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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
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Coming in close behind was Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Marie Kreutzer
scheda film], 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 [+leggi anche:
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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 [+leggi anche:
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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 [+leggi anche:
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Best Leading Actress
Vicky Krieps - Corsage [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Marie Kreutzer
scheda film] (Austria/Germany/Luxembourg/France)

Best Supporting Actress
Gerti Drassl – Above the World [+leggi anche:
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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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Leni Lauritsch
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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)