What a night for women in Austrian films.
After Sudabeh Mortezai for her captivating film “Joy” about African-American women on Vienna’s street, for the second time in a row a woman won the prize for best director at the 11th Austrian Film Prize awarded on Thursday night in Vienna. The 38-jhrige Sandra Wollner With her film, which can hardly be pushed into the current genre categories, has presented a work that is unparalleled among the cinema productions of recent years. In it a fictional story unfolds, which in the narrowest sense revolves around the power relationship in the most vulnerable association of humans – between adults and children. It is represented by Elli (young actress Lena Watson) and Georg (Georg Warta), whom she calls Papa. He created her, Elli is a sex robot modeled on humans.
Sabine Derflinger (58) succeeded in 2020 with the documentary film “Die Dohnal”, which was launched before the first lockdown, to present a socio-political work that bases its strength on creating an understanding of feminism by making injustice comprehensible on a general human level. The Vcklabruckerin attracted an unbelievable 40,000 visitors to the cinemas for a documentary film that was not aimed at popularity, but consistently aimed at the cause, before the success of Corona was slowed down. As she once told ON, the filmmaker believes that this number expresses the citizens’ longing for politicians of the stature of Johanna Dohnal, Austria’s first woman minister – for eloquence, handshake quality and passion for people, not for power. The prolific worker Derflinger could not accept the award in person, she is finalizing a shoot in Italy. They informed ON about their victory via WhatsApp, and they wrote in surprise: “How great is that!”
A woman celebrating a career high point with these important wins is over Christa Auderlitzky from Ebensee. Your Viennese film distributor filmdelights has been around for as long as the Austrian film award – more than ten years. She is responsible for the distribution and exploitation of “The Trouble With Being Born” such as “Die Dohnal”. She was represented in the field with these two films, which received eight nominations. Six prizes were won – “Die Dohnal” cutter Niki Mossbck was honored as well as the sound team and the make-up artist of “The Trouble With Being Born”.
The films mentioned, as well as the winners listed below, illustrate what shaped the award-winning film year: a seismographic understanding of the subliminal shifts in the social fabric that became more and more present (generation issues, ecology, equal rights, diversity) and a courageous aesthetic approach who is committed to the big screen.
Best Actor has been Thomas Prenn (27) im Identittsdrama „Hochwald“, best leading actress Christine Ostermayer (84) in the migration drama “We’ll stay a little longer”.
The other winners:
Best Supporting Role: Edita Malovcic, “Quo vadis, Aida?”
Best Male Supporting Role: Omid Memar, „7500“
Publishumsstrkster Movie: Documentary film “But Beautiful” by Erwin Wagenhofer
The figures were collected statistically by the Association of the Film and Music Industry and thus the award-winning film was determined. With almost 59,000 cinema tickets sold, the award goes to the documentary film “But Beautiful” Production: Sabine Kriechbaum, Erwin Wagenhofer, Peter Rommel, Director: Erwin Wagenhofer, Distributor: Filmladen, Michael Stejskal
Best camera: “Where are you going, Aida?”, Christine A. Maier
Best torsional break: „7500“, Patrick Vollrath/Senad Halilbaić,
Best production design: “Where are you going, Aida?”, Hannes Salat
Best Mask: Gaby Grnwald fr „The Trouble With Being Born“
Best costume image: „Hochwald“, Cinzia Cioffi
Best cut: Niki Mossbck for the documentary “Die Dohnal” by Vcklabruck director Sabine Derflinger
Best music: “Hochwald”, Florian Horwarth
Best sound design: „The Trouble With Being Born“ von Sandra Wollner fr Johannes Schmelzer-Ziringer, Peter Kutin, Simon Peter
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