21/10/2010

Today marks the opening of the Austrian capital’s major annual film festival, the Viennale (October 21-November 3). It will present 84 narrative features, 60 documentaries, 54 shorts and a comprehensive retrospective dedicated to late maestro Eric Rohmer, which includes 40 of his films, two documentaries about him and Godard’s Il Y Avait Quoi, containing quotations from Rohmer.

Among the narrative features are titles presented at Berlin (Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Thomas Arslan’s In the Shadows [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Arslan
film profile]), Cannes (including Xavier Beauvois’s Of Gods and Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Beauvois
film profile], Mike Leigh’s Another Year [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mike Leigh
film profile], Olivier Assayas’s Carlos [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialism, Manoel de Oliveira’s The Strange Case of Angelica) [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Venice (namely François Ozon’s Potiche [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Abdellatif Kechiche’s Black Venus [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Abdellatif Kechiche
film profile]).

The documentary line-up also includes titles shown at major festivals, such as Andrei Ujica’s The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaucescu, Pietro Marcello’s The Mouth of the Wolf [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pietro Marcello
film profile] and Michelangelo Frammartino’s The Four Times [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michelangelo Frammartino
interview: Savina Neirotti
film profile].

Siegfried A. Fruhauf, the director of artistic (often silent) short films is the focus of a special programme, as are the great masters of silent cinema. There will be a tribute to recently-deceased French DoP William Lubtchansky, who worked with leading directors: Rivette, Godard, Iosseliani and Doillon.

The Viennale will close on November 3 with a gala ceremony where the Vienna Film Prize for Austrian cinema will be awarded. Since last year, the award has been split into two separate gongs for a narrative film and a documentary (with both winners receiving €14,000). Other accolades include the FIPRESCI Prize (awarded last year to Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jessica Hausner
film profile]) and the Der Standard Readers’ Jury Award.

(Translated from French)