FILM FESTIVAL | AASFF 2016: DAY 1
The Austrian Cultural Forum is pleased to present the inaugural edition of the Austrian American Short Film Festival (AASFF). Initiated and co-founded by ACFNY Director Christine Moser and AASFF Festival Curator Stephanie Falkeis, the festival runs from April 27 to 29, 2016 at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. Films compete in the categories “Narrative”, “Experimental and Conceptual”, and “Documentary and Hybrid”. The independent jury selecting the winning films is composed of Austrian writer/director/producer Jessica Hausner (Amour Fou, Lourdes, Hotel), acting as Head of Jury; director/producer Sara Driver (Sleepwalk, When Pigs Fly, Stranger than Paradise); and David Schwartz, Chief Curator of the Museum of the Moving Image.
PROGRAM FOR APR 27
6:30 PM Opening Ceremony
Welcome by ACFNY Director, Christine Moser
Introduction by Festival Curator, Stephanie Falkeis
Keynote by Head of Jury, Jessica Hausner
7:00 PM Screening Session A
A PITTER PATTER GOES MY HEART by Christoph Rainer, 22 min (Film Academy Vienna / Columbia University, Film)
TWO YEARS by Lauren Hall, 12 min (School of Visual Arts)
A SUBSEQUENT FULFILMENT OF A PREHISTORIC WISH by Johannes Gierlinger, 9 min (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna)
STUDIO STUDIO by Sara Stern, 9 min (Columbia University, Visual Arts)
8:00 PM Q&A with Filmmakers
8:15 PM Screening Session B
ESEL / CARRY ON by Rafael Haider, 24 min (Film Academy Vienna)
EL RITUAL DEL COLOR by Luz Olivares, 2:30 min (Film Academy Vienna / Academy of Fine Arts Vienna)
JAPANESE FANTASIES by Rory Pfotenhauer, 28 min (School of Visual Arts)
HARD LINES by oellinger/rainer and Stefan Wirnsperger, 2:30 min (University of Applied Arts Vienna)
9:15 PM Q&A with Filmmakers
9:30 PM Opening Reception with Guests, Filmmakers & Audience at the Filmmakers Lounge (11th floor)
ABOUT THE AASFF
The Austrian American Short Film Festival (AASFF) is the first-ever bilateral festival featuring short films in all forms and genres by promising young artists and filmmakers from both Austria and the United States. Set to take place annually, the three-day festival is both presented and hosted by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY), and the selection of winning films will be screened at Anthology Film Archives, New York, Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI), New York, and the frame[o]ut Festival, Museums- Quartier, Vienna.
For more information on the festival, please visit www.austrianamericanshortfilmfestival.org.
AWARDS
The independent jury selects the best Austrian and American films in the following categories: Narrative│Experimental and Conceptual │Documentary and Hybrid. The selection of winning films will be screened at Anthology Film Archives, New York (May 1, 2016), Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI), New York (June 2016), and the frame[o]ut Festival, Museums- Quartier, Vienna (July 16, 2016).
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL JURY 2016
Jessica Hausner, is a director, scriptwriter, and producer born in 1972 in Vienna, Austria. She studied directing at the Filmacademy of Vienna, where in 1996 she made the short film Flora, which won the ‘Leopard of Tomorrow’ at the Locarno Festival. Inter-view, her graduation film, won the Prix du Jury of the Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999. Two years later, Lovely Rita, her first feature film, was presented in ‘Un Certain Regard’ at the Cannes Film Festival before being distributed in twenty territories. Her second feature film Hotel was again selected in ‘Un Certain Regard’ at the Cannes Film Festival 2004. Her next film Lourdes had its premiere at Venice Film Festival 2009 in International Competition where it won the ‘FIPRESCI Prize’. Hausner’s latest film Amour Fou is set around 1810 in Berlin and avails itself of the tragic life of the German writer Henrich von Kleist. Amour Fou premiered again in ‘Un Certain Regard’ in Cannes.
Sara Driver directed Paul Bowles’ short story, YOU ARE NOT I (1982, 48 min.) Restored and celebrated at the Masterworks NYFF 2011. Her feature film; SLEEPWALK (1986, 78 min.), won the prestigious Prix Georges Sadoul. SLEEPWALK given by the Cinematheque Francaise, premiered Critics Week of Cannes, Sundance film festival, Museum of Modern Art’s 1987 New Directors New Films Series. And recently shown at BAM for their 80s series. WHEN PIGS FLY (94 min.,1993), Premiered Locarno Film Festival and shown in Toronto, and Rotterdam, and the film was recently shown at the Museum of Modern Art in the Women in film series. She wrote and directed the short documentary, THE BOWERY – SPRING, 1994, part of “Postcards from New York,” an anthology program for French TV. Driver’s other film credits include Jim Jarmusch’s, PERMANENT VACATION (1979, producer, production manager) and STRANGER THAN PARADISE (1984, producer). Her films have had retrospectives in Denmark, Buenos Aires, Anthology Film Archives NYC, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, TIFF Cinematique, Toronto, Maine International Film Festival, Filmoteca Spain and Estoril/Lisbon where she was awarded the prestigious Tribute Award for her work in cinema. Her films are available in a boxset from Filmswelike.
David Schwartz is Chief Curator of Museum of the Moving Image, where he has worked since 1985. He oversees the Museum’s wide-ranging film programs and changing exhibitions. He is a visiting professor at Purchase College, the host of the Westchester Cinema Club and the Cinema Arts Centre Preview Club. He is also the programming director of First Time Fest, a New York-based film festival devoted to the first films of emerging and established directors. He has been on numerous juries, including the international competition jury at BAFICI (in Buenos Aires) and FIDLab (in Marseille, France) in 2015.
Photo Still from ESEL / CARRY ON by Rafael Haider