6. Vienna Shorts

The sixth edition of VIS screened more than 300 short films from all over the world in seven days. 44 short films were screened in the international competition, 34 in the national competition, which was then still called Österreich Panorama. The festival opened once again in the Gartenbaukino, while the awards ceremony was held for the first time in the Urania—followed by a closing party with the Lakoongruppe and Klub Tagada in the neighboring Badeschiff.

Titled Wende Flicks—20 Years Fall of the Wall, the thematic focus was dedicated to the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and thus the symbolic end of European East-West division. The festival team saw the jubilee as an invitation to expand the context and therefore the decision to look at Russia and the US as our country focus was no coincidence. The traditional tributes were dedicated to the British filmmaker Ben Rivers and the Austrian artist duo Norbert Pfaffenbichler/Lotte Schreiber. In addition, there were popular specials such as the Airbed Movies and Très Chic, with the Prix Très Chic audience award being presented for the first time in the program of short films that did not take themselves too seriously.

Behind the scenes: In August 2009, the festival elected an artistic director for the first time: Daniel Ebner took over the programmatic agenda of VIS from 2010. Also new was the cooperation with the European Film Academy, which from now on showed all films nominated as “Best European Short Film” at VIS every year.