First titles unveiled for Viennale's 50th edition

So far, Hurch has invited such films as Matthew Petock’s A Little Closer [pictured], Hal Hartley’s Meanwhile, William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, the late Raul Ruiz’s La Noche De Enfrente, Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse and Gonzalo Tobal’s Villegas for the main programme of feature films.

The programme will also include Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise: Love and Alain Resnais’ Vous N’Avez Encore Rien Vu among the titles coming from this year’s Cannes, while Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s Der Glanz des Tages and Ying Liang’s When Night Falls will have their Austrian premiere at the Viennale after having been in competition at this month’s Locarno Film Festival.

Meanwhile, the documentary programme will feature Age Is, the last film by the late Stephen Dwoskin, Werner Herzog’s four-part series Death Row, Gregg Barson’s Method To The Madness Of Jerry Lewis, Romuald Karmakar’s Angriff auf die Demokratie – Eine Intervention,  and Marcelo Machado’s Tropicália, among others.

Apart from the previously reported Fritz Lang retrospective and tribute to Michael Caine, the 50th anniversary edition will present a sidebar dedicated to the little-known Portuguese film-maker Manuel Mozos and a personal selection of his nation’s cinema.

In addition, the Viennale engaged German film-maker and critic Jörg Buttgereit to curate the “Something Different” programme inspired by a line from the trailer to The Hills Have Eyes (“They were looking for something different, but something different saw them first”) with films as diverse as Christian Nyby’s The Thing From Another World and Ridley Scott’s Alien.

A gala evening with a screening of Mike Hodges’ 1971 gangster film Get Carter (starring Caine) will be held during the festival in honour of the film’s Austrian cinematographer Wolf Suschitzky who celebrates his 100th birthday this year.

Moreover, the 50th edition will see the festival centre moving again this year to be based in the former headquarters of the Austrian Post Office, halfway between the Urania and Gartenbau cinemas.

Another innovation planned during this festival will be the launch of the Viennale’s dedicated video label in collaboration with the Falter magazine: the first title to appear will be Portuguese film-maker Miguel Gomes’ 2008 film Our Beloved Month of August.

In the meantime, the extensive programme of events to mark the Viennale’s 50th anniversary during the year has meant that cinéphiles do not have to wait for the 14 days from October 25: for instance, the festival has cooperated with Sixpackfilm and Festivalscope for a slection of Austrian avant garde films to be shown on the Festival Scope platform from mid-September; sneak previews of Viennale titles will be shown in two Vienna cinemas on September 6 and October 4; and the Burg Kino’s 100thanniversary will be celebrated with a season of American films from the 1970s put together by the festival.

The 50^th Viennale will be held from October 25 to November 7, 2012. More information at www.viennale.at.