Vienna Independent Film Festival

VIFF Vienna Independent Film Festival is an international film festival held annually in July in Vienna, capital of Austria. The festival focuses on independent cinema.

VIFF Vienna Independent Film Festival
LocationVienna, Austria
Websitewww.vienna-film-festival.com Edit this at Wikidata

History

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The Vienna Independent Film Festival was held for the first time on 4–7 July 2016 in the cinemas UCI Kinowelt Millenium City and CineCenter. The festival program consisted of 38 films from 14 countries in international competition. Opening film of the festival was God of Happiness by Dito Tsintsadze who won the Best Director award. Grand Prix of the festival – The Golden Sphinx – was awarded to the Konkani film Let's dance to the rhythm directed by Bardroy Barretto. Graham Streeter received the Best Feature Film award for his film Imperfect Sky. The award for Best Documentary Film was awarded to Violins of Hope: Strings of the Holocaust narrated by Adrien Brody and directed by Lance Shultz.

Winners

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2023 Best Actor award winner Wolfgang Cerny at the festival

2024

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[1]

  • Best Feature Film

Kintsugi — Directed by Diego Dicarlo

  • Best Actor

Francois Arnaud (Canadian Sniper)

  • Best Actress

Sofia Verna — Kintsugi

  • Best Director - Short Film

Carlos Arjona (Far Away from My Town)

  • Best Director - Feature Film

Michel Kandinsky (Canadian Sniper)

  • Best Short Film

The Journey — Directed by Dan Istrate

  • Best Art Direction

Kyle Browne (Spirit Sensing - Anima of the Quarry)

  • Best Cinematography

Kintsugi — Cinematography by Diego Dicarlo

  • Best Screenplay

He — Written by Chunzi Zhang

  • Best Documentary Film

The Ocean — Directed by Jennifer Schlieper

  • Best Animated Film

I'm Hip — Directed by John Musker

  • Best Music Video

Won't Be Around — Directed by Terry Blade

  • Best Song

ego — Song by Ava Della Pietra

  • Best Experimental Film

HOME — Directed by Kazumi Shimizu

  • Best Unproduced Script

PharmacyNice — Written by Joey Gu

2023

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[2] Grand Prix

  • The Whirlpool — Directed by Denis Kryuchkov

Best Feature Film

Best Short Film Director

  • Deirdre Lorenz — Return to New York

Best Feature Film

Best Original Screenplay

  • 8-Ball — Original Screenplay by Adrien Marquet

Best Short Film

Best Documentary Film

  • My Two Lives — Directed by Sarita Gold

Best Experimental Film

  • Little Planet 7406 — Directed by Goran Šporčić

Best Song

  • Fearless — Music by J Edna Mae

Best Music Video

Best Actor

Best Art Direction

  • An Occurrence — Directed by Dien Vo

Best Editing

  • Touching Moon — Edited by Sophia Liu

Best Cinematography

  • La Pietra — Cinematography by Michael Bradley

Best Film Score

  • W — Film Score by Anna Eriksson

Best Unproduced Script

2022

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[3] Grand Prix

  • Playing Through – directed by Balbinka Korzeniowska

Best Feature Film

  • Playing Through – directed by Balbinka Korzeniowska

Best Director

  • Balbinka Korzeniowska – Playing Through

Best Short Film

  • Živa (The Death of the Goddess Živa) – directed by Nataša Stearns

Best Music video

  • Frozen Heart – directed by Nina Guseva

Best Documentary Film

  • Ballymanus – directed by Patrick Sharkey, Séan Doupe

Best Experimental Film

  • Blue Delusion – directed by Guan Fang

Best Musical Film

Best Comedy Film

  • Hot Mess by Evelyne Tollman

Best Animated Film

  • Me and My Winter Games-Perfect Holiday – directed by Haoling Lee, Ming Zhong, Zhe Zhang, Liwen Wang

Best Actress

  • Julia Rae – Playing Through

Best Actor

Best Supporting Actress

Best Film Score

  • Long Flat Balls “Broken Promises” – music by Zach Robinson

Best Song

  • Molly’s Rainbow – by Katie Hardyman

Best Cinematography

  • Other Side of the Mountain – directed by Markus Otz

Best Screenplay

  • JIZO-Evangelist – written and directed by Tokoroten Nakamura

Best Art Direction

  • The Violin and its Shadow – directed by Greg Babalas

Best Unproduced Script

  • The Faerie Rings – written by Zina Brown

Honorary Mention for Social Impact

  • Change of Course – directed by Andreas Ortner[5]

2020

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Grand Prix

Best Feature Film

Best Director

  • Great Poetry (Aleksandr Lungin)

