Discoveries from Austria World Cinema

New Year's concert 2025 of Vienna Philharmonic with Riccardo Muti.

Christmas in Vienna VI is the next installment in a series of Christmas concerts recorded in Vienna with Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo. Recorded in December 1998, it also includes the French singer Patricia Kaas and the Mexican singer Alejandro Fernández with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra directed by Steven Mercurio.

American investment fund buys Austrian companies, but also takes over politics in Vienna. Money still makes the world go round.

Martin Hinterkirchner, dissatisfied with his position, sends the hits he has secretly composed to a manager. One of them would be ideal for the famous singer Linda Borg, but her manager refuses. Unfortunately, Martin now blames Linda and has nothing good to say about her - in contrast to his grandfather Leopold, who met Linda at a dog show. When Martin stands in for his untalented friend Peter as a singer at a hit song competition and mistakenly believes he has failed, he returns to his Tyrolean home village of Himmelberg. Peter, on the other hand, accepts a contract even though he cannot sing the required duet with Linda Borg and looks for excuses. Linda travels to Tyrol in a bad mood because she has received love letters from there. She has no idea that Martin's grandfather Leopold is the secret sender who wants to get her to sing Martin's hits.

Flori and Lucy are on holiday in Turkey. By accident they meet their class mate Ali, who is visiting his grandfather. Ahmet, a genie, sends the three kids on a treasure hunt near an old castle. They find real jewels and the hunt turns into a real adventure when it becomes apparent that a German gangster duo is looking for the treasure as well.

Through thoughtful letters from prison, an anarchist incarcerated since 1980 reflects on his radical past.

The young artist couple Jonas and Emma are traveling to Tyrol. In Emma's homeland, they want to say goodbye to Emma's dying childhood love. Their encounter with the dying Luca changes their view of their art, their lives - and above all their relationship.

It was planned as a journey to one of the most beautiful and most fascinating islands in the world! It turns out as their most dangerous and toughest adventure ever! the professional Freeskiers Phil Meier, Matthias Haunholder and Matthias Mayr try to reach the Island Onekotan far out in stormy seas to ski the most unique Peak in the World.

The film follows Alma on what should be a simple walk home. Capturing the quiet paranoia and everyday fear that women carry when navigating the night, a reflection on vulnerability, perception, and feeling unsafe.

Clemens Andermann, once a celebrated stage and film star, now an equally successful industrialist, is firmly convinced that his son Andreas is studying chemistry in the idyllic university town of Freylangen. But he is completely mistaken. In reality, his offspring has secretly been hired by theater director Löwe to play Romeo. He would also love to play the role to his stage Juliet, the charming guest star Monika Holl. Then the telegram announcing his father's visit hits like a bombshell. Together with his friend Oskar, Andreas tries to keep the deception going by impersonating his father's doppelganger – an undertaking that initially descends into utter chaos and ultimately leads to a happy ending.

The cruel King Ottokar of Bohemia, spoiled by fortune and unpredictable, is dead. Now, with the modest Rudolf of Habsburg, peace has finally returned to Austria, for he replaces tyrannical arbitrariness with God-fearing clemency—and the way is clear for a story that lasted 700 years and bears the title: "The Habsburgs in Austria." With this view of Franz Grillparzer's play, many productions have been staged since the premiere of "King Ottokar's Fortune and End" – Rudolf of Habsburg as the gatekeeper to the dawn of a new, better era. It became clear what a great projection screen Grillparzer's play offered. It should really be called "The Habsburgs' rise to power as a development toward the good, the just, the orderly." But it is called "King Ottokar's Fortune and End," and that is what it is about—the fortune and end of a human being and how the one is sometimes directly connected to the other.

Composer Alexander Marhold is to be officially honored on his 50th birthday. His two adult sons, Bobby and Alexander, from two previous marriages, are also arriving: one from Russia, the other from America. As these contrasting young men intensively court Marhold's attractive wife, Beate, the mature charmer sees his wife in a whole new light.

About a group of graduates from Cambridge University who go back to their college to visit a friend who has stayed on there. Otto Muehl founded a community of artists in Vienna in 1970 with the aim of exploring a completely free life practice. Since 1972, this society experiment at the Friedrichshof in Burgenland, 60 kilometers from Vienna, further developed. From the mid-1970s, other municipalities were founded in 30 European cities. At Friedrichshof itself lived at times up to 240 members and visitors.

Four 12-year-olds—Sharon, Tom, Moishy, and Sophie—prepare for their bar or bat mitzvot.

