Festival profile

Out of the nook, into the cinema!
The Vienna Film Academy is the number-one address for education in the  film and television domain in Austria. Every year a dozen of short and long films are produced here, from fictional and documental works to experimental genres and music videos. Thereby, students are constantly motivated to find innovative solutions and new ways to compress many ideas into a small budget. But who knows these movies? How are they, what do they depict and where can you see them??

In opposition to many other film schools, the students of the Vienna Film Academy take responsibility for the usage of their works all alone. And so the idea for this festival, which has been taking place at various Viennese cinemas since 1980, was born of the idea to present the students' productions more vigorously to an external audience. This festivals serves, above all, as an opportunity to show the students' works in a public frame and thereby, to spark a dialogue with the film branch, distribution and press, audience and foreign film schools. On the 1st April, the film festival of the Vienna Film Academy invites you to a special, 5 day long, cinematic experience in the Gartenbaukino and Metrokino. The Academy's students and their works take part in an international competition in different categories. A particular highlight in this 14th edition of the festival will be: With Erik Etchel's „Facetten“ and Alexander Stecher's „Das große Glück sozusagen“, two diploma films, that have been realized at the Vienna Film Academy, will be shown. In the course of the retrospective, which focuses on the school's history, a film team hunts for old film projects that have been created at the Academy, and furthermore, Götz Spielmann's „Fremdland“ will be shown. Needless to say, the already a cult Trashnight, in which film is allowed to be film only, from blurred to shaky, will also take place this year – loud, odd and fun. Good trash does not fit into a drawer, so it will be shown here. And last but not least,we did not forget about the parties, which will provide the possibility to get into touch and raise a glass with the film makers. After all, this festival should be a place of dialogue. A dialogue between the audience and film makers, between Austrian and international film.

On the 1st April, the competition for the Golden Bobby, which has already been won by now well-known directors such as Barbara Albert or Götz Spielmann in their years of study, will be inaugurated by the opening ceremony in the Viennese Gartenbaukino. With the Metrokino and its appendant Café, we have found a new home for the main festival, and we are happy to show a selection of the best movies from more than 30 countries and almost 400 submissions in the competition and work showcase.

Student film exists – now again in cinema.