Vienna Independent Shorts (VIS) is an international short film

Short subject

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 festival held annually in May in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. It is the largest short film festival in Austria

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...

.

History

Vienna Independent Shorts was held in 2004 for the first time. Several Viennese institutions active in the promotion of short films arranged one day of the one-week event. The festival program consisted of 125 short films. Among the venues that have been used continuously since the first festival edition are the Top Kino and the Reformed Church.

Since 2005, the festival is hosted the Independent Cinema Association which was founded by the organizers of the first festival edition. For the first time an international competition with 64 films was held. Annually recurring festival events, which were introduced in 2005, are a retrospective of the University of Applied Arts Vienna

University of Applied Arts Vienna

The University of Applied Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna, the capital of Austria. It has had university status since 1970.-History:...

 and a Kino Kabaret

Kino (movement)

Kino is a movement created as a means of providing both amateur and professional filmmakers with a place to create and screen their short-films. Kino Kabaret is a type of innovative film-making lab where invited artists create films in a mindset of spontaneity and collaboration...

.

The festival edition of 2006 included 83 films in international competition. A retrospective was dedicated to Austrian director Mara Mattuschka and short films from Southeast Europe

Southeast Europe

Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe is a relatively recent political designation for the states of the Balkans. Writers such as Maria Todorova and Vesna Goldsworthy have suggested the use of the term Southeastern Europe to replace the word Balkans for the region, to minimize potential...

 were given a special focus. The film reel of the 26 single films of The Mozart-Minute, which was produced on the occasion of the 250th birthday of Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

, celebrated its Vienna premiere at the festival. In 2006, venues outside of Vienna – in Dornbirn

Dornbirn

Dornbirn is a city in Vorarlberg, Austria. It is the administrative center of the district Dornbirn, which also includes the city of Hohenems, and the market town Lustenau....

, Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

 and Innsbruck

Innsbruck

- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

 – were also used for festival screenings.

In 2007, a Panorama section with Austrian short films was added to the international competition for the first time. 49 short films were part of the international competition, 23 films were presented in the Panorama section. There were also three retrospectives with short films by Paul Bush

Paul Bush

Paul Bush is a British experimental film director and animator. The son of classical composer Geoffrey Bush, Paul Bush studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College under Michael Craig-Martin...

, Miranda July

Miranda July

Miranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...

 and Virgil Widrich

Virgil Widrich

Virgil Widrich is an Austrian director, screenwriter, film-maker and multimedia artist.Widrich works on a large number of films and multimedia projects, sometimes as part of a creative team...

. One of several guest programs was curated by the Ars Electronica

Ars Electronica

Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society that was part of the International Bruckner Festival. Herbert W. Franke is one of its founders. It became its own festival and a yearly event in 1986. Its director until 1995...

. In the context of VIS on Tour Vienna Independent Shorts compiled film programs for the Vienna Festival

Vienna Festival

The Wiener Festwochen is a cultural festival in Vienna that takes place every year for five or six weeks in May and June.The Wiener Festwochen was established in 1951, when Vienna was still occupied by the four Allies...

, the Forum Stadtpark, Crossing Europe, the Diagonale

Diagonale

The Diagonale is a film festival that takes place every March in Graz, Austria.The festival was initially held under the auspices of the Austrian Film Commission in Salzburg from 1993 to 1995 but moved to Graz in 1998. Traditional cinema venues are UCI Kinowelt Annenhof, Schubertkino, augartenkino...

, and others. Since 2007, the permanent festival office is located at the quartier21 of the Museumsquartier

Museumsquartier

The Museumsquartier is a 60,000 m² large area in the 7th district of the city of Vienna, Austria; it is the eighth largest cultural area in the world. The Museumsquartier contains Baroque buildings as well as Modern architecture by the architects Laurids and Manfred Ortner . The renovation of the...

.
Vienna Independent Shorts 2008 was opened with the world premiere of Eleven Minutes at Vienna’s Gartenbaukino with about 1100 guests attending. The Austrian-Swiss anthology film

Anthology film

An anthology film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event . Sometimes each one is directed by a different director...

 was produced on the occasion of the UEFA Euro 2008 taking place in both countries. Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 was given a special focus, including a film program by the Baden

Baden, Switzerland

Baden is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Aargau, on the west bank of the river Limmat, located in the Limmat Valley , northwest of Zürich. It is the seat of the district of Baden...

