Special Announcement! Since 2023, we have stopped presenting our award winners with traditional trophies. Instead, we dedicate newly planted trees in Vienna to them. These “Green Trophies” feature plaques that not only indicate the tree species and the award, but also make the prize-winning short films directly accessible on site via a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone.

Starting now, this sustainable project is being expanded with the Tree Trophy Game: an interactive geocaching game integrated into the VIENNA SHORTS App that allows users to locate the film trees on a digital map. After streaming the award-winning short film in the immediate vicinity of the tree, players can then take a quiz about the film and earn points. These points can subsequently be redeemed for prizes with various partner organizations.

Prizes include admission tickets to exhibitions at MuseumsQuartier, MQ merchandise and a tree sponsorship at MQ, VIENNA SHORTS festival passes, THIS IS SHORT subscriptions, merchandise from the Vienna Film Commission, drinks at the Café BRENNER at Superbude or at Das Jetzt Bar+Entertainment, a meal at Heidingers Gasthaus, taxi vouchers from Taxi 31300, or serving boards from Fantoplast.

Currently, around 30 trees spread out across Vienna are included in the game, and after this year’s edition in May, 10 additional winning films will be added. The locations of the tree trophiesare already available on the festival’s website. The game was developed under the project lead of Max Scheidl in collaboration with the Viennese creative companies Tempuno (Michael Temper) and Pomper dev. (Julian Pomper). The app implementation was carried out by All About Apps. The project is supported by the Wirtschaftsagentur Wien as part of the competition Culture & Technology: Fokus Festivals and is available for iOS and Android.

News 11.05 11.3.2026