Cinema of Austria
Encyclopedia
Austria
has had an active cinema
industry since the early 20th century. Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky was among the Austrian pioneers of this art. Several Austrians pursued a career in pre-Nazi Germany
and later in the United States
, among them Fritz Lang
, Josef von Sternberg
, Billy Wilder
, Fred Zinnemann
and Otto Preminger
. Between the two world wars, directors like E. W. Emo
and Henry Koster
- the latter of which had emigrated from Nazi Germany, provided examples of Austrian film comedies. At the same time, Willi Forst
and Walter Reisch
founded the Wiener Film
genre. After Austria had become a part of Nazi Germany in 1938, Vienna's Wien-Film
production company became an important studio for seemingly unpolitical productions. In the aftermath of World War II
, Austria's film production soon restarted, partially supported by the Allied Forces. Franz Antel
restarted and continued the tradition of light comedies until the early 1990s. In the 1960s and 1970s, Austria's alpine landscape as well as its directors and actors were regularly used for the Bavarian porn
productions. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, new Austrian filmmakers emerged and established themselves at international festivals, among them Axel Corti
, Michael Haneke
, and Ulrich Seidl
. Austrian actors who have achieved international success include Peter Lorre
, Paul Henreid, Oskar Homolka, Klaus Maria Brandauer
, Maximilian Schell
, Romy Schneider
, Oskar Werner
, Curd Jürgens
, Arnold Schwarzenegger
, and Christoph Waltz
.
Between 1896 and about 1905 the only films produced in Austria were newsreel
s, mostly by French companies such as Pathé Frères and Gaumont
. The first films by an Austrian film-maker were a series of short erotic movies such as Am Sklavenmarkt
produced by the photographer Johann Schwarzer, who founded the Saturn-Film company in 1906. Some of his productions have been found and restored in recent years by the Filmarchiv Austria
.
Mainstream film production began in 1910 when the company "Erste österreichische Kinofilms-Industrie", later Wiener Kunstfilm
) was founded by Anton Kolm
, his wife Luise Kolm
, and Jacob Fleck
. They started with newsreels but soon began to produce fiction films. In 1912 Count Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky
, a wealthy nobleman from Bohemia
, founded the Sascha-Film
company. In the period before 1918 it grew into the largest production company in Austria; its main competitor was Wiener Kunstfilm. After the start of World War I
the Austrian film industry grew in strength, as many foreign companies, including those of France's powerful film industry, were no longer allowed to produce or distribute films in Austria. In the period 1914 to 1918, nearly 200 movies were produced in Austria - twice as many as in all the years before.
Some Austrian film-makers had already emigrated and begun careers in the United States by this time. Erich von Stroheim
and Josef von Sternberg
were just two of the natives of Austria who contributed to the early success of Hollywood. Lesser known film-makers who began their career in the US were for example Henry Lehrman
, who staged a few hundred slapstick movies, including the first four movies starring Charlie Chaplin
. The founder of Fox Film Corporation
, William Fox
(born as Wilhelm Fuchs) and the first independent producer in Hollywood, Sam Spiegel
, were also native Austrians, born as German speaking Jews in Austria-Hungary
. The co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
, Marcus Loew
, was born as son of Jewish emigrants of Austria-Hungary.
, was very weak. As a result Austrian films were cheaper than those from other countries. In the years 1919 to 1922 Austrian film production reached its all-time peak with a yearly output of 100 to 140 films.
Many of the films produced in this period were of a lower quality than those of established film-producing nations like France, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany and Italy. But among the mass of low-grade productions there were also films by producers and directors who attached importance to quality. Consequently, the expressionist
style of film-making had its beginnings not only in German but also in Austrian cinema, for example in Paul Czinner
's Inferno (1920). The script of one of the most important German expressionist films, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
(1920), was written by two Austrians, Carl Mayer
and Hans Janowitz
. They, along with Fritz Lang
and Paul Czinner, also worked in Berlin at that time as Berlin was the centre of the German-language film industry. The Austrian Fritz Kortner
, who worked in both Germany and Austria - for example in Austrian pre-expressionist productions such as Der Mandarin (1918) - was one of the most noted expressionist actors. The best known Austrian expressionist film is The Hands of Orlac (1924) by German director Robert Wiene
which starred Conrad Veidt
and Fritz Kortner.
Around 1923 the whole European film industry went into decline due to growing competition from the United States. American films could be exported to Europe very cheaply, because the production costs had already been earned back at the American box-office. The European film industry, divided into many different countries and many different languages, could not produce quality films at a low enough price to compete with the American imports. Another issue which affected Germany and Austria was the successful reining in of hyperinflation. Austrian films were no longer especially cheap and exports fell. As a result Austrian film production had reduced by the mid-twenties to between 20 and 30 films per year, a level commensurate with its new greatly reduced size after World War I. In the whole silent movie era around 1,000 films were produced in Austria.
The 1920s were also the age of the epic film
, on the model of films of the pre-war period from the United States (for example those of D.W. Griffith) and Italy. In Austria the Austro-Hungarian film-makers Michael Curtiz
and Alexander Korda
produced epic films for Sascha-Film
and Vita-Film
(the successor company of Wiener Kunstfilm), among them Prinz und Bettelknabe (1920), Samson und Delila (1922), Sodom und Gomorrha (1922), Der junge Medardus (1923), Die Sklavenkönigin (1924), Harun al Rashid (1924) and Salammbo (1925). These films were the biggest ever produced in Austria, with enormous production costs, up to 10,000 costumed extras, and huge sets such as the "Temple of Sodom" which were designed and built by Austria's top set designers of the period, Emil Stepanek
, Artur Berger
and Julius von Borsody
. The who's-who of the Austrian film scene worked on these films. Leading cinematographers like Franz Planer
and Hans Theyer photographed the films, and the directors' wives, Lucy Doraine
(Michael Curtiz) and Maria Corda
(Alexander Korda), were the films' leading ladies. The casts were completed by Austrian film and theatre stars like Hans Thimig
, Walter Slezak
, Oskar Beregi, Hans Marr. Some film stars of later years, Willi Forst
for example, appeared in some of these movies as extras.
