Roland Teichmann, managing director of the Association of the Audiovisual and Film Industry, has been named the successor to Gerhard Schedl as the director of the Austrian Film Institute (OFI) from May 2004.

Teichmann, who organised a two-part international conference with the German lobby group film20 on the challenges of the EU enlargement for the film industry last autumn, was recommended to State Secretary of State Franz Morak by the OFI committee from a final shortlist of five candidates .

Meanwhile, a final funding session by OFI last year saw over Euros 2.4m being channelled into various funding measures, including backing for such projects as Simon Aeby's historical drama Henker (Hangman), Michael Glawogger's Slumming , Ulrich Aselmann's Winterreise and Stefan Ruzowitzky's Der Faelscher.