VIENNALE 2015 OCTOBER 22 NOVEMBER 5

Transcription

1 VIENNALE 2015 OCTOBER 22 NOVEMBER 5

2 VIENNALE 2015 OCTOBER 22 TO NOVEMBER 5 OUTCOME OF THE VIENNALE 2015 The 53rd Viennale comes to an end with today s gala screening of 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. 2

3 Viennale 2015 Prize Winners VIENNA FILM PRIZE Jury: Nicole Albiez, Dorit Margreiter, Tex Rubinowitz, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Tomas Zierhofer-Kin For the seventh time, this year the Vienna Film Prize was awarded separately in both the Feature Film and Documentary categories. There are two equal prizes, each of which consists of monetary and material awards worth 17,000 euros. The Viennale would like to take this opportunity to thank Canon, Synchro Film & Video, FREDERIQUE CONSTANT, and the Culture Department of the City of Vienna. 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. Feature Film ICH SEH ICH SEH, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, A 2014 The film transforms the figure of a young woman who no longer meets her children s expectations into a source of horror. The mother s absolutely exaggerated role is presented as a brutal imposition, in which failure is incorporated. At the same time, the film succeeds in its total projection of phantasm, delusion and visual surface in showing a reality one cannot escape. Documentary LAMPEDUSA IM WINTER, Jakob Brossmann, A/I/CH 2015 The film is impressive in the way it retraces the complex problems of people on Lampedusa, as it represents an image of an island struggling for its own economic survival while trying to cope with the refugees arriving there. It is encouraging in its account of the civil and institutional attitude of the people of Lampedusa, particularly women. VIENNALE STANDARD READERS JURY PRIZE Jury: Antonia Aalders, Ulrike Bittmann, Richard Hemmer, Alexander Hirt, Angelika Patak 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: A UMA HORA INCERTA, Carlos Saboga, P 2015 A father-daughter relationship, embedded in a story about betrayal, intrigues, desire and deep curiosity. Set in 1940s Portugal. We were fascinated by the complex characters, constantly seductive, yet never explanatory. Sensual, rich, erotic, intertwined like the protagonist s plaits. We love this film: A UMA HORA INCERTA by Carlos Saboga. FIPRESCI PRIZE (Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics) Jury: Dunja Bialas (artechock, Germany), Ola Salwa (Kino; Poland), Stefan Grissemann (profil, Austria) The FIPRESCI PRIZE is awarded to the first or second film of a young director. The FIPRESCI PRIZE goes to: COMA, Sara Fattahi, Syria/Lebanon 2015 A home movie from wintry Damascus, a study of isolation, a film about war and family. A young woman documents the stagnation of her life as she s trapped in her flat with her mother and grandmother while war is raging outside. This is what forms the foundations of this work: a state of emergency as an everyday situation. From the off, television provides the cinematic drama of another era, as people remain shadows and are often only silhouettes behind glass doors. The nar- 3

4 rative is constructed in an experimental way; there are video failures, gaps in sound and image, blurring and sudden fades to black. The rough, fragmentary form emphasizes the importance of this venture, which seems to be intimate and highly political at the same time. Silent praying, clocks ticking; fear, lethargy and depression rule. Sirens, detonations sounding. Radio and television tally the death count of the ongoing Syrian war. It was her grandfather s death that inspired the film, says the director. The experience of loss turned into art, this film, and a success. The FIPRESCI jury awards its prize to Sara Fattahi, the director of the exceptional documentary COMA. ERSTE BANK S MoreVALUE FILM AWARD Jury: Silvia Bohrn, Franz Schwartz, Martin Rauchbauer Erste Bank s MoreVALUE Film Award was awarded for the fifth time at the Viennale 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 at an apartment in Bleecker Street, a presentation of the award winner s work in New York, travelling costs and a financial allowance. Erste Bank s MoreVALUE Film Award is realized in co-operation with the Viennale, the Deutsches Haus at NYU and the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. The MoreVALUE FILM AWARD goes to: LAMPEDUSA IM WINTER, Jakob Brossmann, A/I/CH 2015 und SELF, Claudia Larcher, A 2015 After intense discussion, the jury unanimously chose two film productions. Upon the jury s recommendation, the Erste Bank MoreVALUE Film Award 2015 will be awarded to two films and include a one-month stay respectively in New York for each director. A touching, distressing and simultaneously soothing documentary. In both a political and optimistic way, it shows a small, closed off world in an exemplary way. Community in the best sense of the word. The island and its inhabitants stand for a dignified life under particularly difficult circumstances. The film is impressive in its humanity and its strength of conviction that problems can be solved together. The MoreVALUE Film Award 2015 goes to Jakob Brossmann for LAMEPDUSA IM WINTER. The second prize winner chosen by the jury is a short film. Skin, our most familiar and intimate sensory organ, turns into a fascinating acoustic and visual landscape of the soul, full of depths of an unknown, mysterious life. There s method in the way this film looks at things. It s a view that not only wants to show something, but also explore new, foreign worlds in a seemingly familiar environment with intense persistence. The results so far have aroused a desire for more. And so, the jury decided to send Claudia Larcher on a new expedition. The MoreVALUE Short Film Award 2015 goes to Claudia Larcher for SELF. Guests of the Viennale 2015 This year, the Viennale welcomed a total of 140 directors and actors, who came to Vienna to personally present their films at the festival. International media representatives who covered the Viennale 2015 included journalists from Die Zeit, FAZ, Tages - spiegel, 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 We re looking forward to seeing you again at the 2016 festival.

5 SUPPORTERS FÖRDERER SPONSORS SPONSOREN RECYCLINGPARTNER RECYCLING PARTNER FESTIVALSPONSOR FESTIVAL SPONSOR SPONSOREN Canon card complete Corona Extra DS Automobiles Frederique Constant Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Berlin Julius Meinl Kaffee TP Vision Austria Vöslauer Mineralwasser Wiener Wohnen PRODUKTSPONSOREN Albrechtsberger FedEx Gewista urban media Gibson Innovations GOMI Zelte & Mietmöbel INFOSCREEN Lusthaus Wien MMO Media Market Observer Pannobile Plantical Reinwerfen statt Wegwerfen Remaprint-Litteradruck Schloss Gobelsburg Sektkellerei Johann Kattus Synchro Film, Video & Audio von feichtinger Blumen Weingut Bründlmayer Weingut Christoph Edelbauer Weingut Hagn Wirecard CEE Wolford RESTAURANTSPONSOREN burg.ring1 Café Ansari Café Diglas Café Prückel Comida y ron Figlmüller Wien Glacis Beisl Labstelle Lusthaus Wien Motto ON Market Stadtwirt Xpedit

6 VIENNALE PRESS OFFICE Fredi Themel 01/ Birgit Ecker 01/ Doris Hochrieser 01/ VIENNALE VIENNA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Siebensterngasse 2, 1070 Vienna, Austria Tel + 43/1/ Fax + 43/1/ office@viennale.at 6