Between 1933 and 1936 Austria was a refuge for many German film-makers who had emigrated from Nazi Germany
, among them directors Erich Engel
and Werner Hochbaum.
. The majority of Jewish Austrian directors, actors and other employees of the film industry, along with many non-Jewish opponents of the Nazis emigrated in the following years to France, Czechoslovakia, Great Britain and the United States. Some Jewish film-makers, however, did not emigrate and many died in the Holocaust. Many of the Austrian emigrants went on to successful careers in the United States, notably the directors Billy Wilder
, Fred Zinnemann
, Otto Preminger
, Joe May
and Edgar G. Ulmer.
After the Anschluss
some film-makers came to arrangements with the new Nazi leadership, whilst others chose to leave the film business under the Nazis or to hide in the underground - for example the famous costume designer Gerdago who went on to create the costumes for the Sissi films of the 1950s.
The whole Austrian film industry was quickly integrated into one company Wien-Film
, which was the new name of Sascha-Film following its confiscation by the Nazis with the help of the Creditanstalt
bank. Wien-Film produced few openly propagandistic films; the majority of its output was apparently harmless comedies, which often had an antidemocratic and anti-semitic subtext. Although Nazi censorship was strict, a few films contained criticism hidden at a metaphorical level, for example the musical comedies of Willi Forst.
e, sentimental films with a rural setting. In the aftermath of World War II
Austria's cities were devastated and film-makers set their works in the countryside to show the population the "good and beautiful" Austria. In the 1950s, the age of the Wirtschaftswunder
there was little popular call for serious or critical films; the public preference was for films that displayed a safe environment, an escape from the destruction of recent history. Many of the comedies of the period were set at the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
as this period is identified with luxury, elegance, romance and a vision of Austria as large, powerful and peaceful. This explains the popularity of the Sissi films starring Romy Schneider
as the Empress Elizabeth
which found not only domestic but international success. These films were the model for many other Austrian films of the period. Apart from Schneider other Austrian film stars of the 1950s and 1960s were Peter Alexander, Attila Hörbiger
, Magda Schneider
, Wolf Albach-Retty
and Hans Moser
.
The 1970s was the period in which Austrian film production reached its lowest ebb with only five to ten films being produced each year. The reactionary Austrian film industry succumbed to the rise of television whilst at the same time, a new, young, and critical generation of film-makers - the Austrian avant-garde movement - emerged with productions that were often experimental
. Notable avant-garde film-makers, some of whom had begun working in the late 1950s, included Peter Kubelka
, Franz Novotny, Ernst Schmid Jr., Ferry Radax
, Kurt Kren
, Valie Export
, Otto Muehl
, and Peter Weibel
.
By around 1980 a new wave of mainstream film production had begun in Austria. With the modern industry having to compete with leisure pursuits like television and computers which did not exist in its heyday of the interwar period and the 1950s, a return to the production levels of those times seems most unlikely. However, the Austrian industry did begin to rediscover different film genres which had been largely forgotten from the 1930s through to the 1960s when sentimental comedies dominated the domestic scene. Whilst comedies remain popular in Austria to this day, the nature of the comedy has changed and dramas have returned to popularity. Other genres such as the action movie, the thriller, the fantasy film
and the horror film
have not become established in Austria, not least because of their high production costs and reliance on expensive special effects. Austrian films of the 21st Century seldom cost more than 1 to 2 million euro
s to produce as higher costs could not be earned back in the domestic market and few Austrian films enjoy successful overseas distribution. Simultaneously almost the entire distribution system within Austria is in the hands of the major American film companies who have their own productions to sell. As a result there is little marketing and publicity for Austrian-made films.
In the 1990s, the Austrian film industry underwent a number of structural changes. Some directors, both established and upcoming have created their own film-companies to share resources and learn from each other. The other film companies, the biggest of which are Dor-Film and Allegro-Film, both producing at least two theatrically released films a year, concentrate on commercially oriented productions such as comedies with cabaret stars who enjoy a high profile in the Austrian market. Such comedies, notably Hinterholz 8 and Poppitz, have had the highest box-office of any Austrian films in the last 25 years. These companies also produce more challenging films, but only in limited numbers as productions other than comedies are financially risky in Austria unless foreign distribution can be secured.
Austrian films' share of the domestic box-office is one of the lowest in Europe, with only about 3% of cinema admissions going to domestic productions. Every year the annual top ten films at the Austrian box-office are usually all American.
High-quality Austrian films, which have won more and more critical acclaim in recent years, are usually produced by small production companies, often in co-production with other countries. Examples of this are Die Klavierspielerin
and Caché
by Michael Haneke
, probably the most famous Austrian director at the current time. Other successful Austrian films (wholly Austrian and co-productions) since 2000 are We Feed the World
(Erwin Wagenhofer
), Darwin's Nightmare
(Hubert Sauper
), Calling Hedy Lamarr (Georg Misch
), Grbavica
(Jasmila Žbanić
), Slumming (Michael Glawogger
), Silentium and Komm, süßer Tod
(both Wolfgang Murnberger), The Edukators
(Hans Weingartner
) and Dog Days (Ulrich Seidl
). Other notable contemporary directors are Barbara Albert
, Andrea Maria Dusl
, Elisabeth Scharang, Jessica Hausner
, Stefan Ruzowitzky
, Ruth Mader
, Kurt Palm, Nikolaus Geyrhalter and, resident in the U.S., Robert Dornhelm
.
