Nestroy Awards 2023: Felix Mitterer will be honored for his life's work

Nestroy Awards 2023: Felix Mitterer will be honored for his life's work

Felix Mitterer, an outstanding Austrian playwright, will be awarded the Nestroy Prize for his life's work. The jury, led by Alexandra Althoff, praised his commitment to the genre of the folk play, which has acquired “a fine sense of language and form” through his theater work. This award clearly shows how important Mitterer's work is for the vibrant Austrian theater culture.

This year there is also a notable innovation: the author prize was divided into its own category, from which three nominees emerged. Steffen Link for “The Association”, Ferdinand Schmalz for “Hildensaga” and the team of Magdalena Schrefel and Valentin Schuster for “The Many Voices of My Brother” were nominated for the best plays. The total number of nominations is 42, which were announced by the Vienna Stage Association on Tuesday.

Nominations for the best productions

One of the outstanding productions this year is Lucia Bihler's production of “The Metamorphosis” based on Franz Kafka at the Akademietheater. This was nominated in several categories including Best Director and Best Actress. The premiere of Christiane Karoline Schlegel's “Von ein Frauenzimmer” at the Schauspielhaus Graz also enjoyed great recognition with nominations for best director and best actors.

The jury highlighted its favorites not only from Vienna, but also from other German-speaking theaters. Among the best performances she counts Karin Beier's “Anthropolis” as well as René Pollesch's last production “yes nothing is ok” and Rieke Süßkow's work “Overweight, unimportant: Unform”. This broad diversity underlines the creative and innovative potential of current theater production in German-speaking countries.

Talented actors compete for prizes

There are impressive talents in the race for best actress. Paulina Alpen alongside Julia Edtmeier and Birgit Minichmayr. Simon Kirsch also won a place in the best actor category and faces strong competition, including Mervan Ükmez, who was nominated for two roles. These competitors will undoubtedly provide exciting moments during the awards ceremony.

Ten actors are available for the popular Nestroy ORF III Audience Award, which the audience can vote for from November 11th to 22nd, 2023. Among the nominees is the new Everyman Philipp Hochmair, which underlines the importance of the award for the public.

The jury, consisting of various theater experts, impressively demonstrated that they were committed to this anniversary year. A total of around 1,000 performances were attended, which shows how intensive the observations and evaluations were. For many, this is not just an awards ceremony, but an important event in Austria's theater landscape that makes everyone involved in the industry visible.

The awards ceremony gala will take place on November 24th and will be broadcast live on ORF III from 9:05 p.m. The audience and the theater community can look forward to the results of this important evening, which honors the best talent and productions. More information can be found in the current reports, among others on wien.orf.at.