESCI Prize was awarded to:

AQUELE QUERIDO MÊS DE AGOSTO 
Miguel Gomes, P/F 2008

Jury: Markus Keuschnigg (A), Diego Lerer (ARG), Norman Wilner (CDN) and Neil Young (UK)

In 2007 the FIPRESCI Prize was awarded to:

SHOTGUN STORIES
Jeff Nichols, USA 2007

Jury: Erika Koriska (Austria), Michel Ciment (France), Jurij Meden (SIowenien) and Andrei Plakhov (Romania)

In 2007 the Vienna Film Award was awarded to:

RULE OF LAW
Susanne Brandstätter, A 2006

Jury: Helga Bergmann, Susanne Michel, Olga Neuwirth, Linda Stift and Ralph Wieser.

In 2007 the STANDARD Readers' Jury Award was awarded to:

RUBLJOVKA – STRASSE  ZUR GLÜCKSELIGKEIT
Irene Langemann, D 2007

In 2006 the Vienna Film Award was awarded to:

KURZ DAVOR IST ES PASSIERT
Anja Salomonowitz, A 2006

Jury: Tatjana Alexander, Edek Bartz, Thomas Edlinger, Peter Osswald and Alexandra Seibel

In 2006 the FIPRESCI Prize was awarded to:

HONOR DE CAVALLERIA
Albert Serra, E 2006

Jury: Claudia Lenssen (Germany), Mark Peranson (Canada), Ronald Bergan (UK) and Dominik Kamalzadeh (Austria)

In 2006 the STANDARD Readers' Jury Award was awarded to:

BALORDI
Mirjam Kubescha, D/I 2005

In 2005 the FIPRESCI Prize was awarded to:

ESTAMIRA
Marcos Prado, Brasilien 2004

Jury: Manuela Cernat (Romania, Jury-President), Diego Brodersen (Argentina), Gunnar Landsgesell (Austria)