Contemporary Austrian film making is internationally well known for its realistic social dramas, which enjoyed high attention and many awards on international filmfestivals since the late 1990s. On the occasion of a film row of Austrian films in the Lincoln Center
, where films like Dog Days or Barbara Alberts Northern Skirts
(Nordrand) were shown, the New York Times came to the point, that Austria is currently the world capital of feel-bad cinema.
The Holocaust piece Die Fälscher
(The Counterfeiters) won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007 while Revanche
was nominated for the same award in 2009.
(AFC) supports promotion and export of Austrian films. This organisation is the Austrian member of European Film Promotion
(EFP), a European-wide network aiming at the worldwide promotion of European film.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
has had an active cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
industry since the early 20th century. Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky was among the Austrian pioneers of this art. Several Austrians pursued a career in pre-Nazi Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and later in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, among them Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
, Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.-Youth:Von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to a Jewish...
, Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
, Fred Zinnemann
Fred Zinnemann
Fred Zinnemann was an Austrian-American film director. He won four Academy Awards and directed films like High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons.-Life and career:...
and Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
. Between the two world wars, directors like E. W. Emo
E. W. Emo
E. W. Emo was an Austrian film director, specialising in comedies, 21 of them with the actor Hans Moser. He also worked outside Austria and wrote some screenplays....
and Henry Koster
Henry Koster
Henry Koster was born Hermann Kosterlitz in Berlin, Germany. He became a film director and later moved to Hollywood. Koster's father, a salesman, left home when Henry was a young man...
- the latter of which had emigrated from Nazi Germany, provided examples of Austrian film comedies. At the same time, Willi Forst
Willi Forst
Willi Forst, born Wilhelm Anton Frohs was an Austrian actor, screenwriter, film director, film producer and singer...
and Walter Reisch
Walter Reisch
Walter Reisch was an Austrian-born director and screenwriter. He also wrote lyrics to several songs featured in his films, one popular title is "Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne".-Selected filmography:...
founded the Wiener Film
Wiener Film
Wiener Film is an Austrian film genre, consisting of a combination of comedy, romance and melodrama in an historical setting, mostly, and typically, the Vienna of the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
genre. After Austria had become a part of Nazi Germany in 1938, Vienna's Wien-Film
Wien-Film
Wien-Film GmbH was a large Austrian film company, which in 1938 succeeded the Tobis-Sascha-Filmindustrie AG and lasted until 1985...
production company became an important studio for seemingly unpolitical productions. In the aftermath of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Austria's film production soon restarted, partially supported by the Allied Forces. Franz Antel
Franz Antel
Franz Antel was a veteran Austrian filmmaker.Born in Vienna, Antel worked mainly as a film producer in the interwar years. After World War II, he began writing and directing films on a large scale...
restarted and continued the tradition of light comedies until the early 1990s. In the 1960s and 1970s, Austria's alpine landscape as well as its directors and actors were regularly used for the Bavarian porn
Bavarian porn
Bavarian porn is a campy subgenre of softcore porn comedy. The apogee of the genre was the late 1960s and early 1970s, corresponding roughly to the chancellorship of Willy Brandt, but these films continued to be produced up to about 1980. Today they live on as staples of late night European cable...
productions. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, new Austrian filmmakers emerged and established themselves at international festivals, among them Axel Corti
Axel Corti
Axel Corti was an Austrian writer and director.- Life :...
, Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke is a German born Austrian filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style. His films often document problems and failures in modern society. Haneke has worked in television‚ theatre and cinema. He is also known for raising social issues in his work...
, and Ulrich Seidl
Ulrich Seidl
Ulrich Seidl is an Austrian film director, writer and producer.-Selected filmography:* 1990 Good News* 1992 Loss Is to Be Expected * 1995 Animal Love ...
. Austrian actors who have achieved international success include Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
, Paul Henreid, Oskar Homolka, Klaus Maria Brandauer
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Klaus Maria Brandauer is an Austrian actor, film director, and professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.-Personal life:...
, Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...
, Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider was an Austrian-born German film actress who also held French citizenship.-Early life:Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach in Nazi-era Vienna, six months after the Anschluss, into a family of actors that included her paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty, her Austrian...
, Oskar Werner
Oskar Werner
-Early life:Born Oskar Josef Bschließmayer in Vienna, Werner spent much of his childhood in the care of his grandmother, who entertained him with stories about the Burgtheater, the Austrian state theatre, where he was accepted at the age of eighteen by Lothar Müthel. He was the youngest person ever...
, Curd Jürgens
Curd Jürgens
Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens was a German-Austrian stage and film actor. He was usually billed in English-speaking films as Curt Jurgens.-Early life:...
, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
, and Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltz is an Austrian-German actor. He received international acclaim for his portrayal of SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in the 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the BAFTA, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and...
.
Before 1918
Between 1896 and about 1905 the only films produced in Austria were newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
s, mostly by French companies such as Pathé Frères and Gaumont
Gaumont Film Company
Gaumont Film Company is a French film production company founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont . Gaumont is the oldest continously operating film company in the world....
. The first films by an Austrian film-maker were a series of short erotic movies such as Am Sklavenmarkt
Am Sklavenmarkt
Am Sklavenmarkt is a short 1907 Austrian pornographic film directed by Johann Schwarzer, owner of Saturn Film company. It is possibly the first Austrian film ever made and one of the earliest films to use elements of pornography....
produced by the photographer Johann Schwarzer, who founded the Saturn-Film company in 1906. Some of his productions have been found and restored in recent years by the Filmarchiv Austria
Filmarchiv Austria
The Filmarchiv Austria is an organisation for the discovery, reconstruction and preservation of Austrian film record material: films themselves, literature about film and cinema, or film-related periodicals...
.