It is the world's most mysterious manuscript. A book, written by an unknown author, illustrated with pictures that are as bizarre as they are puzzling - and written in a language that even the best cryptographers have been unable to decode.

On the occasion of a charity ball in Vienna a kiss of a famous actress should be auctioned. Misunderstandings between the manager of the film star, a record producer and a student lead too all kinds of mistakes, during which a student is mistaken for a prince in disguise and almost breaks his hapiness. - Quickly and expertly produced mistake comedy with a lot of singing desposits and an at than popular comedian line-up, which offers amusing surface entertainment.

A homeless man is found dead on Graz's Schlossberg hill. Tour guide Tony Blauer becomes entangled in the mysterious crime and soon finds himself drawn into the world of the "Sandlers." Together with his British friend Duncan, he attempts to solve the case. A long-forgotten secret comes to light and leaves its mark on Graz and its history.

Hansi is elated and looks forward to a happy life when his childhood sweetheart Regina marries him. However, he is unaware that his rival is conspiring to cause a rift in his family.

As part of the 2006 Mozart Year, 28 Austrian filmmakers, including Ulrich Seidl, were commissioned to create a minute-long film featuring Mozart's music. Seidl decided on the slaves' chorus from Zaide: "Brothers, let us be merry and bravely defy adversity" rings out while two dimly-lit men give themselves over to purposeless pleasure. They masturbate mechanically and monotonously. Paper towels stand ready next to them, as if waiting for consummation, the climax. Nietzsche claimed that all pleasure seeks to be eternal; Brothers, Let Us Be Merry depicts the hangover left by this unfulfilled utopia.

This three-minute film was far more akin to the American-style "happening" in that the content was not particularly extreme. It was built up from items such as broken bicycle parts, a nude model, pieces of furniture, and these elements were then obscured or transformed by having a layer of paint thrown on them.

Five people in their everyday surroundings tell stories that they have never experienced personally. They recount tales of people involved in trafficking in women. They tell of exploitation , violence and force. They tell of realities which have happened and which might have happened in the places shown.

A poor composer who should buy a property for his ambitious father-in-law finances with the money, nevertheless, an opera. Together with his friend who must play a husband to his strict rich aunt, he makes to himself a fun from the mistakes which cause her feints.

Imagine a sprawling city of 155,000 retirees, equipped with 54 golf courses, 70 swimming pools, and its own media outlet. The thousands of residents of The Villages, Florida, live isolated from the world in a leisure bubble where age is no longer a question. But all of this comes at a cost, paid by the flora, fauna, and locals.

Vienna 1965. While visiting the Wax Museum a group of tourists stop in front of the figure of Prince Metternich. All of a sudden they find themselves brought back 150 years earlier during the Vienna Congress of 1814-1815. Before their eyes wide open, history is in the making. Gathered around the Tsar of Russia, Alexander I, the Kings of Bavaria, Würtemberg, Prussia and Denmark, are persuaded they are building the future Europe whereas they are being manipulated by foxy Chancellor Metternich, he himself under the thumb of cynical Count Talleyrand, the French representative. All those considerations come second though to partying and social life, which is all these aristocrats really want out of this congress.

A famous racing driver must give up his sport and take over the management of the porcelain factory on incentive of the vigorous grandmother as the last shoot of an old businessman's family. Unrecognized he is regulated as a worker what a love story with a 20-year-old worker arises from, who leads after incidents in the happy end. - After Franz Lehar's operetta produced comedy

Dr. Johann Spittler is a neuropsychiatrist whose devoted work assessing and assisting individuals seeking assisted suicide in Germany unfolds within a morally fraught society.

Three families struggle to find their true selves and their soulmates in a world full of expectations, pressure and obstacles. Inspired by real events, this film shows how they pursue their dreams and potential without losing themselves.

Albania in the southeast of Europe – situated between Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro – hosts an astonishingly diverse landscape. Harmonic coastal areas lead to harsh karst landscapes. Snow-covered mountain regions, wild canyons, waterfalls, deep-blue lakes and untouched rivers are perfect conditions for an immensely rich flora and fauna. Decades of war preserved wide areas of the country from industrial exploitation, so the natural environment is still untouched.

A long time-span of Austrian history (from the late 19th century to the years after world war II) is reflected in the ups and downs of a family of piano-makers in Vienna.

