07/10/2002 - 200 films, two world premieres and numerous special guests at this landmark event in Vienna from 18-30 October

Speaking at the presentation of the 2002 edition of the Vienna Film Festival, scheduled to run 18-30 October, one of the organisers, Andrea Mailath-Pokorny of Viennese Municipality, said “Like James Bond, the Viennale is also 40”.
This year the non-competitive event will showcase some 200 films, most of which will be screened for the first time in Austria. The programme also includes the world premieres of Agnès Varda’s new documentary, Deux ans après (Two Years Later) and Paul Schrader’s Auto Focus.
For the first time in the Viennale’s history, the opening film will be a documentary, Etre et Avoir by Nicholas Philibert Streifen. The artistic director of the Viennese festival, Hans Hursch, said this choice was made as “an homage to a somewhat neglected form of filmmaking”.
This year’s novelties also include a shorter short film section focusing on experimental films, that includes a good number of recent Austrian productions like Meinhart Ropps’ Nach dem Tod des alten Roms, Blue Moon by Andreas Dusl and Nachtreise by Kenan Kilic.
Special events include tributes to American actress Sissy Spacek, German writer and director Juergen Boettcher, film journalist Frieda Grafe, actors Turnhan Bey and Artonin Artaud, and filmmakers Zeki Demirkubuz and Klaus Wyborny, with the screening of the restored print of The Third Man.
The festival will look back at the history of Austrian cinema from its beginnings until 1945 in a special section entitled Zeitnah, weltfern that was organised together with the Austrian Film Archive.
This year’s special guests include Agnès Varda, Luc Dardenne, Otar Iosselliani, James Bening, Caroline Dussey, Ulrich Koehler and Andreas Dresen.