The ACF Cineclub will screen a special short film selection during our 60th anniversary Open House Weekend alongside the Austrian Film Season at Regent Street Cinema. This is a wonderful opportunity to see some of the best new short films selected by the Austrian Film Academy including Peter Tscherkassky's Exquisite Corpus, the topical Minor Border about the border between Austria and Hungary and Academy Award nominated short Everything will be okay (Alles wird wieder gut).
Minor Border
Since the border between Austria and Hungary became a "Schengen border" it seems to have lost its meaning. Therefore the border stations, among them the "small border crossing" in Nickelsdorf/Hegyeshalom are being removed. The border persists culturally and socially, based on historically grown resentments and new European laws. 25 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the border still exists as division in income and life standards. And for those who travel to and within Europe without all the necessary papers, the border is not a line to cross anymore.
AT, 2014, 24min, directed by Lisbeth Kovacic.
Odessa Crash Test
The director subjects Eisenstein's iconic baby stroller crash down the steps. The freeing potential of this fury is realized in a sensational stylistic staccato, which seems to casually grotesquely exaggerate the drama and comedy of the situation - until the inevitable impact.
AT, 2014, 5min, directed by Norbert Pfaffenbichler.
Esel
An old married couple lives on an isolated farm. For his daily work the farmer has an old donkey to help him. When the pragmatic farmer learns that the death of his longtime companion is near,he notices that he loves the animal more than he can admit.
AT, 2015, 22min, German with English subtitles, directed by Rafael Haider.
The Exquisite Corpus
A found-footage film made using various erotic films and advertising rushes.
AT, 2015, 18min, directed by Peter Tscherkassky.
Uncanny Valley
We are at once bombarded by the psychological and physical intensity of a battle fought between desperate soldiers during the first world war. The numbing futility of war, the agony of conflict and survival, the discovery of brotherhood, and madness of it all. Uncanny Valley is a hypnotic nightmare, a revelation that at first glance is impossible to forget.
AT, 2015, 13min, directed by Paul Wenninger.
Carte Noir
In this sinister road movie miniature, Michaela Grill draws her cinematic movement from abstraction through to alienation of concrete reality, arriving at a classical and highly-charged motif from popular culture and cinema: a lonely car ride on an empty road.
AT, 2014, 2min, directed by Michaela Grill.
Everything will be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
A divorced father picks up his eight-year-old daughter Lea. It seems pretty much like every second weekend, but after a while Lea can‘t help feeling that something isn't right. So begins a fateful journey. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 88th Academy Awards.
AT/Ger, 2015, 29min, German with English subtitles, directed by Patrick Vollrath.
Find out more about the Austrian Film Season.
