19/06/2023 - The country’s three biggest festival hits of 2022 made a huge impact at the 13th edition of the prizes, held last week in Vienna

If anything, the 13th Austrian Film Awards, which took place on 15 June at Globe Wien in Vienna’s Marx Halle, demonstrated how popular Austria’s festival-circuit movies are with the critics. A total of 1,200 guests watched as some of last year’s internationally most successful films were rewarded with multiple accolades in a variety of categories. The motto of the awards show, “Through Night to Light”, was dedicated to the themes of seeing and visibility.

The two biggest winners of the evening were the features Vera [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
film profile] by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, and Eismayer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: David Wagner
film profile] by David Wagner. After originally premiering at the Venice International Film Festival in 2022, both movies have snagged several awards since, and have also been fixtures on the screening and festival circuits. Vera was awarded Best Feature Film, Best Director and Best Film Editing (Tizza Covi), while Eismayer pocketed the Awards for Best Screenplay (David Wagner), Best Leading Actor (Gerhard Liebmann), Best Supporting Actor (Luka Dimic) and Best Score (Eva Klampfer).

Coming in close behind was Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marie Kreutzer
interview: Marie Kreutzer
film profile], focusing on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, which premiered at Cannes in 2022 and has since been mired in scandal owing to its male leading actor. This did not prevent the jury from rewarding the movie in several categories, though: Corsage took home the Awards for Best Leading Actress (Vicky Krieps), Best Cinematography (Judith Kaufmann), Best Costume Design (Monika Buttinger) and Best Make-up (Maike Heinlein, Helene Lang).

Further awards went to Claudia Wohlgenannt, Martina Haubrich and Claudia Müller for Elfriede Jelinek – Language Unleashed as Best Documentary, to Mo Haware for Will My Parents Come To See Me as Best Short Film and to Gerti Drassl as Best Supporting Actress in Above the World [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Adrian Goiginger. The sci-fi thriller Rubikon [+see also:
film review
interview: Leni Lauritsch
film profile], which premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2022, bagged two awards, for Best Sound Editing (Bertram Knappitsch, Tong Zhang, Rudolf Pototschnig, Manuel Grandpierre and Andreas Frei) and Best Production Design (Johannes Mücke). With 262,000 viewers, Markus Pauser, Erich Schindlecker, Claudia Jüptner-Jonstorff, Eva Spreitzhofer and Michael Stejskal won the Viewers’ Choice Award for the highest audience attendance for the comedy Griechenland oder der laufende Huhn.

The evening itself was hosted by Julia Jelinek and Thomas Mraz, who celebrated the Austrian film industry while also talking about the darker side of the past year. A prominent theme of the gala was showing appreciation for professions that are not usually in the spotlight – and so the awards were presented by representatives of various departments, including production management, equipment, drivers, camera assistance, extras, props, sound design and sound assistance.

Gala producer Catalina Molina also dealt with the theme of visibility in more depth in her speech, declaring: “With the title of the evening, ‘Through Night to Light’, I want to point to the path of change, to the process towards diversity and inclusion, and I implore you to look, not to look away – to act. It's very simple: don't let perpetrators on a film set! This place is far too beautiful and far too precious for that.” The presidents of the Austrian Film Academy, Verena Altenberger and Arash T Riahi, also addressed several darker aspects of the past year: “The issues of abuse of power, safe working conditions and the promotion of young talent are constantly on our minds, and we are working on improvements through numerous events and further training.”

Here is the complete list of award winners:

Best Feature Film
Vera [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
film profile] - Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel (Austria)

Best Documentary
Elfriede Jelinek – Language Unleashed - Claudia Wohlgenannt, Martina Haubrich, Claudia Müller (Austria/Germany)

Best Short Film
Will My Parents Come To See Me - Mo Harawe (Austria/Germany/Somalia)

Best Director
Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel - Vera

Best Screenplay
David Wagner - Eismayer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: David Wagner
film profile] (Austria)

Best Leading Actress
Vicky Krieps - Corsage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marie Kreutzer
interview: Marie Kreutzer
film profile] (Austria/Germany/Luxembourg/France)

Best Supporting Actress
Gerti Drassl – Above the World [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Austria/Germany)

Best Male Leading Actor
Gerhard Liebmann - Eismayer

Best Supporting Actor
Luka Dimić - Eismayer

Best Cinematography
Judith Kaufmann - Corsage

Best Film Editing
Tizza Covi - Vera

Best Score
Eva Klampfer - Eismayer (Austria)

Best Sound Editing
Bertram Knappitsch, Tong Zhang, Rudolf Pototschnig, Manuel Grandpierre, Andreas Frei - Rubikon [+see also:
film review
interview: Leni Lauritsch
film profile] (Austria)

Best Production Design
Johannes Mücke - Rubikon

Best Costume Design
Monika Buttinger - Corsage

Best Make-up
Maike Heinlein, Helene Lang - Corsage

Viewers’ Choice
Griechenland oder der laufende Huhn - Markus Pauser, Erich Schindlecker Claudia Jüptner-Jonstorff, Eva Spreitzhofer, Michael Stejskal (Austria)