Best Original Screenplay

Best Short Film

  • To Her — Directed by Jacopo Ardolino

Best Documentary Film

  • Armenia(s), Time for Artists — Directed by Anahit Dasseux Ter Mesropian and David Vital-Durand

Best Experimental Film

  • Our Turn — Directed by Martiros Vartanov

Best Music Video

  • Champagne Drag Queen — Directed by Anna Haslehner

Best Actor

Best Supporting Actor

Best Cinematography

  • Grand Cancan — Cinematography by Dmitriy Ulyukaev

2019

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Grand Prix

Best Feature Film

Best Director

  • Doing Money (Lynsey Miller)

Best Original Screenplay

  • Murder on the Road to Kathmandu — Original Screenplay by Rupalee Verma

Best Short Film

Best Documentary Film

  • Three Scenes of a Wedding — Directed by Jason Tovey

Best Experimental Film

  • Fragmented Dreams — Directed by Tonatiuh Garcia

Best Music Video

Best Actor

Best Supporting Actor

Best Art Direction

  • The Lossen — Directed Colin Skevington

Best Cinematography

  • M — Cinematography by Matti Pyykkö

Best Film Score

2018

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Grand Prix

Best Feature Film

  • NO-ONE — Directed by Lev Prudkin, Vladimir Prudkin

Best Director

  • I May Regret (Graham Streeter)

Best Original Screenplay

  • Rosemarie — Original Screenplay by Adonis Floridis

Best Short Film

  • Father of the Man — Directed by Tommy Creagh

Best Documentary Film

  • Ballad of a Righteous Merchant — Directed by Herbert Golder

Best Experimental Film

  • Ghosts on the Road to Camalt — Directed by Jason Tovey

Best Music Video

  • The Sea — Directed by Hisanori Tsukuda

Best Actor

Best Cinematography

  • NO-ONE — Cinematography by Ziv Berkovich, David Stragmeister

Special Jury Prize

  • Krieg — Directed by Jeff Fry

2017

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Grand Prix (The Golden Sphinx)

Best Feature Film

Best Director

Best Original Screenplay

  • Million Loves in Me — Original Screenplay by John Yiu, Tiong Wooi LIM, Jeremy Tan

Best Short Film

  • Forgiveness — Directed by Rima Irani

Best Documentary Film

Best Experimental Film

Best Music Video

  • Nara - alt-J — Directed by Jasmin Selen Heinz

Best Actor

  • John Yiu (Million Loves in Me)

Best Supporting Actor

Best Art Direction

  • Bodyguard — Directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia

Best Cinematography

  • Platonov — Cinematography by Felix Cramer

2016

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Grand Prix (The Golden Sphinx)

Best Feature Film

Best Director

Best Original Screenplay

  • The Closer — Original Screenplay by Eli Hershko & Isaac Broyn

Best Short Film

  • After Truth — Directed by Nicolas Ehret

Best Animated Film

Best Documentary Film

  • Violins of Hope: Strings of the Holocaust — Directed by Lance Shultz[11][12][13]

Best Experimental Film

  • The Calling — Directed by Chris Boyd

Best Music Film

Best Music Video

Best Actor

  • Blake Lewis (Imperfect Sky)

Best Supporting Actor

  • Robert Berlin (The Closer)

Best Art Direction

  • After Truth — Directed by Nicolas Ehret
  • Let's Dance to the Rhythm — Directed by Bardroy Barretto

Best Cinematography

  • God of Happiness — Cinematography by Ralf M. Mendle

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Große Gewinner bei VIFF 2024 - Auszeichnungen für herausragende Indie-Filme". MeinBezirk.
  2. ^ "VIFF 2023 Gewinner". Meinbezirk.
  3. ^ "Vienna Independent Film Festival 2022: The Complete Winners List". Indie Cinema Magazine.
  4. ^ "Keke Palmer wins major film award in Vienna". Official Black Magazine.
  5. ^ "Auszeichnung in Wien für Ortners Regiedebüt". MeinBezirk.
  6. ^ "Russian film wins Grand Prix at Vienna Film Festival". Russkiy Mir.>
  7. ^ "ZDF/3sat-Produktion "Platonow" mit drei Preisen ausgezeichnet". 3sat.
  8. ^ "Hatamikia's 'Bodyguard' Collects Three Awards at Austrian Festival". Financial Tribune.
  9. ^ "Iran's 'Bodyguard' wins top prizes at VIFF 2017". Mehr News Agency.
  10. ^ ""The Bodyguard" secures three awards at Vienna film festival". Tehran Times.
  11. ^ "'Violins of Hope: Strings of the Holocaust' Named VIFF 2016 Best Documentary". Ideastream.
  12. ^ "PBS to air local filmmaker's 'Violins of Hope' documentary". The Review.
  13. ^ "Violins of Hope". WMHT.
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