The Vienna International Film Festival, or Viennale, is a film festival taking place every October since 1960 in Vienna, Austria. The average number of visitors is about 75,000. Traditional cinema venues are Gartenbaukino, Urania, Metro-Kino, Filmmuseum and Stadtkino. At the end of the festival, the Vienna Film Prize is awarded.
The festival features a collection of new films from all over the world, as well as national and international premieres.
Apart from new feature films in various film genres the festival focuses on documentary films, short films, experimental films and crossover productions.
Together with the Austrian Film Museum a historical retrospective is organized every year, as well as special programs, tributes and homages to international institutions and individuals.
During the festival the Fipresci Prize is awarded by international film critics, and another prize is awarded by the readers of the Austrian newspaper Der Standard.
The program of the festival includes galas, special events and celebrations, as well as discussions and meetings between international guests and local visitors.
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“All the terrors of the French Republic, which held Austria in awe, were unable to command her diplomacy. But Napoleon sent to Vienna M. de Narbonne, one of the old noblesse, with the morals, manners, and name of that interest, saying, that it was indispensable to send to the old aristocracy of Europe men of the same connection, which, in fact, constitutes a sort of free- masonry. M. de Narbonne, in less than a fortnight, penetrated all the secrets of the imperial cabinet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you’ve got to find a language. Which goes for film as well as prose, for documentary as well as autobiography. Use the wrong language, and you’re dumb and blind.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1948)
“Sabbath. A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)