Coming to an end with today's screening of the closing film The Ides of March by George Clooney, the Viennale 2011 continues on its path of success. With an attendance of 96,700 at the 2011 festival as compared to last year's 96,300, the Viennale saw a slight increase in the number of visitors, less so than in previous years but at the same time an important and wonderful confirmation of the Viennale's steadily growing popularity. The festival's overall attendance figures also rose slightly from 79.80% in 2010 to 79.90% at the Viennale 2011.

The number of film screenings remained more or less the same as last year's with a total of 347 screenings, and so did the number of sold-out screenings, which totaled 120 this year.

Contributing significantly to the 2011 festival's success were the numerous fully booked screenings and gala events at the spacious Gartenbaukino, the almost completely sold-out special program Home Run featuring new Austrian films, and the unexpected popularity of films such as Alpis, Terri, Drive, Tomboy, Take Shelter, Submarine, Hesher, Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da, Americano and Bé omid é didar, to name but a few.

While the Tribute to Harry Belafonte was extremely successful, as expected, the first international homage to Soi Cheang did not quite meet our expectations. The same is true of the HBO series Mildred Pierce, whereas individual documentary films screened at the Gartenbaukino received great public response, including Mama Africa, India, Matri Bhumi, Tahrir, Liberation Square and The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975.

Realized in collaboration with the Filmmuseum, this year's retrospective was dedicated to Chantal Akerman and was a huge success with 4,500 visitors. More than 500 viewers enjoyed the premiere of Akerman's most recent film at the Gartenbaukino.

"In summary, we can once again point to the Viennale audience's exceptional curiosity and zest for discovery. They received the festival's cinematic complexity and wide variety of extremely different works, styles, genres and stories with great interest and incredible openness," says festival director Hans Hurch. "This is wonderfully promising for the great 50th anniversary of the Viennale in 2012."

VIENNALE 2011 PRIZE WINNERS

VIENNA FILM PRIZE

Jury: Wolfgang Gantner, Lydia Mischkulnig, Violetta Parisini, Loretta Pflaum, Eva Poleschinski

For the third time, this year the "Vienna Film Prize" was awarded separately in both the "Feature Film" and "Documentary" categories. There are two equal prizes, each of which consists of monetary and material awards worth EUR 12,000.

The Viennale would like to take this opportunity to thank the companies Kodak and Synchro Film & Video as well as the Culture Department of the City of Vienna. Owing to the generosity and commitment of all involved, the "Vienna Film Prize" continues to represent encouragement and recognition of the work of Austrian filmmakers.

Feature Film

Michael, Markus Schleinzer, A 2011

Excerpt from the jury's decision: "Markus Schleinzer shows us the wretchedness of power, thus forcing us to confront ourselves and our society with distressing yet necessary issues."

Documentary

Der Prozess, Gerald Igor Hauzenberger, A 2011

Excerpt from the jury's decision: "We award the prize to Gerald Igor Hauzenberger for his consistent accompaniment of an animal protection group in its struggle against the Austrian machinery of justice."

An honorary mention goes to David Wants to Fly by David Sieveking.

"The film receives an honorable mention for its artistic direction, irony and humane attitude, especially in the deconstruction of any personality cult."

VIENNALE STANDARD READERS' JURY PRIZE

Jury: Ida Dupkanic, Lisa Eder, Walter Freinbichler, Harald Retschitzegger, Katharina Wienerroither

The Standard Readers' Jury Prize goes to a film that does not yet have an Austrian distributor and is especially recommended for screening in Austrian cinemas. Should the award-winning film find a distributor, Der Standard supports its film run with free advertising space in its newspaper.

The STANDARD READERS' JURY PRIZE goes to:

El lugar más pequeño, Tatiana Huezo Sánchez, Mexico 2011

Excerpt from the jury's decision: "El lugar más pequeño holds a message for viewers, yet instead of propounding theses, it spreads hope. Although it addresses a dark chapter of history, it invites viewers into a faraway world with wonderful images - images whose simultaneous gentleness and power captivate the viewer without the film ever losing its documentary character along the way."

FIPRESCI PRIZE (Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics)

Jury: Diego Lerer (Argentina), Vasco Camara (Portugal), Marina Kostova (Macedonia), Hans Langsteiner (Austria)

The FIPRESCI PRIZE is awarded to the first or second film of a young director.

The FIPRESCI PRIZE goes to:

Yatasto, Hermes Paralluelo, Argentina 2011

Excerpt from the jury's decision: "... for his realistic and emphatic portrayal of a group of children collecting garbage in the Argentinean province of Córdoba."

Erste Bank's MehrWERT Film Prize

For the first time, Erste Bank awarded its MehrWERT ("Added Value") Film Prize at the Viennale 2011. (residence scholarship in New York)

The prize is awarded to an Austrian film featured in the Viennale program.

Jury: Nikolas Mahler, Franz Schwartz, Verena Teissl

The MehrWERT Film Prize goes to:

Der Prozess, Gerald Igor Hauzenberger, A 2011

Excerpt from the jury's decision: "The gripping and spectacular, yet never speculative manner in which the author depicts processes and positions around his subject matter is truly impressive and convincing."

Because short films are generally neglected in the marketing and distribution chain, Erste Bank acting at the jury's recommendation is awarding an additional short film prize (each worth EUR 2,000).

.

Kreis Wiener Neustadt, Johann Lurf

Schneiderei (Vaginale VI) and Sommerurlaub (Vaginale VII), Kurdwin Ayub

Excerpt from the jury's decision: "...for the originality and visual intensity of their works."

GUESTS OF THE VIENNALE 2011

Never a classical red carpet festival, the Viennale is proud to increasingly gain the attention of outstanding international personalities of world cinema. Prominent guests such as David Cronenberg, Nanni Moretti, Harry Belafonte, Jeremy Thomas, André Wilms and the author Ruth Klüger accepted our invitation to come to Vienna for the festival. We were also happy to welcome a large number of exciting new directors, including Valérie Massadian, Laura Citarella, Nadav Lapid and Alex Ross Perry, as well as filmmakers who had already been our guests at previous Viennale festivals, among them Bertrand Bonello, Stefano Savona, Mathieu Demy, Azazel Jacobs and Klaus Lemke.

A total of 120 directors and actors were present at the Viennale 2011.

ACCREDITATION

651 representatives of the media and film industry were accredited at the Viennale 2011. International media attention for the festival continues to grow.

More than 60 international media representatives were present at this year's Viennale, including journalists from Süddeutsche Zeitung, FAZ, Tagesspiegel, ZDF, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Tagesanzeiger, Il Manifesto, Repubblica, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Tribune, Público, South China Morning Post, Radikal, Handelsblad, de Volkskrant, Vedomosti St. Petersburg, Oslobodenje, Vest, Politika and Ethnos.

Representatives from specialist and industry publications included, among many others, those from Cahiers du Cinéma, Cinema Scope, epd Film, Filmecho, cargo, Film & TV Kameramann, de Filmkrant, Sight & Sound as well as those from renowned websites such as mubi.com and artforum.com.

The high prominence that the Viennale now has in the international film festival scene is also reflected by the many representatives attending the Viennale from other important film festivals. These include the Berlinale and the film festivals of Venice, Cannes, Locarno, Pordenone, Trieste, Udine, Marseille, Toronto, Buenos Aires, Jeonju, Rotterdam, Ghent, Wrocław and Lisbon.

We are looking forward to seeing you again at the 2012 festival.