Film Festival: Three beavers for Austria
Austria Days at the Biberach Film Festival: three of the eight Biber awards went to productions by ORF and Austrian filmmakers, including the city of Biberach’s Grand Prize for the best film. For two of the award winners, it is already clear when they will be seen on television or in the cinema.
News from Austria: The neighboring country does not come from the cinema by the dozen, but rather well-told stories told from new perspectives. That is the impression of the Biberach Film Festival, where the award was given four times: The winner is … Austria. This is also the case with the TV beaver for the best TV film: Four – a country thriller interprets the rules of the genre “surprisingly new”, confronts the Biber jury around film director Gregor Centner.
“A film that is both a milieu and a psychological study, with a depth of field that is convincing and one that touches you. A film that deals with socially significant issues in an elegant, quick, casual manner without moralizing. A film with a great ensemble and a camera which, precisely because of its reluctance, develops an unbelievable pull ”. If you want to check that and can receive ORF, you should make a note of January 18: Then ORF 1 will broadcast the rural crime thriller on TV. Or are there Austrian films via the streaming portal Flimmit (https://flimmit.at/de) or in the ORF media library (https://tvthek.orf.at) can be called up – but only if the extensive geo-blocking function allows it.
The winner of the Audience Beaver also has its German cinema release date.
Lot of freedom was co-financed by the ORF and is about a man’s love in post-war Germany – at that time a criminal offense due to the notorious Paragraph 175. The Biber jury recommends the film as “particularly touching and moving” and praises the acting and the character development of the protagonists (Franz Rogowski and Georg Friedrich).
Together with the image design, the music and the rhythm of the film, the result is a “coherent overall work”. “Große Freiheit” has already been successfully represented at other festivals, and it will hit the cinemas in Austria and Germany on November 18th.
Meeting and trailer under https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/281862/kritik.html.
Has no specific cinema release date yet Fox under construction, the winner of the main prize “Golden Beaver” for the best film. A tough, highly interesting prison drama, shot in juvenile prisons in Vienna and other Austrian cities. The plot staged by the author and director Arman Riahi is fictional, but based on real events: The biography of the prison teacher Wolfgang Riebninger, who wrote down his experiences as a teacher in the juvenile prison and was in Biberach himself.
As a 70-year-old he is no longer allowed to teach but is active in teacher training. Incidentally, “Fuchs” also received the prize for the best film music in the building: The main character, teacher Fuchs, drums his frustration off his soul in a rock band. The “breathless staging” shows a gray lack of perspective in the youth prison – “and yet hope is told here,” praised the jury. “This is cinema we want to see more of”.
The winner of the debut beaver for the best newcomer has already been earmarked for the cinema, but has not yet started. Nico is about a German-Persian who learns karate after a racially motivated attack in order to be able to defend herself in the future. A “total work of art” with “moments full of intimacy, empathic, sensitive – and original”, the jury – “with complex characters, true dialogues and a fine sense of humor”.
Under https://www.filmstarts.de/kritiken/295680.html there’s advance information and the trailer.
All award winners under http://www.filmfest-biberach.de.