The audience award of Vienna Shorts 2020—determined across all categories—goes to the tragicomic drama “Fish Like Us” by Raphaela Schmid. The young Upper Austrian, whose film was praised by the weekly newspaper Falter as having an “elegant directing, wicked wit and convincing actors”, had previously also received the Jury Prize in the Austria Competition.

The audience award for the best Austrian film under 10 minutes, which the news platform ORF.at is awarding for the third time, went to Veronika Schubert from Vorarlberg for “Contouring”, a seemingly abstract collage of make-up tutorials on the Internet. The prize comes with 500 euros and a presence on ORF.at.

Among the most popular works in the two international competitions were the Belgian documentary “Mars, Oman” by Vanessa del Campo and the Iranian chamber play “Don’t Touch Anything” by Arghavan Heydareslam as well as “Freeze Frame” by Soetkin Verstegen (BE) and “My Galactic Twin Galaction” by Sasha Svirsky (RU). Among the nominees for the Austrian Music Video Award, “Drink Your Water” by Adriana Mrnjavac for the hip-hopper Samira Dezaki was clearly ahead.

Already on Saturday evening the late-night audience had decided in favour of Paul Allen’s “Mega Sexy Robot Dinosaur” as the winner of the Prix très chic pour le film le plus extraordinaire. The teasing game with the expectations of the audience obviously brought joy to the viewers of the late-night celebration of absurd humor.

News 3.6.2020