Viennale (Vienna International Film Festival)

Overview

The Viennale is Austria's most important film festival. The 63rd edition ran October 16 to 28, 2025, screening films across five cinemas in Vienna over 13 days. The festival sold 78,600 tickets with a 78.3% occupancy rate, an increase of 2,800 tickets over 2024. The 64th edition is scheduled for October 22 to November 3, 2026. The festival director is Eva Sangiorgi.

The Viennale is a non-competitive festival with FIAPF non-competitive accreditation. It presents a curated selection of international art house cinema with no jury prizes for competition. The festival's programming team curates its selection through relationships with sales agents, distributors, and programmers at other festivals. Films that have premiered at Cannes, Venice, Toronto, or other major festivals and are seeking additional European exposure may be considered.

The 2025 edition opened with Miroirs No. 3 by Christian Petzold, who also assumed the role of festival president in 2025. The closing gala screened Geu Jayeoni Nege Mworago Hani (What This Nature Tells You) by Hong Sangsoo. Special guest Juliette Binoche presented her documentary In-I in Motion. The festival also screened Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos), Father Mother Sister Brother (Jim Jarmusch), and After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino) in its main program.

The 2026 edition will run October 22 to November 3. A program preview will be available at the end of August 2026. The full program and schedule will be published on October 13, 2026. Advance ticket sales begin October 17, 2026 at 10:00 AM.

Key Sections

• Main Program - curated feature films from around the world, including new work from established and emerging directors
• Short Films - curated short film programs
• Viennale Talks and Guests - Q&A events, special encounters, and discussions with directors, organized in collaboration with drehbuchFORUM Wien, the Austrian Directors' Association, and FC Gloria
• Textur - a monograph series dedicated to a filmmaker's creative process (2025: Lucrecia Martel)
• Retrospective - organized in collaboration with the Austrian Film Museum (2025: Jean Epstein)
• Historical Programs - curated archival and restored film programs, including partnerships with Filmarchiv Austria
• Special Screenings - one-off events, including the opening and closing galas
• GratzlViennale at VOLXkino - free open-air screenings in Vienna neighborhoods from June to September, running for 36 years with over 40 events annually

What Filmmakers Should Know

No open submissions: The Viennale does not accept open submissions. The festival's programming team curates its selection through relationships with sales agents, distributors, and programmers at other festivals. Films that have premiered at Cannes, Venice, Toronto, or other major festivals and are seeking additional European exposure may be considered. Filmmakers should route their work to the Viennale programming team through their sales agent or distributor.

Awards: Although the Viennale is non-competitive, the festival presents four awards:

• The Vienna Film Award, donated by the City of Vienna, for the best Austrian feature film screened in the past year, with a Special Jury Prize. The 2025 jury included Michelle Cotton (Artistic Director of Kunsthalle Wien), Felix Hoffmann (Artistic Director of Foto Arsenal Wien), and Pia Reiser (film journalist at Radio FM4).
• The FIPRESCI Prize (International Film Critics Award), awarded by a jury from the International Federation of Film Critics, typically chosen from first and second features by young filmmakers. The 2025 FIPRESCI jury consisted of Max Borg, Yun-Hua Chen, and Roman Scheiber.
• The Viennale Standard Audience Jury Award
• The Erste Bank Film Award

2025 FIPRESCI Prize winner: BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions by Kahlil Joseph (USA, Ghana, 2025, 113 min). The jury described it as "a playful visual album that unfolds like a techno score" that "opens new perspectives on an important and urgent subject."

Venues: The Viennale screens across five cinemas in Vienna, including the Gartenbaukino, Stadtkino, the Austrian Film Museum, and Metro Kinokulturhaus. These historic venues make attending the Viennale one of the most aesthetically distinctive festival experiences in Europe.

Audience and press: The Viennale's Vienna audience is deeply film-literate and provides engaged screenings that generate meaningful critical attention in the German-language press. The 2025 edition sold 78,600 tickets with 78.3% occupancy across 13 days, demonstrating strong audience engagement.

Festival president: Christian Petzold assumed the role of festival president in 2025, filling a vacancy that had existed since Eric Pleskow's death in 2019. Pleskow had served as president from 1998. Petzold's most recent film Miroirs No. 3 opened the 2025 festival.

Major Awards

The Viennale does not present competitive jury prizes for international films. Four awards are presented during the festival:

• Vienna Film Award - for the best Austrian feature film, donated by the City of Vienna, with monetary support from The Harmonie Vienna Hotel. Includes a Special Jury Prize.
• FIPRESCI Prize - International Film Critics Award, typically chosen from first and second features by young filmmakers
• Viennale Standard Audience Jury Award - audience jury recognition
• Erste Bank Film Award - sponsored award

2025 award winners:

• Vienna Film Award: (announced during the festival)
• FIPRESCI Prize: BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (dir. Kahlil Joseph, USA/Ghana)
• Special Mention: One of Those Days When Hemme Dies (dir. Murat Firatoglu, Turkey)

Festival History

The Viennale was founded in 1960 and has operated continuously for 63 editions. The festival grew from a modest showcase into one of Europe's most respected curated film events. The festival's partnership with the Austrian Film Museum, one of the world's great cinema archives, enriches its programming with historical and archival perspectives.

The 2025 retrospective was dedicated to Jean Epstein (1897 to 1953), a key cinematic figure whose films are rarely seen. The festival also presented a retrospective of Dutch director Digna Sinke, a tribute to Hungarian avant-garde director Janos Xantus (1953 to 2012), and a program on the artist duo Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti. The retrospective of Austrian filmmaker Angela Summereder, organized with Filmarchiv Austria, presented her complete oeuvre from her debut Zechmeister (1981) to her most recent work B wie Bartleby.

Eric Pleskow served as festival president from 1998 until his death in 2019. The position remained vacant for approximately four years until Christian Petzold was appointed in 2025. Eva Sangiorgi has served as festival director, programming the annual edition and overseeing the festival's year-round activities including the GratzlViennale at VOLXkino, which has run for 36 years bringing free cinema to Vienna's neighborhoods.

The Viennale's Textur series, established in 2017, publishes monographs dedicated to individual filmmakers' creative processes. The 2025 edition (the eighth in the series) focused on Lucrecia Martel, with essays by Luciano Monteagudo and Eduardo Cadava, conversations with collaborators Maria Alche and Ernesto de Carvalho, and contributions from Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Kleber Mendonca Filho, and J. Hoberman.

See Also

For European art house distribution, see Distribution Deals Explained. For festival circuit planning, see Film Festival Strategy. To calculate whether festival submission fees make sense for your budget, use the Festival Entry Fee ROI Calculator.