The Viennale film premieres
The Viennale (October 17-29) is Austria's most important international film event, as well as one of the oldest and best-known festivals in the German-speaking world. It takes place every October in beautiful cinemas in Vienna's historic centre - a festival with an international orientation and a distinctive urban flair. A high percentage of the more than 90,000 visitors to the festival from Austria and abroad is made up of a decidedly young audience.
In its main programme, the Viennale shows a carefully picked selection of new films from all over the globe as well as new films from Austria, a great number of which being international first screenings. The choice of films offers a cross-section of bold filmmaking which stands apart from the esthetics of mainstream conventionality and is politically relevant. Aside from its focus on the newest feature films of every genre and structural form imaginable, the festival gives particular attention to documentary films, international short films, as well as experimental works and crossover films.
The Viennale receives regular international acclaim for its yearly organization of a large-scale historic retrospective in collaboration with the Filmmuseum, its numerous special programs, as well as for its tributes and homages dedicated to prominent personalities and institututions in international filmmaking.
The conclusion of the festival sees the awarding of the FIPRESCI Award of the international Film Critics' Association, the Vienna Film Award of the City of Vienna, plus an award by the DER STANDARD Readers' Jury.
Gala screenings, special events and parties are as much a part of the festival as interviews, animated audience discussions and encounters between international guests of the festival and local visitors.
In recent years, the Viennale has established a secure place for itself on the international festival scene. It has become a festival which offers a program of high quality in a relaxed urban autumn atmosphere, when Vienna is at its most attractive. It presents an exciting array of newest international trends contrasted with selected historical reference points. It is a festival of information, surprises and discoveries.
And above all it is a festival of films.
PREMIERES AT VIENNALE 2008
WORLD PREMIERES
12 Explosionen Johann Lurf, A
24/7 (Into the Direction of Light) Michael Aschauer, A
301 Jean-Claude Rousseau, F
Angelica Fuentes, The Schindler House Sasha Pirker, A/USA
L' Appel de la forêt Jean-Claude Rousseau, F
Beirut 2.14.05 Alexandra Cuesta, USA/Ecua
Dacia Express Michael Schindegger, A
Dropping Furniture Harald Hund, Paul Horn, A
Evening's Civil Twilight in Empires of Tin Jem Cohen, A/USA/Canada
Gangster Girls Tina Leisch, A
Ground Control Siegfried A. Fruhauf, A
home.movie Martin Bruch, Reinhilde Condin, A
Ich gehe jetzt rein (In The Game) Aysun Bademsoy, D
Jeune femme a sa fenêtre lisant une lettre
(Young Woman at Her Window Reading a Letter) Jean-Claude Rousseau, F
Let's Make MONEY Erwin Wagenhofer, A
Maynila Sa Mga Pangil Ng Dilim
(Manila in the Fangs of Darkness) Khavn, Philippines
Mona Agnes Rossa, Egypt/D
Roke Rai Nai Rob Neung Roi Phee
(Diseases and a Hundred Year Period) Sompot Chidgasornpongse, Thailand
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERES
Cómo estar muerto / Como estar muerto
(How) To Be Dead) Manuel Ferrari, Argentina
Intermittent Delight Akosua Adoma Owusu , Ghana/US
Je ne suis pas morte (I Did Not Die) Jean-Charles Fitoussi, F
Lettre à la prison (Letter to the Prison) Marc Scialom, F/Tunisia
Life for a Child Ed Lachman, USA/Nepal
Das Schreiben und das Schweigen.
Die Schriftstellerin Friederike Mayröcker Carmen Tartarotti, D/I/A
Tunnel Robert Frank, CH/USA
EU PREMIERES
Bastards of the Party Cle Sloan, USA
Diário de Sintra (Days In Sintra) Paula Gaitán, Brazil/P
