Bridging the gaps between multiple fields—specifically, the social sciences and film—as well as between groups within society was the central thrust of the project BUILDING BRIDGES in Polarized Societies: Film – Wien – ArbeiterInnenmilieu – Rechtspopulismus […: Film – Vienna – The Working-Class Milieu – Right-Wing Populism], which ran from 2021 to 2025.

In conjunction with the Claire Simon retrospective Jedes Leben ist ein Roman [Each Life Is a Novel] at the Film Museum from 17 January to 24 February 2025, the filmmaker herself came to Film Academy Vienna, the mdw’s Department of Film and Television, for a one-day seminar on 20 January. Students had the opportunity to discuss Simon’s films with her at the Arthouse Cinema, the University’s own movie theatre.

Film Academy Vienna’s “Werkschau”, a showcase event that gives its students the opportunity to present their projects to a wide audience on a big screen, takes place once each year. The Gartenbaukino, the Stadtkino Wien, and the mdw’s own Art House Cinema treat the general public to a multifaceted three-day programme comprised of feature-length and short films by Film Academy students from various degree programmes and semesters.

In a film industry somehow capable of rescuing itself from crisis to crisis, as part of which its magic is being systematically stripped away layer by layer, location sound has a smaller and smaller role to play. It has separated from filmmaking as such to become something like a peculiar accessory of the film industry.

Barbara Albert, Jessica Hausner and Karina Ressler are the protagonists oft the first three volumes of the book series Aus der Werkstatt [From the Workshop], based on an ongoing oral history project of the Media and Film Studies chair at Film Academy Vienna. In wide-ranging workshop conversations, the filmmakers discuss their artistic work and provide insights into their cinematic thinking and the methods by which they proceed.

Police officer Nancy is torn between her responsibility and her compassion for the family, who’ve been living in Austria for a long time and are blindsided when the police show up. For this stirring short film, Film Academy Vienna alumnus Mark Gerstorfer and his Film Academy team won a Student Academy Award in gold in the Narrative category.

The #MeToo movement and especially last year’s debates in Austria regarding abuses of power on film sets have shifted a new, previously little-known job description into focus: that of “intimacy coordinator” (IC), for which EU-recognised training now exists.

The twelfth edition of the Seoul International Extreme-Short Image & Film Festival (SESIFF) has sent out its invitations, and among their recipients is a six-person film delegation from Vienna. The reason is 130 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the festival’s “Austria Focus” in 2022. Several short films from Film Academy Vienna (including Bato Nebo, Echthaar, and Fische) are to be screened as their own block, a master class with director Magdalena Chmielewska (Lullaby) is scheduled, and The Best Orchestra in the World will be shown as part of the opening event.