Viennale

The Viennale is Austria's most important international film event, as well as one of the oldest and best-known festivals in the German-speaking world. It takes place every October in beautiful cinemas in Vienna's historic centre - a festival with an international orientation and a distinctive urban flair. A decidedly young audience comprises a large percentage of the more than 90,000 Austrian and international festival visitors.

In its main program, the Viennale shows a carefully chosen selection of new films from all over the globe as well as new films from Austria, many of which are international first screenings. Curatorial choices reflect bold filmmaking that is politically relevant and stands apart from mainstream convention. Aside from its focus on the newest feature films of every genre and structural form imaginable, the festival gives particular attention to documentary films, international short films, as well as experimental works and crossover films.

The Viennale receives regular international acclaim for its yearly organisation of a large-scale historic retrospective in collaboration with the Filmmuseum, its numerous special programs, as well as for its tributes and homages to prominent personalities and institutions in international filmmaking.

The festival culminates in the awarding of the FIPRESCI (an award of the International Film Critics' Association), the Vienna Film Award (undertaken by the City of Vienna), plus an award by the DER STANDARD Readers' Jury.

Gala screenings, special events and parties are as much a part of the festival as interviews, animated audience discussions and encounters between international guests of the festival and local visitors.

The Viennale is well-established on the international festival scene, offering a program of uncompromising high quality in a relaxed urban autumn atmosphere, when Vienna is at its most attractive. It presents an exciting array of the newest international trends contrasted with selected historical reference points. It is a festival of information, surprises and discoveries and above all, it is a festival of films.