Gastón Solnicki’s new film THE SOUFFLEUR will celebrate its world premiere at the Orizzonti compettion of the 82^nd Venice Film Festival (August 27 – September 6).
THE SOUFFLEUR, starring Willem Dafoe, was produced by Vienna-based Little Magnet Film and KGP Filmproduktion with AR. World sales: Magnify

Misha's skin is covered with tattoos, while Masha's is light, fragile, almost translucent. In his work, he encounters death every day: the human body at the end of its existence. She corresponds to a current concept of ideal beauty and is in considerable demand as a model. Over a long process, Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter have engaged with the seemingly irreconcilable realities of their protagonists' lives. In WHITE SNAIL, they have created a contrast of almost haptic proportions between perfection and decay, and thus – in association with the most varied locations – preparing the ground for tentative steps towards rapprochement.

Simon Maria Kubiena uses the chimera to establish the fundamental tone of his cinematic narrative: the concept of an organism that is two things – and bears the fruits of one, the other or both at the same time – becomes the crux of his endeavour to go beyond simplified polarities. A young man, his guilt and the silence which is his family’s response; this is what triggers the action in his debut film, THE FLOWERING OF A CHIMERA. The multifaceted narrative, though still at an early stage, has already brought powerful international response in recent months via La Résidence, the Locarno Filmmakers Academy, the co-development programs Alliance 4 Development and CineLink.

The 42^nd Munich Film Festival puts a spotlight on Austrian films & industry: In addition to a wide-ranging film program, this year's Cinecopro Conference will take place in cooperation with Austria, Germany, Switzerland and South Tyrol.

The camera- and soundwork is often striking and the result absorbing.
Screen Daily
 
An exquisitely crafted vérité journey
Indiewire

Creating relevant films collectively was the impetus for young filmmakers from Kiev to found the Tabor production lab more than ten years ago. For Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova and Simon Mosgovyi, creating images together to counter the inescapable reality of chaos and destruction in the sudden state of war became an existential strategy. MILITANTROPOS explores the double nature that military violence turns people into, allowing a profound collective portrait and a narrative to emerge in the turmoil of loss and solidarity, which brings together meaning where solid ground seems to shatter.

Astrid, Elli and Isabella have known each other since the days when school was just behind them and life was ahead. It was the time when they shared freedom and sorrows, as well as an apartment. Today they are around 50. A vacation together – an annual occurrence – is intended to maintain the old ties, but things just aren’t the way they used to be anymore. In IT’S ALL GOING SOUTH Pia Hierzegger sends her three women south, where – despite the sun, Aperol and the sea  – they are also forced to confront themselves.

MILITANTROPOS, coproduced by Vienna-based Mischief Films together with Ukraine and France, celebrated an enthusiastically acclaimed world premiere at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes on May 21. The directing collective Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova and Simon Mozgovyi observes the transformations that make people a part of war and war a part of people.

MILITANTROPOS is the first part of the trilogy THE DAYS I WOULD LIKE TO FORGET portraying a country at war. Part 2 and 3 will be completed in 2026.

An Austrian musician in the 90s who dreamed of being signed by a major label actually did stand a chance, because scouts were even roaming even the provinces in search of talent. When a record deal from London beckoned, Helen followed the lure of international success, leaving more than just the other members of her band behind in the village on the Danube where she grew up. In Evi Romen's HAPPYLAND, a woman in her 40s returns home with no money or glamour left, somehow lost between reality, desires that were pursued and opportunities that were missed.

CPH:DOX-reviews on Arash T. Riahi's & Verena Soltiz' GIRLS & GODS:

This is a film that is going to sting a lot of people.
Unseen Films

An enriching conversation about feminism and religion.
La Estatuilla

CPH:DOX-reviews on Natalie Halla's THE LAST AMBASSADOR:

a testament to resilience.
Overly Honest Reviews

an edifying film that measures the battles fought and, above all, the road ahead.
Le Polyester

Women who demand freedom and religions that know how to prevent it are the two forces pulling against each other in GIRLS & GODS. The feminist activist Inna Shevchenko travels to various cities in search of points of view - from believers and non-believers, from women who quietly reform their religion from within and those who raise their voices to challenge it and, most of all from those who who have put everything on the line for their position. Dialogue instead of dogma is the fundamental tone of this attempt to sharpen the focus on plurality as the only vector for social change.
We talked with Inna Shevchenko, Arash T. Riahi and Verena Soltiz

When the Taliban seized power on August 15, 2021, the Afghan Embassy in Vienna had a prestigious location on Vienna's Ringstrasse, with a dedicated Ambassador in Manizha Bakhtiari. While her function was rendered ambiguous on that day, her critical attitude towards the new rulers has never wavered. Natalie Halla was impressed by this courageous stance and wanted to create an account of the weeks of transition. In fact, it turned into a long-term documentary, THE LAST AMBASSADOR, because three and a half years later, her protagonist is still clinging on to her position and using it to appeal to the world about the shocking situation of women in her country.
 

