Spanish award for Haneke
Michael Haneke, Austria’s famed film director and screenwriter, has won the 2013 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in Madrid in May. His prize includes a sculpture designed by Joan Miró and valued at €50,000, a “diploma” and a medal at an October ceremony in Oviedo.The jury praised his craftsmanship and ability to explore […]
Going the Extra Mile
“Wait, I have to give my dog a pig’s ear!” Austria’s Grande Dame of stage and screen, 86-year-old Erni Mangold, says to the driver before getting into the black van. Thus begins Driving the Stars, a documentary film and an intimate peek into the not-so-glamorous side of Austrian show business. Josef Deininger, alias Joschi, is […]
Diagonale: How to Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory
I pulled into Graz just in time for the gala opening, threw on a fancy suit, refreshed my hair and make-up, and jumped into a cab prepared to sidestep the paparazzi and compete with the stars of stage and screen, entering Austria’s premier film festival at the Helmut-List-Halle. No red carpet. OK. But the hordes were there all right, thronging the entrance […]
Humble and ‘in Awe’
Michael Haneke and Christoph Waltz don’t have all that much in common. One is a seasoned director, a believer in artistic filmmaking, who casually accepted his golden statuette in Hollywood on 24 February. Two of his previous films had been nominated, but Amour was the first to put Haneke on the stage of the […]
Haneke’s Amour and Christoph Waltz: Cinema Supplants Skiing?
Michael Haneke’s Prizes and His Appetite for Spinach, 2 Dec. 2012 by Michael Pekler Malta provided the venue for the 25th European Film Awards. During the gala event in the fortress city Valletta, Michael Haneke’s Amour was the big winner – receiving four awards, including Best European Film. […] This time a […]
Haneke on Ageing, Loss – and Liebe
Austrian film enthusiasts couldn’t believe their ears last 27 May, when the jury at the Cannes Film Festival awarded Michael Haneke the prestigious Palme d’Or for the second time in four years, this time for Amour (distributed here as Liebe, in the English-speaking world as Love), a joint production of companies in France, Germany and […]
Haneke’s Amour Wins Again
Michael Haneke’s Amour was the top winner at the European Film Awards 2012 ceremony held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta, Malta. The film took the awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress, having already picked up the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival last May, the second time Haneke has […]
Das weiße Band Attracts 100,000 Viewers
Das weiße Band (The White Ribbon), the unexpected hit by Austrian Michael Haneke, has recently passed the 100,000 mark for tickets sold, according to the Österreichisches Filminstitut. Widely regarded as a masterpiece, the film has topped the attendance charts not only in Austria, but also ranked high in over 20 countries worldwide. The movie, which […]
More Honors for Austrian Film
In an unprecedented sweep of this year’s Golden Globe Awards, top honors went to two Austrians, director Michael Haneke and actor Christoph Waltz, continuing a surge of recent interest in the country’s film industry. Haneke’s Das Weiße Band, submitted as a German production, gleaned the award for Best Foreign Film, while Waltz’s performance in Inglourious […]
