This year, for the 13th time, the Elfi Dassanowsky Award will be presented at our festival—in honor of the best female director of the festival and in memory of the legendary Austrian film producer, who once made a name for herself as one of the first women in the field as co-founder of Belvedere Film.

Despite numerous initiatives and efforts in recent years, the balance of power and gender in the film industry is still significantly skewed. And as long as this is the case, film scholar Robert Dassanowsky declared at the award ceremony a few years ago, the prize should be awarded. Robert is the son of Elfi Dassanowsky, head of the foundation of the same name and a close friend of the festival.

For the first time the prize was awarded in 2010—three years after the death of Elfi Dassanowsky. At that time, the Norwegian Inger Lise Hansen was honored for Parallax. Since then, the award has gone to such resounding names as Ruth Lingford (UK), Jennifer Reeder (US), Konstantina Kotzamani (GR) and Alex Gerbaulet (DE). With Nicole Foelsterl, an Austrian filmmaker was awarded for the first time in 2019.

The Elfi Dassanowsky Prize is endowed with 1,000 euros and is awarded annually. Elfriede Dassanowsky was born in Vienna in 1924, was an opera singer and pianist, and discovered big names in post-war cinema as a film producer. In 1962, she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a voice coach for various Hollywood celebrities and re-founded Belvedere Film in 1999. She was a recipient of the Golden Decoration of Merit of the Republic of Austria (1991) and the State of Vienna (2002), and was posthumously named an honorary member of the AAFP Producers Association in 2018.

2010 – Inger Lise Hansen (NO) for Parallax

2011 – Annick Blanc (CA) for Au milieu de nulle part ailleurs (Nowhere Elsewhere)

2012 – Ruth Lingford (UK) for Little Deaths

2013 – Karolina Glusiec (PL) for Velocity

2014 – Jennifer Reeder (US) for A Million Miles Away

2015 – Konstantina Kotzamani (GR) for Washingtonia

2016 – Alex Gerbaulet (DE) for Schicht (Shift)

2017 – Maite Alberdi & Giedrė Žickytė (CL/LT) for Yo no soy de aqui (I'm Not from Here)

2018 – Amanda Nell Eu (MY) for Lagi Senang Jaga Sekandang Lembu (It’s Easier to Raise Cattle)

2019 – Nicole Foelsterl (AT) for Eigentlich vergangen (Far From Past)

2020 – Manon Coubia (FR) for Marée

2021 – Katharina Huber (DE) for Der natürliche Tod der Maus (The Natural Death of a Mouse)

News 8.3.2022