Mainstream film production began in 1910 when the company "Erste österreichische Kinofilms-Industrie", later Wiener Kunstfilm
Wiener Kunstfilm
Wiener Kunstfilm, in full Wiener Kunstfilm-Industrie , was the first major Austrian film production company...
) was founded by Anton Kolm
Anton Kolm
Anton Kolm was an Austrian photographer who became one of the first film directors and film producers in the history of Austrian cinema....
, his wife Luise Kolm
Luise Fleck
Luise Fleck, also known as Luise Kolm or Luise Kolm-Fleck, née Louise or Luise Veltée , was an Austrian film director, and the second ever female film director in the world, after Alice Guy-Blaché...
, and Jacob Fleck
Jacob Fleck
Jacob Fleck was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, film producer and cameraman.-Biography:...
. They started with newsreels but soon began to produce fiction films. In 1912 Count Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky
Alexander Kolowrat
Count Alexander Joseph von Kolowrat-Krakowsky , better known as "Sascha", was an Austrian film producer of Bohemian descent...
, a wealthy nobleman from Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, founded the Sascha-Film
Sascha-Film
Sascha-Film, in full Sascha-Filmindustrie AG and from 1933 Tobis-Sascha-Filmindustrie AG, was the largest Austrian film production company of the silent film and early sound film period.-History:...
company. In the period before 1918 it grew into the largest production company in Austria; its main competitor was Wiener Kunstfilm. After the start of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
the Austrian film industry grew in strength, as many foreign companies, including those of France's powerful film industry, were no longer allowed to produce or distribute films in Austria. In the period 1914 to 1918, nearly 200 movies were produced in Austria - twice as many as in all the years before.
Some Austrian film-makers had already emigrated and begun careers in the United States by this time. Erich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim was an Austrian-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur for his directorial work.-Background:...
and Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.-Youth:Von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to a Jewish...
were just two of the natives of Austria who contributed to the early success of Hollywood. Lesser known film-makers who began their career in the US were for example Henry Lehrman
Henry Lehrman
Henry Lehrman was an American actor, screenwriter and film director and producer.Born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, Lehrman emigrated to the United States at a young age and although he is best remembered as a film director, he began his career as an actor in a 1909 Biograph Studios production...
, who staged a few hundred slapstick movies, including the first four movies starring Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
. The founder of Fox Film Corporation
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, William Fox
William Fox (producer)
William Fox born Fried Vilmos was a pioneering Hungarian American motion picture executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s...
(born as Wilhelm Fuchs) and the first independent producer in Hollywood, Sam Spiegel
Sam Spiegel
Sam Spiegel was an Austrian-born American independent film producer.-Life and career:Spiegel was born in Jarosław, Galicia, Austria-Hungary as Samuel P. Spiegel to a German-Jewish father and Polish mother and educated at the University of Vienna. His brother was Shalom Spiegel, a professor of...
, were also native Austrians, born as German speaking Jews in Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. The co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
, Marcus Loew
Marcus Loew
Marcus Loew was an American business magnate and a pioneer of the motion picture industry who formed Loews Theatres and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .-Biography:...
, was born as son of Jewish emigrants of Austria-Hungary.
1918 to 1936
After the end of World War I, film production continued to grow, because the then Austrian currency, the KroneAustro-Hungarian krone
The Krone or korona was the official currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1892 until the dissolution of the empire in 1918...
, was very weak. As a result Austrian films were cheaper than those from other countries. In the years 1919 to 1922 Austrian film production reached its all-time peak with a yearly output of 100 to 140 films.
Many of the films produced in this period were of a lower quality than those of established film-producing nations like France, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany and Italy. But among the mass of low-grade productions there were also films by producers and directors who attached importance to quality. Consequently, the expressionist
German Expressionism
German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...
style of film-making had its beginnings not only in German but also in Austrian cinema, for example in Paul Czinner
Paul Czinner
Paul Czinner was a writer, film director, and producer.Czinner was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary. After studying literature and philosophy at the University of Vienna, he worked as a journalist. From 1919 onward, he dedicated himself to work for the filming industry as writer, director and...
's Inferno (1920). The script of one of the most important German expressionist films, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the silent era. This movie is cited as...
(1920), was written by two Austrians, Carl Mayer
Carl Mayer
Carl Mayer was an Austrian screenplay writer who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Haunted Castle , Der Letzte Mann , Tartuffe , Sunrise and 4 Devils , the last five being films directed by F. W...
and Hans Janowitz
Hans Janowitz
Hans Janowitz was a Bohemian-born German author.Janowitz was an officer in World War I, but returned from it as a pacifist. Shortly after the war ended, he met the similarly minded Carl Mayer in Berlin, who suggested he work as an author. Together they wrote the script to The Cabinet of Dr...
. They, along with Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
and Paul Czinner, also worked in Berlin at that time as Berlin was the centre of the German-language film industry. The Austrian Fritz Kortner
Fritz Kortner
Fritz Kortner was an Austrian-born stage and film actor and theatre director.Kortner was born in Vienna as Fritz Nathan Kohn. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After graduating, he joined Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1911 and then Leopold Jessner in 1916. Also in that year...
, who worked in both Germany and Austria - for example in Austrian pre-expressionist productions such as Der Mandarin (1918) - was one of the most noted expressionist actors. The best known Austrian expressionist film is The Hands of Orlac (1924) by German director Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene was an important film director of the German silent cinema.Robert Wiene was born in Breslau, as the elder son of the successful theatre actor Carl Wiene. His younger brother Conrad also became an actor, but Robert Wiene at first studied law at the University of Berlin. In 1908 he also...
which starred Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Man Who Laughs , The Thief of Bagdad and Casablanca...
and Fritz Kortner.
