Austrian Film Institute backs new projects by Seidl, Svoboda, Roehler

The funding committee, including producer Jakob Claussen, screenwriter Cooky Ziesche and director Erwin Wagenhofer, awarded $797,000 (Euros 600,000) to Antonin Svoboda’s Creation, a biopic of psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. The co-production by Coop 99, Germany’s Starhaus and Switzerland’s Hugo Film is set to star Klaus Maria Brandauer and Birgit Minichmayr.

Coop 99 also received $159,444 (Euros 120,000) in’reference funding’ following the success of its previous production, Grbavica. The money will be invested in Ulrich Seidl’s next documentary Im Keller, which will examine the relationship between Austrians and their cellars. It will be produced with the director’s own company, Ulrich Seidl Film, and MMK Media.

The largest single amount - $1.3m (Euros 1m) - went to the Austrian-German co-production 3 Faltig by Harald Sicheritz. While, Satel Film was allocated $1.2m (Euros 950,000) for Kottan - Rien Va Ne Plus by Peter Patzak. The feature is based on the satirical crime TV series Kottan Ermittelt, which aired for six years from 1976, and will feature Lukas Resetarits as the detective Major Kottan. Reinhard Schwabenitzky’s Furcht Und Zittern, will receive $1.1m (Euros 900,000). The comic road movie tells the story of an agoraphobic man who gets caught up in a hostage drama when he ventures out of his house for the first time in several years.

International co-productions also supported in this round of funding included Robert A. Pejo’s thriller Der Kameramörder, with Mavie Hörbiger and Birgit Minichmayr, to be produced by Lotus Film with Hungary’s Mythberg Films, and Christoph Stark’s love story Für Immer Und Ewig - Grete Und Georg Trakl, with Maximilian Simonischek playing the Austrian poet. The latter is a structured as a co-production between Eclypse Film, Germany’s Filmline and France’s Zen.

Meanwhile, production support was paid out to Oskar Roehler’s Austrian-German-Hungarian co-production Jüd Süss - Sympathy For The Devil about the Austrian actor Ferdinand Marian who played the lead in Veit Harlan’s infamous anti-Semitic film Jüd Süss. David Schalko’s Wie Man Leben Soll, which is being produced by Dor Film with Zentropa Entertainment as co-financier, will also receive funding.

Development funding was also given to new projects including Händl Klaus (Kater), Martin Duffy (Frühling Für Eisland) and Barbara Gräftner (Jihad).