5. Vienna Shorts

For its fifth birthday, VIS Vienna Independent Shorts celebrated its opening in 2008 for the first time at Gartenbaukino. On show was the world premiere of the short film reel Eleven Minutes (AT/CH), co-produced by VIS. The compilation consisted of several short films in which film teams from Austria and Switzerland, the two countries hosting the European Football Championship 2008, play with the theme of soccer. Due to the great demand, the program was shown twice in a row with prominent guests.

Special programs were dedicated to Switzerland and soccer, including a guest program by the Fantoche animation film festival and the screening of a rare soccer documentary by Jacques Tati. In the international competition, 48 films competed for the City of Vienna’s short film award, “Golden Shorts,” while the Panorama offered an overview of Austrian short filmmaking with 33 national films. Spotlights were dedicated to Belgian director Chantal Akerman and Austrian animator Hubert Sielecki; a Personale honored Polish animator Jerzy Kucia.

Behind the scenes: For the first time, a festival center for filmmakers, guests and visitors was created at the former Quartier Digitaler Kunst in the Museumsquartier. In the meantime, the organizing team had grown to 15 people, the structures had become more professional and the content-related discussions had gotten more intensive. At the instigation of Wiktoria Pelzer, the first monthly KurzFilmZimmer took place in December in the Museumsquartier; the series ran for almost two years.