For Anna, the signs indicate that changes are coming. She’s twelve years old, starting at a new school, discovering new opportunities – and also their price. WHEN YOU'RE AFRAID, YOU PUT YOUR HEART INTO YOUR MOUTH AND SMILE is both the title and the agenda. Because in the world of Marie Luise Lehner's feature film debut, social conditions are the way we know them but at the same time a little different, a little gentler, a little more relaxed and more open to adopting an unusual perspective on things.

Marie Luise Lehner and her wonderful actors presented IF YOU ARE AFRAID YOU PUT YOUR HEART INTO YOUR MOUTH AND SMILE at the Berlinale Forum.


« A wonderfully light-hearted mother-daughter and coming-of-age story with true-to-life characters that inspiringly demonstrates how we can connect with each other more easily.»
filmkritik.de

As a student in the 1970s, Nathalie Borgers' husband Abidin was involved in the flourishing Turkish democracy movement – and also experienced its suppression. Scars on his body still bear witnesses to a personal and political turning point. The military coup in 1980 forced him to make a new start in Vienna, which gave rise to a break with the past while also forging an unbroken connection. In SCARS OF A PUTSCH, the filmmaker tries to get to the bottom of the mystery that Abidin contains within himself by tracing a movement of social awakening and the powerful forces opposing it.

Golden Bear contender MOTHER'S BABY by Johanna Moder celebrated its world premiere in the magnificent Berlinale Palast. These are some of the rave reviews:

meticulously calibrated in its emotional complexity
Screen Daily

a work of gesture and suggestion
Variety

juicy, disturbing and slashed with dark humor
The Hollywood Reporter

Julia would appear to have achieved it all by the age of 40: artistic success, a gratifying relationship, a chic home. However, to attain perfection as a woman she still needs one more thing – at least, according to the world around her: to be a mother. Julia decides to take the plunge… and experiences alienation and disillusionment during and after giving birth. In MOTHER'S BABY, Johanna Moder dares to question and demystify the taboo of society's promise that motherhood brings only fulfilment.

Florian Pochlatko's HOW TO BE NORMAL AND THE ODDNESS OF THE OTHER WORLD premiered at Berlinale Perspectives and enchanted the critics:

a breezily disturbing and disturbingly breezy comedy-drama
Screen Daily

a decidedly stylized rendering of a world teetering on the edge of chaos.
The Hollywood Reporter

Is there anything left that passes for normality in today's reality? And if so, who is qualified to say what is normal? Or to put the question at a more fundamental level: does something like reality even exist? In his first feature film HOW TO BE NORMAL AND THE ODDNESS OF THE OTHER WORLD, Florian Pochlatko simply dismantles the boundaries of the levels of perception. He takes the thoughts of his protagonist Pia, who is trying to reconnect with the outside world after a stay in a psychiatric hospital, and creates a profound kaleidoscope packed with wit and references, against the backdrop of a crumbling world.

Nathalie Borgers and her team presented SCARS OF A PUTSCH at the Forum Special focus Open Wounds, Open Words.

Nathalie Borgers has  given us a harsh and painful, but also at times poetic and moving story.
Cinema Austriaco

WELCOME HOME by Andreas Prochaska opened the Berlinale Panorama and garnered fantastic  reviews. Read some of them

A visually stunning plunge into the hidden depths of a foreign homeland.
The Hollywood Reporter

Andreas Prochaska delivers a hypnotic atmosphere and a gripping central performance from Julia Franz Richter.
Screen Daily

this intense psychological thriller is a dam burst.
The Spot

Judith didn't grow up with her parents – and she could never really work out why. She has a good life in Berlin, so when she inherits her late father's house in Austria, she just wants to dispose of the property as quickly as possible. But the moment she steps inside the impressive building, she begins to be sucked down into buried memories, and before long she’s cornered by an entire village. With this gripping plunge into deep-seated fears, Andreas Prochaska's psychological thriller WELCOME HOME BABY depicts the clash of old and new orders and a blow that brings liberation.
 

This is our wonderful 2025 line-up
Competition
MOTHER'S BABY by Johanna Moder
Perspectives
HOW TO BE NORMAL AND THE ODDNESS OF THE OTHER WORLD by Florian Pochlatko
Panorama – Opening Film
WELCOME HOME BABY by Andreas Prochaska
Forum
IF YOU ARE AFRAID YOU PUT YOUR HEART INTO YOUR MOUTH AND SMILE by Marie Luise Lehner
Forum Special
SCARS OF A PUTSCH by Nathalie Borgers