 Fantoche Animation Film Festival. Forza Bastia, a rarely shown documentary film by Jacques Tati

Jacques Tati

Jacques Tati was a French filmmaker, working as a comedic actor, writer and director. In a poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly of the Greatest Movie Directors Tati was voted the 46th greatest of all time...

, was screened in the context of an emphasis on films dealing with association football. Retrospectives devoted to Chantal Akerman

Chantal Akerman

Chantal Anne Akerman is a Belgian film director, artist, and professor of film at the European Graduate School. Akerman's best-known film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles , exemplifies a dedication to the ellipses of conventional narrative cinema.-Early life:Akerman was born to...

, Hubert Sielecki and Jerzy Kucia were also presented at the festival. In addition to twenty special and guest programs there were 47 films in international competition and 33 films in the Panorama section.

311 short films were presented during the sixth edition of Vienna Independent Shorts in 2009, including 44 films in international competition. 1129 films from 54 countries were submitted. Major thematic focuses were the memory of the years 1939 (the outbreak 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...

) and 1989 (the fall of the Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...

) as well as the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. Retrospectives were devoted to, inter alia, Ben Rivers

Ben Rivers

Ben Rivers is a contemporary experimental film maker and artist based in London. His work has been shown in many film festivals and galleries throughout the world, and won numerous awards...

, Norbert Pfaffenbichler and Lotte Schreiber, and the California Institute of the Arts

California Institute of the Arts

The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...

.

The 2010 VIS Festival was held at seven screening locations in Vienna and two new competitions in the category of international narrative and documentary short film were added: Animation Avantgarde and a national competition that awarded the country's first Austrian Short Film Award. Over 1800 international films were submitted for the festival which had "Dance and Rhythm" as its general thematic focus. The music-based events were presented in cooperation with Radio FM4 and the sixpackfilm distribution firm. Max Hattler

Max Hattler

Max Hattler is a German video artist and experimental filmmaker best known for his kaleidoscopic political short films “Collision” and "Spin" , abstract stop motion work "AANAATT" , and psychedelic animation loops "1923 aka Heaven" and "1925 aka Hell" .- Biography :Max Hattler was born in Ulm,...

 and Noriko Okaku premiered their VIS-commissioned audiovisual performance "Resc(O)re 192010". Filmmaker Adnan Popović created the year's popular trailer. Retrospectives on the works Miranda Pennell and Thomas Draschan were presented and the independent Vienna broadcast channel Octo as well as the Austrian national network ORF

ORF

ORF may refer to:* ORF , the Austrian public service broadcaster.* Open reading frame, a portion of the genome.* The IATA airport code for Norfolk International Airport in Norfolk, Virginia.* ORF format , Olympus raw image file format....

 offered lengthy television coverage on the festival.

Max Hattler

Max Hattler

Max Hattler is a German video artist and experimental filmmaker best known for his kaleidoscopic political short films “Collision” and "Spin" , abstract stop motion work "AANAATT" , and psychedelic animation loops "1923 aka Heaven" and "1925 aka Hell" .- Biography :Max Hattler was born in Ulm,...

 created the festival trailer for VIS 2011.

