The Resilience of Austrian Cinema and Its Global Stars

By the ULTIMATE Vienna Editorial Team

Sascha-Film and the Viennese studios (1910–1945)

Austrian cinema began with an aristocrat with a passion for film. Count Alexander “Sascha” Kolowrat founded Sascha-Film in 1910 and brought it to Vienna in 1912, and by the 1920s the city was making lavish epics, some of them directed by the young Mihály Kertész, later Hollywood’s Michael Curtiz.

The 1920s and 1930s also saw a great departure. Directors, actors, writers and composers left Vienna for Berlin and Hollywood, and in the 1930s many, a large number of them Jewish, were forced into exile. Their talent went on to shape the golden age of American film.

Österreichisches Filmmuseum →

Sissi and the post-war years (1945–1990)

After the war Vienna became a film set for the world, above all for Carol Reed’s The Third Man, and Austrian studios found huge audiences with costume romances. The most loved of all is Ernst Marischka’s Sissi (1955), the story of the young Empress Elisabeth, which made Vienna-born Romy Schneider a star across Europe.

In the 1970s and 1980s a new generation, close to the city’s avant-garde art scene, turned Austrian film towards documentary and experiment, laying the ground for the international breakthrough to come.

The new Austrian cinema (1990–present)

Since the 1990s Austrian film has become one of the boldest in Europe. Michael Haneke won the Palme d’Or twice, for The White Ribbon (2009) and Amour (2012), and Amour won the Oscar for Austria. Stefan Ruzowitzky’s The Counterfeiters won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 2008.

Ulrich Seidl’s Dog Days won the Grand Jury Prize in Venice, Jessica Hausner’s Little Joe brought Emily Beecham the best actress award at Cannes, and Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, with Vicky Krieps as an untamed Empress Elisabeth, took the best performance prize in Un Certain Regard.

Must-watch films: the classics

To understand Austrian cinema, start with the classics, then the modern masters.

• The Third Man (1949): Carol Reed’s British thriller, shot in the rubble of post-war Vienna, with Orson Welles as Harry Lime and Anton Karas’s zither score; it won the Grand Prix at Cannes.
• Sissi (1955): Ernst Marischka’s romance of the young Empress Elisabeth, with Romy Schneider, a Christmas fixture across Europe to this day.
• Dog Days (Hundstage, 2001): Ulrich Seidl’s unflinching portrait of the suburbs of Vienna in a heatwave, winner of the Grand Jury Prize in Venice.
• Revanche (2008): Götz Spielmann’s gripping drama of a robbery and its aftermath, nominated for the Oscar.

Must-watch films: the modern masters

• The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher, 2007): Stefan Ruzowitzky’s true story of the prisoners forced to forge currency in a concentration camp, winner of the Oscar for best foreign language film.
• The White Ribbon (Das weiße Band, 2009): Michael Haneke’s chilling black-and-white mystery of a northern village before the First World War, winner of the Palme d’Or.
• Amour (2012): Haneke’s devastating portrait of an elderly couple, winner of the Palme d’Or and the Oscar.
• Corsage (2022): Marie Kreutzer’s free, modern take on Empress Elisabeth, with Vicky Krieps.

The stars

Austria has given the screen stars of great charm and power.

• Romy Schneider (1938–1982): born in Vienna, she became a star as Sissi and went on to a great career in French cinema.
• Hedy Lamarr (1914–2000): the Vienna-born actress who became a Hollywood star, and who also co-invented a radio frequency-hopping system now recognised as a forerunner of modern wireless technology.
• Oskar Werner (1922–1984): the Viennese actor of François Truffaut’s Jules and Jim and Fahrenheit 451.
• Klaus Maria Brandauer: the star of István Szabó’s Oscar-winning Mephisto and of Out of Africa.
• Christoph Waltz: born in Vienna, the winner of two Oscars, for Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained.

Where to watch in Vienna

Vienna is a paradise for film lovers. The Österreichisches Filmmuseum shows the great classics in their original versions, the Gartenbaukino is one of the finest single-screen cinemas in Europe, and the Burg Kino has screened The Third Man for decades. Every autumn the Viennale, founded in 1960, fills the city’s cinemas, and in summer the Film Festival on the Rathausplatz shows concerts and opera films under the stars.

Our advice: see The Third Man at the Burg Kino, then ride the Giant Ferris Wheel in the Prater, where Harry Lime gives his famous cuckoo-clock speech.

Österreichisches Filmmuseum →   Gartenbaukino →   Burg Kino →   Votiv Kino →   Viennale →   Film Festival on the Rathausplatz →

Hidden on the silver screen: international productions filmed in Austria

Austria’s imperial cities, lakes and Alps have drawn film-makers for generations, and some of the most famous scenes in cinema were shot here.

• The Third Man (1949), Vienna: the chase through the sewers, the rubble of the Ringstrasse and the Giant Ferris Wheel in the Prater.
• The Sound of Music (1965), Salzburg and the Salzkammergut: the Hollywood musical of the von Trapp family, still the reason many visitors come to Salzburg.
• Before Sunrise (1995), Vienna: Richard Linklater’s night-long walk through the city with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.
• Spectre (2015), Sölden: James Bond’s Alpine sequences were filmed at the Tyrolean ski resort, where a 007 museum, 007 Elements, now stands on the summit.

The Giant Ferris Wheel →   Burg Kino →

The Viennese who shaped Hollywood

The list of Austrians who shaped Hollywood is remarkable.

• Fritz Lang (1890–1976): born in Vienna, the director of Metropolis and M, who went on to make film noir in Hollywood.
• Josef von Sternberg (1894–1969): born in Vienna, the director who made Marlene Dietrich a star in The Blue Angel and their Hollywood films.
• Erich von Stroheim (1885–1957): born in Vienna, the director of Greed and the unforgettable butler of Sunset Boulevard.
• Billy Wilder (1906–2002): born in Galicia, a young reporter in Vienna, then the director of Some Like It Hot and The Apartment, winner of several Oscars.
• Fred Zinnemann (1907–1997): raised in Vienna, the director of High Noon and From Here to Eternity.
• Max Steiner (1888–1971): the Vienna-born composer who scored King Kong, Gone with the Wind and Casablanca.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger: born in Thal, near Graz, the body-builder who became the Terminator.

Questions and answers