Nordrand, shown in competition for the Golden Lion at the 1999 Venice Film Festival, is considered a milestone. It marked the beginning of growing international appreciation of Austrian filmmaking, but above all it launched Barbara Albert's career as a director, screenwriter, producer and teacher. After ten years at the Film University of Babelsberg, where she was most recently Vice President for Academic Affairs, and 32 years after she herself began her studies in directing and screenwriting at the Vienna Film Academy, she returns there to succeed Michael Haneke as Professor of Directing.

"An exquisitely crafted period drama", that's what  Allan Hunter of Screen Daily wrote on Barbara Albert's new feature film MADEMOISELLE PARADIS. Right after its world premiere at the Toronto Platform competiton the film joins the Golden Shell competition at San Sébastián, celebrating also its European premiere.

MADEMOISELLE PARADIS takes us to Rococo Vienna and the remarkably talented blind pianist Maria Theresia Paradis, who is torn between her extraordinary musical talent and her desire to live the life of an ordinary young woman within the rules of a rigid society.

«Wir müssen versuchen zu verstehen, wie Menschen so weit gehen können. Alle Täter als Monster abzustempeln hilft uns nicht weiter.» Barbara Albert über DIE LEBENDEN.

«Ich hätte mir bei diesem Film niemals gedacht, dass ich in diesem großen Rahmen auf der Bühne stehen würde und wir den Goldenen Bären kriegen.» Ein Gespräch mit Barbara Albert, die gemeinsam mit Bruno Wagner, den Gewinner des Goldenen Bären, Grbavica von Jasmila Zbanic produziert hat.

«I wanted the figures to be totally concrete, realistic and tangible, I wanted certain moments to have a vitality and intense corporeality, and in my opinion both are there. It's an abstract film which makes use of extremely concrete figures and moments, and it also works with everyday matters and snapshots of life. I wanted to employ these elements and see what happens.»