The Vienna Film Prize 2023: A triumph for new perspectives in the cinema

The Vienna Film Prize 2023: A triumph for new perspectives in the cinema

In the past few days, the Film Festival Viennale has been shaped in Vienna by cultural highlights and awards. During a ceremony in the horticultural cinema, the City Councilor Veronica Kaup-Hasler (SPÖ) vividly campaigned for the Cinephile period after the festival days and encouraged the audience to storm cinemas. In this festive framework, Mo Harawes was awarded the Vienna Film Award for his debut film "The Village Next to Paradise", luckily honored with prize money of 10,000 euros.

"The Village Next to Paradise", an impressive film that plays in Somalia, praised the jury for its ability to show an often abstract reality from a European perspective. Director Mo Harawe, who originally comes from Somalia and lived in Vienna for a long time, speaks of his dream to make films one day. "I lived in Vienna for a long time and always saw that other people win these prices," he said. The audience can look forward to: The film has its regular theatrical release on November 8th.

recognition for "favorites"

Ruth Beckermann received another special award for her documentary “Favorites”. This special recognition, which is endowed with 5,000 euros, honors the director's intensive observation work, which accompanied a elementary school class in the Viennese district of the same name for several years. The jury praised this film as an example of educational justice and trust in the young generations: "Favorites are the concrete and empathetic evidence that the recent generations deserve our trust," said the reason.

In her acceptance speech, Beckermann also commented on the importance of the Austrian funding system for the film. She emphasized the important role of her team, without which the creation of the film would have been impossible. Your appreciative words testify to teamwork, which is so important in film production.

award winners

The Viennale Prize of the "Standard" readers: Inside jury, the French woman Lucie Prost was awarded for her film "Fario", who deals with the male identity. If this film finds a distribution in Austria, "Der Standard" offers support worth 25,000 euros for advertising. There were also honors at the international level: The Fipresci Prize went to the Canadian director Matthew Rankin for his comedy "Une Langue Universelle", which deals with migration and displacement.

Another award, the Erste Bank Film Award, was awarded for 14 times. He enables the winner to stay in New York City. This time the Czech director Klára Tasovská was honored for her co -production "Ještě Nejsem, Kým chci být", which is based on the photographs of the artist Libuše Jarcovjáková. The jury described this film as a direct and moving portrait that is "simply big cinema".

The Viennale remains an important meeting point for filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts and promotes the diversity of artistic work in Austria. The high participation and the outstanding quality of the works shown confirm the importance of this festival in the European film scene.