Thanks to his myriad film roles, Lon Chaney is known as “the man of a thousand faces,” and you could say that the early horror era never beheld a figure more intriguing. Yet because of his numerous transformations, his face never became as iconic as that of, say, Boris Karloff. Accompanied by a soundtrack from Bernhard Lang, this “re-imagination of shots” taken from Chaney´s forty-six surviving films offers a beguiling excursion into the history of film. The director reveals surprising associations, while highlighting the enduring magic of works which are now more or less forgotten.

After a long day at work, a frog returns to his apartment, hoping to relax. But his clumsy neighbor living below has other plans. The peace and quiet he longs for is severely disturbed — until things finally escalate.

Wilhelm, who is a fanatic for justice, and Mango Karl kidnap Erwin, the beloved cockerel of Mrs. Wassermann. As always, the two men aim to distribute the money obtained by extortion among the socially needy. The rest is "Beyond Feathers"...

A Czarist refugee, separated from her husband, gets a job as a nightclub singer in Vienna and has to decide later if she wants to rejoin him.

A romantic melodrama set in 19th-century Russia: magnificent uniforms, dashing officers, glittering balls. A young woman, unhappily married to an aging count, who is passionately in love with another man, must stand trial on charges of murder after her husband commits suicide.

Romeo and Juliet - a couple that has a very odd perception of their relationship. They decide to buy a loft situated in a run-down factory. Somenone already lives there. The deranged owner of the factory, and his buddy, the real-estate agent, have been living an exciting life of capturing and torturing young and innocent couples. Too bad Romeo and Juliet are everything but docile victims!

Beirut lies in ruins. After the explosion in the city's port, collective trauma rises to the surface. How can life succeed after such a tragedy? The film carefully observes the following three years and zooms in on the lives of Aya - a Syrian refugee girl, Selim - an activist and painter, the Aladdin family - mourning a tragic loss, Yasmin - picking up calls at a suicide prevention hotline, and Andrea - who still believes in the city's spark for change. Meanwhile, a smoldering fire keeps on lingering in the port’s silos like a cautionary tale. Is it time to leave?

The moving story and amazing new insights into the life of the legendary entertainer! Udo Jürgens looks back on his life and career with disarming honesty. He does not shy away from uncomfortable topics such as the agonizing doubts of the early years, the high price of success and the fears and desires that drove him. Celebrities and personal companions also contribute many exciting insights.

All creatures in Greenland are green, except Bluekid. In this partly animated handicraft world, Mwita Mataro reflects on experiences of racism in Austria with children and experts.

Gery makes the leap from the youth soccer team to the testosterone-overloaded combat team. He is pushed into desired futures from all sides - he tries to meet all of them without knowing what he actually wants himself.

On November 3, 1918, a group of Austro-Hungarian officers in a makeshift hospital of the Austro-Hungarian Army, somewhere in the Karawanks, is completely cut off from the outside world by persistent snowstorms. A machinist's mate manages to reach the trapped men and bring them the news that the war is lost and the monarchy will be divided. Initially, they plan to shoot him as a deserter. But when the news is confirmed, everyone wants to return to their homeland. For Colonel von Radosin, his world collapses, and he shoots himself.

The chef Patrick inherits an old, run-down hotel on the Wolfgangsee and wants to convert it into a music hotel with the help of the employees. While there is fierce intrigue and a few love affairs, the hotel gradually takes shape.

Welcome to the world of industrial food production and high-tech farming! To the rhythm of conveyor belts and immense machines, the film looks without commenting into the places where food is produced in Europe: monumental spaces, surreal landscapes and bizarre sounds - a cool, industrial environment which leaves little space for individualism.

Andi shares a deserted building with a group of fellow-squatters he considers his family. One day his sister turns up unexpectedly with her small son Levi, seeking refuge from her abusive boyfriend; she has nowhere else to turn. So Andi suddenly finds himself in the role of uncle, the squat is transformed into an alternative kindergarten, and the estranged pair become the siblings they once were.

A pirate radio, the girl next door, and a test of friendship.

A farmer opposes his daughter marrying a young music teacher (who a visitor from town also has eyes on) and prefers she marry a rich shopkeeper.The drama culminates with a fire in a barn where the touring Vienna Boys Choir are rehearsing.

Go on an enriching journey from Mexico to Spain, onto Austria and then to China via Greece in these five moving short films where gay men overcome various obstacles in accepting who they are, and where they are going - things can only get better. The 5 short films are: If They Knew [Berak baleki] (2021); Xutaj (2022); Boom and Bloom [Neuzeit] (2022); Sexual Distancing (2022); And We Collide [潮汐平行时] (2021).