Award winners

Awards winner 2005
Golden Shorts – Audience Award	Stefan Wolner (Austria): Balls
Award winners 2006
Golden Shorts – Audience Award	Alexis Ferrebeuf (France): Mort à l'écran
DocuZone Austria Short Film Award	Markus Oberndorfer (Austria): Untitled_in_Case_No_1
diemelange Short Film Award	Björn Kämmerer (Austria): Escalator
Award winners 2007
Vienna Short Film Award	Marc Schaus (Belgium): Quelque chose en O
ray Audience Award	Astrid Rieger (Germany): Apple On a Tree / Mammal
3 Hutchison 3G 3 is a brand name under which several UMTS-based mobile phone networks and Broadband Internet Providers are operated in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom...  Short Film Awards	Johanna Moder (Austria): Her mit dem schönen Leben SI.SI. Klocker (Austria): Laura. Was Sie schon immer über Telefonsex wissen wollten Iris Blauensteiner (Austria): Suture
Award winners 2008
Vienna Short Film Award	Alina Rudnitskaya (Russia): Kak stat stervoi (Vixen Academy)
ray Audience Award	Radu Jude (Romania): Lampa cu caciula (The Tube With a Hat)
Hoanzl Audience Awards	Umut Dag (Austria): Todesnachrichten Katharina Swoboda (Austria): Transition Sasha Pirker (Austria): John Lautner, The Desert Hot Springs Motel Bernhard Hetzenauer (Austria): Wann habe ich aufgehört, dir meine Träume zu erzählen?
Hubert Sielecki Prize	Michael Wirthig (Austria): Inside 1014
Award winners 2009
Vienna Short Film Award	Asitha Ameresekere Asitha Ameresekere Asitha Ameresekere is a British-Sri Lankan Filmmaker and Writer.Ameresekere was born in London, and was educated at the Overseas Children's School in Sri Lanka, Harrow School in London and read Classics at Bristol University...  (UK): 14
ray Audience Award	Sasha Pirker (Austria): Angelica Fuentes, The Schindler House
Hoanzl Audience Award	Elizabeth Marre, Olivier Pont (France): Manon sur le bitume
Airbed Movie Award	Robert Pohle, Martin Hentze (Germany): Der Conny ihr Pony
Prix Très Chic	Carsten Strauch (Germany): Das grüne Schaf
Hubert Sielecki Prize	Adnan Popović (Austria): Walzerkönig
Award winners 2010
Vienna Short Film Award	Liza Johnson (USA): In the Air
ASIFA Austria Award	Joaquín Cociña, Cristóbal León, Niles Atallah (Chile): Lucía Joaquín Cociña, Cristóbal León, Niles Atallah (Chile): Luis
Austrian Short Film Award	Lisa Weber (Austria): Kommt ein Sonnenstrahl in die Tiefkühlabteilung und weicht alles auf
LG LG Electronics LG Electronics is a global electronics and telecommunications company headquartered in Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea. The company operates its business through five divisions: mobile communications, home entertainment, home appliance, air conditioning and business solution...  Audience Award	Chris Niemeyer (Switzerland): Las Pelotas
Skip Audience Award	Joaquín Cociña, Cristóbal León, Niles Atallah (Chile): Lucía
ray Audience Award	Robert Cambrinus (Austria/UK): Commentary
Elfi von Dassanowsky Elfi von Dassanowsky Elfriede "Elfi" von Dassanowsky was an Austrian-American singer, pianist, film producer and humanitarian.- Early life :...  Prize	Inger Lise Hansen (Norway): Parallax
Airbed Movie Award	Katharine Pfiel, Marlene Rudy, Andreea Jebeleean, Barbara Wilding, Volker Buchgraber, Dominik Hart (Austria): Der Conny ihr Pony
Prix Très Chic	Florian Juri (Austria): Zerebrale Dichotomie
Award winners 2011
Vienna Short Film Award	Nicolas Provost (Belgium): Stardust
ASIFA Austria Award	David O’Reilly (Germany): The External World
Austrian Short Film Award	Peter Tscherkassky Peter Tscherkassky Peter Tscherkassky is an Austrian avant-garde filmmaker who works exclusively with found footage. All of his work is done with film and heavily edited in the darkroom, rather than relying on technological modes.-Early life:...  (Austria): Coming Attractions
Citroën Citroën Citroën is a major French automobile manufacturer, part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group.Founded in 1919 by French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën , Citroën was the first mass-production car company outside the USA and pioneered the modern concept of creating a sales and services network that... Audience Award	Rungano Nyoni (Zambia): Mwansa the Great
Skip Audience Award	David O’Reilly (Germany): The External World
ray Audience Award	Christoph Schwarz (Austria): Supercargo
Elfi von Dassanowsky Prize	Annick Blanc (Canada): Au milieu de nulle part ailleurs
VAM New Talent Prize	Christoph Schwarz (Austria): Supercargo
Airbed Movie Award	Susi Sie (Germany): Float
Prix Très Chic	Erik Eriksson and Rune Eriksson (Norway): Standup Comedy On Mars, Hand of God and Norwegian Shorts With No Ending: The 50 Years Anniversary of Annecy Int. Animation Festival Edition

External links

• Official website of Vienna Independent Shorts (German / English)