25/05/2009

The quality of Austrian cinema continues to attract attention at the most prestigious film events. Having already made its mark at the Oscars, Austria was honoured yesterday evening at the Cannes Film Festival, where the Palme d'Or was awarded to an emotional Michael Haneke for his outstanding film The White Ribbon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile] (see review).

Added to the Funny Games director’s much-awaited triumph is that of Viennese actor Christoph Waltz, lauded for his role as a nasty Nazi in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which Cannes audiences queued for hours to see.

Waltz, who works a lot in television, featured in Wolfgang Murnberger’s Alpine thriller Lapislazuli: In the Eye of the Bear (2006). He has also appeared in several international productions, including the recent US film Pact with the Devil (2001).

Finally, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s delightful Italian/Austrian title, La Pivellina [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see review), shown in the Directors' Fortnight, was the unanimous winner of the Europa Cinemas Label Award. The film was produced by the directors, through their Vienna-based company Vento Film.

(Translated from French)