Around 1923 the whole European film industry went into decline due to growing competition from the United States. American films could be exported to Europe very cheaply, because the production costs had already been earned back at the American box-office. The European film industry, divided into many different countries and many different languages, could not produce quality films at a low enough price to compete with the American imports. Another issue which affected Germany and Austria was the successful reining in of hyperinflation. Austrian films were no longer especially cheap and exports fell. As a result Austrian film production had reduced by the mid-twenties to between 20 and 30 films per year, a level commensurate with its new greatly reduced size after World War I. In the whole silent movie era around 1,000 films were produced in Austria.
The 1920s were also the age of the epic film
Epic film
An epic is a genre of film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale. Epics are more ambitious in scope than other film genres, and their ambitious nature helps to differentiate them from similar genres such as the period piece or adventure film...
, on the model of films of the pre-war period from the United States (for example those of D.W. Griffith) and Italy. In Austria the Austro-Hungarian film-makers Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz was an Academy award winning Hungarian-American film director. He had early creditsas Mihály Kertész and Michael Kertész...
and Alexander Korda
Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda was a Hungarian-born British producer and film director. He was a leading figure in the British film industry, the founder of London Films and the owner of British Lion Films, a film distributing company.-Life and career:The elder brother of filmmakers Zoltán Korda and Vincent...
produced epic films for Sascha-Film
Sascha-Film
Sascha-Film, in full Sascha-Filmindustrie AG and from 1933 Tobis-Sascha-Filmindustrie AG, was the largest Austrian film production company of the silent film and early sound film period.-History:...
and Vita-Film
Vita-Film
Vita-Film was founded in 1919 as the successor company to Wiener Kunstfilm-Industrie by Anton and Luise Kolm.By 1923 Vita-Film had built the Rosenhügel Film Studios in the Vienna suburbs, which still stand and are still used for film production...
(the successor company of Wiener Kunstfilm), among them Prinz und Bettelknabe (1920), Samson und Delila (1922), Sodom und Gomorrha (1922), Der junge Medardus (1923), Die Sklavenkönigin (1924), Harun al Rashid (1924) and Salammbo (1925). These films were the biggest ever produced in Austria, with enormous production costs, up to 10,000 costumed extras, and huge sets such as the "Temple of Sodom" which were designed and built by Austria's top set designers of the period, Emil Stepanek
Emil Stepanek
Emil Stepanek was an Austrian set designer and film architect.-Biography:Stepanek was born in Vienna, the son of a carpenter, and received a training in stage set construction, in which he worked for several years. Between 1916 and 1918 he had to perform military service...
, Artur Berger
Artur Berger
Artur Semyonovich Berger was an Austrian-Soviet film architect and set designer. He was active in Austria between 1920 and 1936, during which time he worked on about 30 feature films...
and Julius von Borsody
Julius von Borsody
Julius von Borsody was an Austrian film architect and one of the most employed set designers in the Austrian and German cinemas of the late silent and early sound film periods...
. The who's-who of the Austrian film scene worked on these films. Leading cinematographers like Franz Planer
Franz Planer
Franz Planer, A.S.C. was a cinematographer born in Karlsbad, Austria-Hungary ,-Biography:...
and Hans Theyer photographed the films, and the directors' wives, Lucy Doraine
Lucy Doraine
Lucy Doraine was a Hungarian film actress of the silent era.Born as Ilona Kovács in Budapest, she appeared in 24 films between 1918 and 1931...
(Michael Curtiz) and Maria Corda
María Corda
María Corda was a Hungarian actress and a star of the silent film era in Germany and Austria....
(Alexander Korda), were the films' leading ladies. The casts were completed by Austrian film and theatre stars like Hans Thimig
Hans Thimig
Hans Emil Thimig, pseudonym: Hans Werner was an Austrian actor, film director and stage director.- Life :...
, Walter Slezak
Walter Slezak
Walter Slezak was a portly Austrian character actor who appeared in numerous Hollywood films. Slezak often portrayed villains or thugs, most notably the German U-boat captain in Alfred Hitchcock's film Lifeboat , but occasionally he got to play lighter roles, as in The Wonderful World of the...
, Oskar Beregi, Hans Marr. Some film stars of later years, Willi Forst
Willi Forst
Willi Forst, born Wilhelm Anton Frohs was an Austrian actor, screenwriter, film director, film producer and singer...
for example, appeared in some of these movies as extras.
Between 1933 and 1936 Austria was a refuge for many German film-makers who had emigrated from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, among them directors Erich Engel
Erich Engel
Erich Engel was a German film and theatre director.- Biography :Engel was born in Hamburg, where later he studied at the School of Applied Arts...
and Werner Hochbaum.
1936 to 1945
Although Austria was not annexed by Germany until 1938, Jews were forbidden to work in the Austrian film industry from 1936 onwards due to pressure from Nazi Germany where Jews had been banned from film work within months of the Nazis taking power. Germany was the most important export market for Austrian films and Germany had threatened a total ban on Austrian film imports unless the Austrians complied with their demands. The only exception to this ban was, for unknown reasons, the film Episode (1935) directed by the Jewish Walter ReischWalter Reisch
Walter Reisch was an Austrian-born director and screenwriter. He also wrote lyrics to several songs featured in his films, one popular title is "Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne".-Selected filmography:...
. The majority of Jewish Austrian directors, actors and other employees of the film industry, along with many non-Jewish opponents of the Nazis emigrated in the following years to France, Czechoslovakia, Great Britain and the United States. Some Jewish film-makers, however, did not emigrate and many died in the Holocaust. Many of the Austrian emigrants went on to successful careers in the United States, notably the directors Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
, Fred Zinnemann
Fred Zinnemann
Fred Zinnemann was an Austrian-American film director. He won four Academy Awards and directed films like High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons.-Life and career:...
, Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
, Joe May
Joe May
Joe May , born Julius Otto Mandl, was a film director and film producer born in Austria and one of the pioneers of German cinema....
and Edgar G. Ulmer.
After the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
some film-makers came to arrangements with the new Nazi leadership, whilst others chose to leave the film business under the Nazis or to hide in the underground - for example the famous costume designer Gerdago who went on to create the costumes for the Sissi films of the 1950s.
The whole Austrian film industry was quickly integrated into one company Wien-Film
Wien-Film
Wien-Film GmbH was a large Austrian film company, which in 1938 succeeded the Tobis-Sascha-Filmindustrie AG and lasted until 1985...
, which was the new name of Sascha-Film following its confiscation by the Nazis with the help of the Creditanstalt
Creditanstalt
The Creditanstalt was an Austrian bank. The Creditanstalt was based in Vienna, founded in 1855 as K. k. priv. Österreichische Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe by the Rothschild family...
bank. Wien-Film produced few openly propagandistic films; the majority of its output was apparently harmless comedies, which often had an antidemocratic and anti-semitic subtext. Although Nazi censorship was strict, a few films contained criticism hidden at a metaphorical level, for example the musical comedies of Willi Forst.
1945 to 1970
The period between 1945 and 1970 was the age of musical comedies, which had already become popular in the 1930s, and of HeimatfilmHeimatfilm
Heimatfilm is the name given to a film genre that was popular in Germany, Switzerland and Austria from the late 40s to the early 70s. They were usually shot in the Alps, the Black Forest or the Lüneburg Heath and always involved the outdoors...
e, sentimental films with a rural setting. In the aftermath of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Austria's cities were devastated and film-makers set their works in the countryside to show the population the "good and beautiful" Austria. In the 1950s, the age of the Wirtschaftswunder
Wirtschaftswunder
The term describes the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria after World War II . The expression was used by The Times in 1950...
there was little popular call for serious or critical films; the public preference was for films that displayed a safe environment, an escape from the destruction of recent history. Many of the comedies of the period were set at the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
as this period is identified with luxury, elegance, romance and a vision of Austria as large, powerful and peaceful. This explains the popularity of the Sissi films starring Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider was an Austrian-born German film actress who also held French citizenship.-Early life:Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach in Nazi-era Vienna, six months after the Anschluss, into a family of actors that included her paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty, her Austrian...
as the Empress Elizabeth
Elisabeth of Bavaria
Elisabeth of Austria was the spouse of Franz Joseph I, and therefore both Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. She also held the titles of Queen of Bohemia and Croatia, among others...
which found not only domestic but international success. These films were the model for many other Austrian films of the period. Apart from Schneider other Austrian film stars of the 1950s and 1960s were Peter Alexander, Attila Hörbiger
Attila Hörbiger
Attila Hörbiger was an Austrian stage and movie actor.Hörbiger was born in Budapest, then Austria–Hungary, the son of engineer Hanns Hörbiger and younger brother of actor Paul Hörbiger...
, Magda Schneider
Magda Schneider
Magda Schneider was a German actress and singer; she was the mother of the actress Romy Schneider.- Biography :Magdalena Schneider was born in Augsburg, Bavaria. After training as a stenographer, she studied singing at the Augsburg Academy and ballet at the local theater. She made her stage debut...
, Wolf Albach-Retty
Wolf Albach-Retty
Wolf Albach-Retty was a Vienna-born Austrian actor. He had a daughter with German actress Magda Schneider named Romy Schneider....
and Hans Moser
Hans Moser (actor)
Hans Moser was an Austrian actor who, during his long career, from the 1920s up to his death, mainly played in comedy films. He was particularly associated with the genre of the Wiener Film...
.
1970 to 1990 − era of structural changes
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
. Notable avant-garde film-makers, some of whom had begun working in the late 1950s, included Peter Kubelka
Peter Kubelka
Peter Kubelka is an Austrian experimental filmmaker. His films are primarily short experiments in linking seemingly disparate sound and images...
, Franz Novotny, Ernst Schmid Jr., Ferry Radax
Ferry Radax
Ferry Radax is an Austrian film maker born in Vienna. He has been active in many genres since 1949. He studied at Vienna's Film Institute in 1953-54, followed by Cinecittà, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, in Rome in 1955-56. He has produced films all around Europe, and also in South...
, Kurt Kren
Kurt Kren
Kurt Kren was an Austrian avantgarde filmmaker. He is best known for his involvement with the Vienna Aktionists and the group of films that resulted.-Biography:...
, Valie Export
Valie Export
Valie Export is an Austrian artist...
, Otto Muehl
Otto Muehl
Otto Muehl is an Austrian artist, who is best known as one of the co-founders as well as a main participant of Viennese Actionism. In 1972 he founded the Friedrichshof Commune that existed for several years before falling apart in the 1990s...
, and Peter Weibel
Peter Weibel
Peter Weibel is an artist, curator and theoretician.Raised in Upper Austria he started to study French and cinematography in Paris...
.
By around 1980 a new wave of mainstream film production had begun in Austria. With the modern industry having to compete with leisure pursuits like television and computers which did not exist in its heyday of the interwar period and the 1950s, a return to the production levels of those times seems most unlikely. However, the Austrian industry did begin to rediscover different film genres which had been largely forgotten from the 1930s through to the 1960s when sentimental comedies dominated the domestic scene. Whilst comedies remain popular in Austria to this day, the nature of the comedy has changed and dramas have returned to popularity. Other genres such as the action movie, the thriller, the fantasy film
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
and the horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
have not become established in Austria, not least because of their high production costs and reliance on expensive special effects. Austrian films of the 21st Century seldom cost more than 1 to 2 million euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
s to produce as higher costs could not be earned back in the domestic market and few Austrian films enjoy successful overseas distribution. Simultaneously almost the entire distribution system within Austria is in the hands of the major American film companies who have their own productions to sell. As a result there is little marketing and publicity for Austrian-made films.
