This year’s national portrait is dedicated to the Vienna-based filmmaker Christiana Perschon. The festival will show her portraits of female artists, which began in 2014 with Noema—then awarded the top prize in the Austrian Competition—and earned Perschon a reputation as an exceptional documentarian and, most recently, the Austrian Art Award for Film 2022.

In her series, the filmmaker deals with perception, seeing and the question of how what is seen can be depicted at all. She is not concerned with depiction when she approaches her “elective relatives” such as Linda Christanell, Tatjana Gamerith or Isolde Maria Joham. “I’m concerned with the moment of recording,” Perschon says, “with a total momentary experience.”

The film program thus becomes a “portrait” in both senses of the word: an approach to Perschon’s work as well as a look at portraiture as an act of self-determination.

News 28.3.2023