Taking place from 17-29 October, the 62nd Viennale will be striving to spark a dialogue. Amidst a world torn up by wars and natural disasters, one has to preserve the space necessary for encounters. “There are many films that address these international crises,” festival director Eva Sangiorgi stated during the programme presentation. Two wars being addressed are the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. A Fidai Film [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Kamal Aljafari
scheda film] by Kamal Aljafari, the Berlinale-winning documentary No Other Land [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
scheda film] by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, and Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s The Diary of a Sky are just some of the morsels among the cinematic food for thought.

Efficiency seems to be another buzzword for this year’s edition, since both the opening and the closing movies are on the short side. The festival will open with the 40-minute French flick It’s Not Me by Leos Carax, in which the director reflects on his oeuvre and his role models, such as Vertov, Chaplin and Godard. The Viennale will close with a screening of the documentary Dahomey [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Mati Diop, clocking in at just 67 minutes, which focuses on decolonisation and the return of art from France to Benin.

The festival has acquired quite a broad selection of this year’s festival darlings and winners. The aforementioned Dahomey won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, while A Different Man by Aaron Schimberg, also from the Berlinale, shone thanks to the Best Actor Award for its lead, Sebastian Stan. From Cannes, there is the Palme d’Or winner Anora by Sean Baker as well as Grand Tour [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Marta Donzelli, Gregorio P…
intervista: Miguel Gomes
scheda film] by Miguel Gomes (who won Best Director) and Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (which won the Jury Prize and a four-fold acting gong for its leading ladies, Adriana Paz, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña). The Venice Golden Lion winner The Room Next Door [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Pedro Almodóvar has also made it into the selection, as has the Silver Lion for Best Director recipient, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist [+leggi anche:
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In the Austrian department, Kurdwin Ayub’s sophomore feature, Moon [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Kurdwin Ayub
scheda film], which won the Special Jury Prize earlier this year at Locarno, and the first feature by Mo Harawe, The Village Next to Paradise [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], are opening up to a wider public. Former Viennale president Alexander Horwath is showing his documentary essay Henry Fonda for President [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alexander Horwath
scheda film], which first premiered at Berlin. Meanwhile, Bernhard Wenger is presenting Peacock [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Bernhard Wenger
scheda film], which opened to much acclaim at Venice.

As usual, in cooperation with partners Filmmuseum and Filmarchiv Austria, the Viennale is offering retrospectives and monographs. Amongst them is a showcase of the Mexican collective Los Ingrávidos, Brazilian filmmaker Juliana Rojas, US director and activist Robert Kramer, and Austrian actress Helene Thimig, who started her film career in exile. Another retrospective is focused on the portrayal of Japanese colonialism in Korean cinema.

A chance to meet some of the filmmakers or attend master classes will be offered in the new festival centre at Metro Kino Kulturhaus. Named “Zentralino”, it provides a meeting spot, discussions and a bar with free entry. Amongst the panels will be a talk on exergue – on documenta 14 by director Dimitris Athiridis, who followed curator Adam Szymczyk and his team during the preparation of the controversial documenta 14. Further gathering and party locations are the Opera Club, Praterstraße and Flex.