With the Viennale kicking off today, 20 October, and lasting until 1 November, there is a lot to celebrate, starting with the obvious 60^th anniversary of the festival. This will be reflected in the programme, as festival director Eva Sangiorgi has promised the “best film discoveries” and “important Austrian films”.

Indeed, the programme from Austria includes over 20 short and feature-length titles, including productions and co-productions. Among them are movies that have won awards internationally, such as Vera [+lire aussi :
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interview : Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
fiche film] by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, which will be the opening title of the Viennale, and Mutzenbacher [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ruth Beckermann
fiche film] by Ruth Beckermann. The Viennale has also decided to include Ulrich Seidl's Sparta [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] in the line-up, which recently caused some controversy after a Der Spiegel article was published about certain practices on set. Also on the programme are Matter Out of Place [+lire aussi :
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interview : Nikolaus Geyrhalter
fiche film] by Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Family Dinner [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Peter Hengl, Eismayer [+lire aussi :
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interview : David Wagner
fiche film] by David Wagner (which recently won in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori), Amina Handke's My Sentence, Claudia Müller’s Elfriede Jelinek – Language Unleashed, as well as the co-productions A Little Love Package [+lire aussi :
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interview : Gastón Solnicki et Angelik…
fiche film] by Gastón Solnicki and Jet Lag [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Zheng Lu Xinyuan.

The European part of the international programme includes the French-Romanian-Swedish co-production Aftersun [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Charlotte Wells, Rewind & Play [+lire aussi :
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interview : Alain Gomis
fiche film] by Alain Gomis, See you Friday, Robinson [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Mitra Farahani, Mother by Carolin Schmitz, Living [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Oliver Hermanus, Lars Eidinger – To Be or Not To Be by Reiner Holzemer, Enys Men [+lire aussi :
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interview : Mark Jenkin
fiche film] by Mark Jenkin, Unrest [+lire aussi :
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interview : Cyril Schäublin
fiche film] by Cyril Schäublin, Pacifiction [+lire aussi :
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interview : Albert Serra
fiche film] by Albert Serra, Saint Omer [+lire aussi :
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interview : Alice Diop
interview : Kayije Kagame
fiche film] by Alice Diop, Godland [+lire aussi :
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interview : Elliott Crosset Hove
interview : Hlynur Pálmason
fiche film] by Hlynur Pálmason, Other People’s Children [+lire aussi :
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interview : Rebecca Zlotowski
fiche film] by Rebecca Zlotowski and The Banshees of Inisherin [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Martin McDonagh.

The retrospective is dedicated to Yoshida Kijū, a key figure of the “Japanese New Wave”, whose works have rarely been shown in the West. The “monographs” are dedicated to Med Hondo, the founding father of African cinema; Ebrahim Golestan, a director and producer from Iran; and Hollywood actress-director Elaine May.

The industry section includes talks with filmmakers Alain Guiraudie and Joanna Hogg. In addition, Filipino helmer Lav Diaz will conduct a master class. German filmmaker Werner Herzog will be present for a gala event for his film The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]. Furthermore, Romania’s Radu Jude will be present for the screening of his short film The Potemkinists.

For the benefit of its audience, the festival will expand its offering tailored to people with hearing or visual impairments, as well as for the deaf. To mark the special anniversary, there will be an additional publication, called Viennale 60. On Film Festivals. Including contributions written by film lovers from all over the world, it deals with the obligations, the necessities and the motives of festivals at a time of great change. It thus aims to look both to the recent and the more distant past, as well as to the future.