The 58th Viennale (22 October-1 November) ended on Sunday by showing the closing movie, The Truffle Hunters [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw. The festival was overshadowed, like so many other cultural events this year, by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With new restrictions and lockdowns taking effect as of this week in Austria, the Viennale was fortunate enough to be able to offer an uninterrupted physical presence in the movie theatres. A total of 420,000 visitors attended 320 screenings in ten cinemas over the course of 11 days.

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One of this year’s highlights was the monograph dedicated to German filmmaker and artist Christoph Schlingensief, who passed away ten years ago this summer. With a film industry looking to its national roots in these dire times for releases, the Austrian film scene was honoured in the special “Austrian Auteurs” programme.

Going hand in hand with this sentiment, the Diagonale, the festival for Austrian film and the first victim of the March wave of cancellations, had the opportunity to finally showcase some of its selection on the big screen. Furthermore, the “Recycled Cinema” retrospective, a curated batch of found-footage movies, was screened in collaboration with the Film Museum.

As in previous years, international and local juries awarded the Vienna Film Award, Viennale Award of the Der Standard Reader Jury, FIPRESCI Prize and Erste Bank MehrWERT Award to eligible fiction features and documentaries.

The Vienna Film Award, donated by the city of Vienna, goes to a current Austrian feature that had its premiere over the course of the last year. The jury selected Epicentro [+lire aussi :
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interview : Sandra Wollner
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The Viennale Award of the Der Standard Reader Jury goes to a movie that does not yet have a distributor and for which a release is recommended. The jury chose Tragic Jungle [+lire aussi :
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The FIPRESCI Prize is intended for a movie chosen from among a selection of first and second features. This year, the jury awarded Kill It and Leave This Town [+lire aussi :
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interview : Mariusz Wilczyński
fiche film] by Mariusz Wilczyński. In the animated feature, which took ten years to make, the filmmaker works through the death of his parents and best friend, and examines childhood memories and the development of Polish society.

The Erste Bank MehrWERT Award is granted by sponsor Erste Bank to Austrian productions curated by the Viennale. This year’s award went to Zaho Zay [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Maéva Ranaïvojaona and Georg Tiller. The hybrid work incorporating both documentary and fantastical elements follows a woman in a Madagascan prison who is awaiting the arrival of her father, a criminal. The Erste Bank MehrWERT Recognition Award went to Please Hold the Line [+lire aussi :
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Here is the full list of Viennale 2020 award winners:

Vienna Film Award for Best Austrian Movie
Epicentro [+lire aussi :
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Special Award of the Jury
The Trouble with Being Born [+lire aussi :
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interview : Sandra Wollner
fiche film] - Sandra Wollner (Austria/Germany)

Viennale Award of the Der Standard Reader Jury
Tragic Jungle [+lire aussi :
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FIPRESCI Award
Kill It and Leave This Town [+lire aussi :
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interview : Mariusz Wilczyński
fiche film] - Mariusz Wilczyński (Poland)

Erste Bank MehrWERT

Erste Bank MehrWERT Award
Zaho Zay [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Georg Tiller and Maéva Ranaïvojaona (Austria/France/Madagascar)

Erste Bank MehrWERT Recognition Award
Please Hold the Line [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Pavel Cuzuioc (Austria)