After 1990 – new generation
| cinema-film production | |||||||
| Year | Amount | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 17 | ||||||
| 2001 | 12 | ||||||
| 2002 | 26 | ||||||
| 2003 | 20 | ||||||
| 2004 | 24 | ||||||
| 2005 | 24 | ||||||
In the 1990s, the Austrian film industry underwent a number of structural changes. Some directors, both established and upcoming have created their own film-companies to share resources and learn from each other. The other film companies, the biggest of which are Dor-Film and Allegro-Film, both producing at least two theatrically released films a year, concentrate on commercially oriented productions such as comedies with cabaret stars who enjoy a high profile in the Austrian market. Such comedies, notably Hinterholz 8 and Poppitz, have had the highest box-office of any Austrian films in the last 25 years. These companies also produce more challenging films, but only in limited numbers as productions other than comedies are financially risky in Austria unless foreign distribution can be secured.
Austrian films' share of the domestic box-office is one of the lowest in Europe, with only about 3% of cinema admissions going to domestic productions. Every year the annual top ten films at the Austrian box-office are usually all American.
High-quality Austrian films, which have won more and more critical acclaim in recent years, are usually produced by small production companies, often in co-production with other countries. Examples of this are Die Klavierspielerin
Die Klavierspielerin
The Piano Teacher is a novel by Austrian Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, first published in 1983 by Rowohlt Verlag....
and Caché
Caché (film)
Caché is a 2005 Austrian-French film written and directed by Michael Haneke. It stars Daniel Auteuil as Georges and Juliette Binoche as his wife Anne.-Plot:...
by Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke is a German born Austrian filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style. His films often document problems and failures in modern society. Haneke has worked in television‚ theatre and cinema. He is also known for raising social issues in his work...
, probably the most famous Austrian director at the current time. Other successful Austrian films (wholly Austrian and co-productions) since 2000 are We Feed the World
We Feed the World
We Feed the World is a 2005 documentary in which Austrian filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer traces the origins of the food we eat and views modern industrial production of food and factory farming in a critical light...
(Erwin Wagenhofer
Erwin Wagenhofer
Erwin Wagenhofer is an Austrian author and film director.In 1981 he presented his first short film Endstation normal. Two years later his short film Das Loch was shown at the Krakau film festival. From that year until 1987 he worked as a directing and camera assistant for several ORF productions...
), Darwin's Nightmare
Darwin's Nightmare
Darwin's Nightmare is a 2004 French-Belgian-Austrian documentary film written and directed by Hubert Sauper, dealing with the environmental and social effects of the fishing industry around Lake Victoria in Tanzania. It premiered at the 2004 Venice Film Festival, and was nominated for the 2006...
(Hubert Sauper
Hubert Sauper
Hubert Sauper is a documentary filmmaker best known for the highly controversial Darwin's Nightmare which was nominated for an Academy Award....
), Calling Hedy Lamarr (Georg Misch
Georg Misch
Georg Misch was a German philosopher.-Life and work:He worked as a professor in Marburg and Göttingen before retiring under pressure from the National Socialist government in 1935. He went into exile to the UK, living there from 1939 until 1946...
), Grbavica
Grbavica (film)
Grbavica is a 2006 film by Jasmila Žbanić about the life of a single mother in contemporary Sarajevo in the aftermath of systematic rapes of Bosniak women by Serbian troops during the war...
(Jasmila Žbanić
Jasmila Žbanic
Jasmila Žbanić is a film director from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a graduate of Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, department for theater and film directing. She also worked as a puppeteer in the Vermont-based Bread and Puppet Theater and as a clown in a Lee De Long workshop. She is noted for the...
), Slumming (Michael Glawogger
Michael Glawogger
Michael Glawogger is an Austrian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer.From 1981 to 1982 Glawogger studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and then from 1983 to 1989 at the Vienna Film Academy...
), Silentium and Komm, süßer Tod
Komm, süßer Tod (film)
Komm, süßer Tod is a 2000 Austrian darkly humorous crime film based on the novel by Wolf Haas of the same name. It is one of the Brenner detective stories, which tell of the luckless life of ex-policeman and unsuccessful private investigator Simon Brenner, who tramps throughout Austria and...
(both Wolfgang Murnberger), The Edukators
The Edukators
The Edukators is a German-Austrian film made by the Austrian director Hans Weingartner and released in 2004. Nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, it stars Daniel Brühl, Stipe Erceg and Julia Jentsch....
(Hans Weingartner
Hans Weingartner
Hans Weingartner is an Austrian author, director and producer of films. He attended the Austrian Association of Cinematography and earned a diploma as a camera assistant. Later, he did a postgraduate at the Academy of Media Arts KHM in Cologne, Germany...
) and Dog Days (Ulrich Seidl
Ulrich Seidl
Ulrich Seidl is an Austrian film director, writer and producer.-Selected filmography:* 1990 Good News* 1992 Loss Is to Be Expected * 1995 Animal Love ...
). Other notable contemporary directors are Barbara Albert
Barbara Albert
Barbara Albert is an Austrian writer, film-producer and film-director.She studied filmmaking at the Wiener Filmakademie. Her first film to become known to a larger audience was Nordrand, which describes the reality of life of Yugoslavian children in Vienna.She heads the production company Coop 99...
, Andrea Maria Dusl
Andrea Maria Dusl
Andrea Maria Dusl , is an Austrian/Swedish film director, author and illustrator.She was born in Vienna, the daughter of Austrian architect Erwin H. Dusl and Swedish captain's family Pettersson's descendant Monica Jüllig. Between 1981 and 1985 she studied stage design at Vienna's Akademie der...
