VIENNALE TRAILER 2026 BY KELLY REICHARDT

September 18, 2026 | Dear colleagues and friends of the Viennale,

The Viennale is delighted to present the 2026 festival trailer, created this year by US filmmaker Kelly Reichardt.

Born in Miami in 1964, Kelly Reichardt (pictured left during a visit to the Viennale) has been one of the key figures in American independent cinema for decades. With OLD JOY (2006) and WENDY AND LUCY (2008) at the latest, she established an unmistakable cinematic language: a cinema of close observation that finds its stories in small gestures and inconspicuous moments. Again and again, Reichardt turns her attention to people on the margins of American society, telling stories of work, friendship and the quiet fault lines of everyday life. Whether working with the Western, the thriller or the heist movie, Reichardt uses familiar genres to draw our attention to what they usually overlook.

Kelly Reichardt has a long history with the Viennale; numerous films of hers have been shown at the festival, and in 2020 the Viennale dedicated its own publication to her, TEXTUR #2. Most recently, THE MASTERMIND was part of the 2025 programme – and it is precisely to this film that this year's Viennale trailer can be traced.

"The concept is to show the shooting process of a single set up," Kelly Reichardt says of the two-minute film. "This particular set up is from a scene that never made it into the final cut of THE MASTERMIND. Tweaks happen in each pass: lighting, timing, props and wardrobe changes. A beehive of crew activity is going on at the edges of the frame - the collective labor of creating a casual vibe."

Viennale Trailer 2026
RAIN SET ACTION by Kelly Reichardt, Austria/USA 2026

Behind every image in a film lies the possibility of another. Of many others. Just as behind the camera there is not only one person, but a team. Many people. Different people whose collaboration produces the one thing that ultimately shines on the screen. But RAIN SET ACTION does more than make this visible: it also shows us that nothing happening in the background, at the margins or in passing is insignificant. Gloves or no gloves, umbrella or none; one person arrives, another leaves, a third hurries past, because it is pouring. The gaze follows, and a rhythm emerges in which, for a brief moment – somewhere between invention and reality – a world pulses with life. (Original German text by Alexandra Seitz)

"A small film that pays tribute to collective work – to the countless people and details that sustain the creation of cinema," says Viennale director Eva Sangiorgi of this year’s festival trailer. "Kelly Reichardt is undoubtedly one of the most original voices in contemporary cinema, and her way of working, supported by a large family of creative collaborators, is an example of pure love for cinema. With this gesture, she reminds us of that."

The Viennale Trailer will be shown as part of the supporting programme in selected cinemas from Thursday, September 24, 2026, and is available now on the Viennale website. Stills from the trailer can be downloaded here.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best regards,

Your Viennale Press Team
Tel. +43 (0)1 526 59 47
Fredi Themel ext. 30
Hannah Shong ext. 38
Email: press@viennale.at

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