And: Adrian Goiginger’s ORF co-financed drama “Märzengrund” will have its ORF 2 premiere on May 30th
Vienna (OTS) – While the ORF co-financed film “The Village Next to Paradise” is up for a prize in the “Un Certain Regard” section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, ten other projects across genres have already received a significant financial contribution from the ORF of the film/television agreement totaling around 2.2 million euros.
At the 197th meeting of the Joint Commission of ORF and the Austrian Film Institute, which took place on Thursday, April 25, 2024, five feature films, one animated film, two documentaries and two innovation projects – also documentaries – were selected from numerous submissions.
In her visually stunning black comedy, Ulrike Ottinger sends “The Blood Countess” on a crazy hunt for the red lifeblood across Vienna, while in the third part of the children’s animated film “The Bunny School,” director Ute von Münchow-Pohl plays the bunny girl Emmi from the “Legend of the Golden Egg.” let follow up. In his feature film debut “Eklipse,” director Manuel Wetscher follows a boy who loses his father to AIDS in the 1990s. In their thriller “Keep her quiet,” Franz Böhm and Suli Kurban focus on two journalists who courageously investigate the disappearance of the Uighurs in northwest China. With the science fiction film “Requiem for a Robot”, director Christoph Rainer presents his feature film debut, and Sven Unterwaldt is taking over the direction of “Woodwalkers 2”. “Do we all have to die?” Werner Boote asks himself in his documentary in the face of apocalyptic scenarios and in his documentary “On Probation” Jan Prazak shows the daily struggle of probation officers. Jola Wieczorek explores “The Still Unknown Days” in her documentary film, which deals with her family’s immigration from Poland to Austria in 1989, and Olga Kosanović in “Not a Lipizzaner for a Long Time” asks the question of identity and the we- Thoughts.
Meanwhile, TV audiences can also look forward to a top-class cinema production. Adrian Goiginger’s ORF co-financed drama “Märzengrund” based on the play of the same name by Felix Mitterer about a young man who goes against the maxims of the profit-oriented society and decides for a radical life in harmony with nature, celebrates on Thursday, January 30th. May, at 8:15 p.m. its ORF 2 premiere. The film stars Jakob Mader, Johannes Krisch, Gerti Drassl, Verena Altenberger, Harald Windisch and Carmen Gratl, among others. Adrian Goiginger and Felix Mitterer are responsible for the script.
The projects co-financed by ORF at the 197th meeting of the Joint Commission of ORF and the Austrian Film Institute in detail:
The Blood Countess
Feature film/black comedy
Written and directed by Ulrike Ottinger
Dialogues: Ulrike Ottinger in collaboration with Elfriede Jelinek Production: Amour Fou
Content: The Blood Countess and her maid open a new dance of the vampires. The audience follows them on their crazy hunt for the red lifeblood, the buried history of their ancestors and a book that threatens to destroy their vampire kingdom. Hot on their heels: her vegetarian nephew, his psychotherapist, two vampirologists and a police inspector with assistants.
The Bunny School – Legend of the Golden Egg
Animated film/children’s film
Book: Claudia Winter
Director: Ute von Münchow-Pohl
Production: arx anima animation
Content: Just as bunny student Emmi is declared the new keeper of the golden egg, badgers break into the bunny school and throw the bunnies out the door. Emmi, Max and Ferdi set out to save the Golden Egg and uncover an unimaginable secret.
eclipse
Drama
Book: Bernhard Jarosch and Manuel Wetscher
Director: Manuel Wetscher
Production: Eutopiafilm
Content: Summer, 1990s in Tyrol. Twelve-year-old Tomy spends the holidays with his friend Chris on his uncle’s mountain pasture. When Chris finds out that Tomy’s father is in the hospital with AIDS, their close friendship falls apart. The clueless Tomy doesn’t understand the negative reactions to him and his family and fights against it – until the whole truth comes to light with the solar eclipse and the foundations of his life shift.
Keep Her Quiet
Thriller
Book: Samuel Gheist, Suli Kurban and Franz Böhm
Directors: Franz Böhm and Suli Kurban
Production: Schubert Füm
Synopsis: Gülmira, a Uyghur journalist in Washington, DC, risks everything to bring to light the disappearance of her people in northwest China. Maryam escapes a brutal internment camp. Only by making enormous personal sacrifices can the two women succeed in convincing the world public.
Requiem for a Robot
Science Fiction
Book: Senad Halilbasic and Christoph Rainer
Director: Christoph Rainer
Production: Samsara Film
Content: In a world dominated by efficiency mania, the dysfunctional robot Rob is declared the savior in times of need: because he is supposed to sacrifice himself to save his much more useful brother Doc. Fearing death, Rob flees to the ends of the world in the hope of tracking down his presumed dead inventor. For the brassy hero, however, the adventurous journey develops into a search for identity, humanity and life itself.
Woodwalkers 2
Family Entertainment
Book: David Sandreuter based on the novels by Katja Brandis
Director: Sven Unterwaldt
Production: Dor Film
Content: A new school year begins for shapeshifter Carag and his friends Brandon, Holly and Lou at Clearwater High. But first, the Woodwalker Council must discuss whether or not Carag’s mentor and patron of the school, Andrew Milling, will be found guilty of the attack on the people. Carag is in a dilemma:
He wants to stop Milling, but Milling promises to take him to his true Puma family if he covers him in front of the council.
On probation
Documentary film
Written and directed by Jan Prazak
Production: berg hammer film
Content: Probation officers fight every day for a crime-free life for their clients, because working with perpetrators is protecting victims.
Do we all have to die?
Documentary film
Written and directed by Werner Boote
Production: Lotus Film
Content: Life arose on our planet around 541 million years ago and was then decimated again in five major extinctions. Are we now facing the sixth mass extinction or is it perhaps already underway? How can we manage – in a time of wars, climate strikes, environmental catastrophes and an impending disaster – to free ourselves from individual fear and find a collective solution together?
Innovation projects:
The still unknown days
Documentary film
Written and directed by Jola Wieczorek
Production: Fahrenheit Film
Content: “My family and I immigrated from Poland to Austria via the Traiskirchen refugee camp in 1989. ‘The Still Unknown Days’ weaves conversations, letters, staged scenes, archive material and my own narrative voice into a film essay that not only documents the challenging search for a new home, but also explores the nature of memory.” (Quote Jola Wieczorek)
Not a Lipizzaner by a long shot
Documentary film
Buch und Regie: Olga Kosanović
Production: April April
Content: “If a cat gives birth to kittens in the riding school, they are not Lipizzaners,” is a comment in an Austrian daily newspaper on the naturalization case of director Olga Kosanović, which was picked up by the media. Demarcation creates a feeling of identity and cohesion: a strong sense of unity. What kind of feeling is that and what social structures does it underlie it? Drawing on personal experiences, this film explores the emotion-stirring question of belonging.