Viennale 2015

its this time of year again!
Vienna turns into a huge screen for national and international projections!

Every now and again, time plays a special role. Today, as we hold this press conference for the Viennale 2015, the city is facing a crucial election. We announce a festival that will begin once this election is decided. Without being overdramatic, it feels a bit as if we were in an interim time, in a transitory state. This situation also reflects how important it is to defend a cause and a form at any time. Or, as a wise man once said: “to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us.” Or as another one sang, “The Time is Always now.”

As the innovations we introduced last year have proven to be successful (the extension of the festival by one day and adding the new Eric Pleskow cinema hall in the Metro Kinokulturhaus as a venue), we have decided to stick to these changes. Moreover, the festival will take place in familiar fashion in the long-established cinemas in Vienna’s first district and the festival center, located in the former Austrian federal post office headquarters. Indeed, it is a distinctive feature and partly contributes to the Viennale’s special character to have the wonderful option – compared to many other international film festivals – of presenting our program in a number of selected single-auditorium cinemas in the heart of the city