, Elisabeth Scharang, Jessica Hausner
Jessica Hausner
Jessica Hausner is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. She has directed six films since 1995. Her film Lovely Rita was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival...
, Stefan Ruzowitzky
Stefan Ruzowitzky
Stefan Ruzowitzky is an Academy Award-winning Austrian film director and screenwriter.-Early life:Ruzowitzky was born in Vienna...
, Ruth Mader
Ruth Mader
Ruth Mader is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. She has directed six films between 1992 and 2003. Her film Struggle was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.-Filmography:...
, Kurt Palm, Nikolaus Geyrhalter and, resident in the U.S., Robert Dornhelm
Robert Dornhelm
Robert Dornhelm is an Austrian film and television director of Romanian ancestry. He has worked on numerous television programmes and has also released such movies as Echo Park, The Venice Project, Der Unfisch, and A Further Gesture...
.
Contemporary Austrian film making is internationally well known for its realistic social dramas, which enjoyed high attention and many awards on international filmfestivals since the late 1990s. On the occasion of a film row of Austrian films in the Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
, where films like Dog Days or Barbara Alberts Northern Skirts
Northern Skirts
Northern Skirts is a 1999 German-language film directed by Barbara Albert. It was an international co-production between Austria, Germany and Switzerland. It was Austria's official Best Foreign Language Film submission at the 72nd Academy Awards, but did not manage to receive a nomination....
(Nordrand) were shown, the New York Times came to the point, that Austria is currently the world capital of feel-bad cinema.
The Holocaust piece Die Fälscher
The Counterfeiters (film)
The Counterfeiters is a 2007 Austrian-German film written and directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky. It fictionalizes Operation Bernhard, a secret plan by the Nazis during the Second World War to destabilize Great Britain by flooding its economy with forged Bank of England bank notes.The film centres on a...
(The Counterfeiters) won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007 while Revanche
Revanche (film)
Revanche is a 2008 Austrian thriller film written and directed by Götz Spielmann. It centers on the ill-fated love story between a Viennese ex-con and a Ukrainian prostitute who get involved in a bank robbery....
was nominated for the same award in 2009.
Organisations
The Austrian Film CommissionAustrian Film Commission
The Austrian Film Commission was founded in 1986 and is an organisation financed by public funds with the aim of promoting Austrian film abroad.-Activities:...
(AFC) supports promotion and export of Austrian films. This organisation is the Austrian member of European Film Promotion
European Film Promotion
European Film Promotion is an organisation which works for the worldwide promotion and marketing of European cinema. The EFP network incorporates 31 national promotion organisations from 32 European countries.-Activities:EFP's major objectives are:...
(EFP), a European-wide network aiming at the worldwide promotion of European film.
Films
| Most successful Austrian films at the Austrian box-office by admissions from 1981 through to March 20, 2006; Source: Österreichisches Filminstitut (www.filminstitut.at) |
||||
| # | Film | Prod.- company |
Director | Admissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hinterholz 8 | Dor Film | Harald Sicheritz | 617,558 |
| 2 | Poppitz | Dor Film | Harald Sicheritz | 441,017 |
| 3 | Müllers Büro | Wega Film | Niki List | 441,000 |
| 4 | Schlafes Bruder | Dor Film | Joseph Vilsmaier Joseph Vilsmaier Joseph Vilsmaier is a German film director.-Work:After attending a boarding school near Augsburg, he was trained as a technician to make film cameras and then spent nine years at a music conservatory. Following this he was a member of a jazz group... |
307,300 |
| 5 | MA 2412 - Der Film MA 2412 MA 2412 is an Austrian television series.... |
MR Film | Harald Sicheritz | 272,849 |
| 6 | Komm, süßer Tod Komm, süßer Tod (film) Komm, süßer Tod is a 2000 Austrian darkly humorous crime film based on the novel by Wolf Haas of the same name. It is one of the Brenner detective stories, which tell of the luckless life of ex-policeman and unsuccessful private investigator Simon Brenner, who tramps throughout Austria and... |
Dor Film | Wolfgang Murnberger | 230,361 |
| 7 | Indien Indien (film) Indien is a 1993 Austrian tragicomedy directed by Paul Harather. It was Austria's submission to the 66th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee.-See also:*Cinema of Austria... |
Dor Film | Paul Harather Paul Harather Paul Harather is an Austrian film director, producer and screenplay author.He studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.... |
223,680 |
| 8 | Sei zärtlich, Pinguin | Köpf Film | Peter Hajek | 210,000 |
| 9 | Silentium | Dor Film | Wolfgang Murnberger | 204,802 |
| 10 | Wanted | MR Film | Harald Sicheritz | 187,542 |
| 11 | We Feed the World We Feed the World We Feed the World is a 2005 documentary in which Austrian filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer traces the origins of the food we eat and views modern industrial production of food and factory farming in a critical light... |
Allegro Film | Erwin Wagenhofer Erwin Wagenhofer Erwin Wagenhofer is an Austrian author and film director.In 1981 he presented his first short film Endstation normal. Two years later his short film Das Loch was shown at the Krakau film festival. From that year until 1987 he worked as a directing and camera assistant for several ORF productions... |
183,379 |
| 12 | Freispiel | Scheiderbauer Film | Harald Sicheritz | 173,658 |
| 13 | Eine fast perfekte Scheidung | Star Film | Reinhard Schwabenitzky | 156,600 |
| 14 | Ein fast perfekter Seitensprung | Star Film | Reinhard Schwabenitzky | 151,000 |
| 15 | Hasenjagd | Provinz Film | Andreas Gruber Andreas Gruber Andreas Gruber is an Austrian screenwriter and director of both television and film.From 1974 to 1982 he studied screenwriting and directing at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna.... |
122,634 |