Highly Qualified Workforce
Eric Plescow, born in 1924 in Vienna, became part of film history as producer and president of United Artists and Orion Pictures. Under his leadership, United Artists received ten Academy Awards for Best Picture alone, among them, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, ANNIE HALL, and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Since 1998, Eric Plescow is President of Vienna’s annual international film festival, the Viennale. Speaking from decades of experience about the impact of Austria’s career-oriented educational system on the success of Austria’s film industry, Plescow comments, “Austria benefits from an excellent technical infrastructure and creative experts in all fields.“
International Accolades
Filming in Austria has many advantages: The technical infrastructure meets international standards while the production costs are reasonable. However, Austria‘s biggest assets are the professional expertise and creative potential of Austria’s outstanding film industry professionals.
Austria’s directors, actors, cinematographers, film editors, sound editors, sound eningeers, lighting designers, and composers have built an international reputation by receiving numerous awards for their work in movies, television, animation, advertising, and industrial films. Equally high regard distinguishes Austria’s set designers, costume designers, make-up artists, prop masters, production designers, casting agents, still photographers, and publicists.
The Austrian director, Michael Haneke, was already known as a master of his craft before he received the Palme D’Or at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival for THE WHITE RIBBON. In addition, THE WHITE RIBBON won the European Film Award in the categories Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenwriter, a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and a German Film Award in Gold in ten categories.
The fact that recent Austrian films have received Academy Awards, such as Stefan Ruzowitzky‘s THE COUNTERFEITERS, and Academy Award nominations, such as Virgil Widrich‘s COPYSHOP and Götz Spielmann‘s REVANCHE, speaks volumes about the creativity and production quality found in Austrian film.
Austrian feature films have generally been successful at top international film festivals where Austrian co-productions with partners from Europe and the United States become more prevalent every year. The new millennium intensified the international appeal of Austrian movies. In 1999, Barbara Albert’s melodrama NORDRAND ushered in this new trend in Austrian film. Her movie was the first Austrian production since 1948 to be nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
In 2011, Karl Markovics made his debut as writer and director with the movie BREATHING which won the Label Europa Cinemas award at the 64th Cannes Film Festival. Simultaneously, Markus Schleinzer‘s debut film MICHAEL hit the festival circuit. Both films received nominations for the European Film Award.
Austrian accomplishments in film music and sound are equally impressive. Sound engineers, composers and musicians, such as Peter Wolf, who began his career as Frank Zappa’s keyboarder, and Wolfgang Fritz, sound engineer at the Vienna State Opera, enjoy international celebrity status. Peter Wolf has lived in the United States since the 1970s and has worked on hit songs, such as Jefferson Starship’s WE BUILT THIS CITY as well as sound tracks like TOP GUN.
Gregor Narholz lives and works as a composer in Los Angeles, where he broke into the industry with hit scores for feature films like X-MEN LEGENDS II and SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS – THE MOVIE. He has also built a reputation as a production-music composer with his countless contributions to Sonoton, the world’s largest independent music library.
All these success stories are testimony to the high quality of education and training among Austria’s film industry and television professionals.
Universities and Training Facilities
Vienna Film Academy, Department of Film and Television at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna
ScriptLAB Vienna
Vienna Film College
University of Applied Sciences Salzburg
Vienna Training and Research Intitute for Graphic Arts
Department of Electro-Acoustics at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna
SAE (School of Audio Engineering) in Vienna: education and training in sound engineering, film production, digital journalism, animation, internet design, and game design.
University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Degree Program in Media Technology and Design
Danube University Krems, Degree Program in Television and Film Production
St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Masters Program in Digital Media Technologies
In addition, the European Union offers training support as part of the MEDIA-Program.
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