Austrian Film Institute focuses on young filmmakers with Talent Lab scheme

Roland Teichmann, director of the Austrian Film Institute (AFI), has shared more details of the institute’s ambitious new funding programme for first and second features.

The Talent LAB scheme is being launched in collaboration with the Vienna Film Fund under its director Christine Dollhofer.

It aims to “identify interesting young filmmakers from all over the country whether they come from film school or not…this is the strategy to look for new talent from all over the place,” said Teichmann.

The €2.8m scheme offers emerging teams the opportunity to create their first and second feature films within “a structured framework and a defined budget”.

The total production costs are capped at €1.2m for feature films and €280,000 for documentaries. The programme targets new directors as well as other roles in the film industry, especially emerging producers.

The intention is to nurture the filmmakers without interfering too much in the creative and artistic process, added Teichmann.

The first deadline for applications is end of September and the AFI expects to receive between 30 and 40 submissions.

An initial five projects will be selected. They will receive development support over a year and will be eligible to apply for production support. Three of the five will then receive production funding.

With the Talent LAB backing in place, it is guaranteed that the three films chosen will be made. “The financing market is small, difficult and very competitive. It is one of the core strategies to offer some kind of sustainability in the development of talent,” said Teichmann, speaking in Venice last weekend. “I think it was time to focus more strategically on young talent.”

Local broadcasters are not involved in the selection process. “Probably one of the reasons why Austrian films are a bit more daring is that television is out of the selection process. We take our decisions and only after can the Austrian broadcaster say, ‘Okay, we will join the project’ – or not. But they have to invest by law at least €8m a year [into film].”

Funding highlights

Teichmann highlighted recent successes achieved by young Austrian directors backed by the Institute. Peacock, the debut feature from Bernhard Wenger which is sold by mk2 Films, had its premiere in Venice Critics’ Week.

Moon, the latest feature by Kurdwin Ayub which is sold by Bendita Film Sales, won the special jury award at Locarno as well as two more awards and a special mention.

Moon is the second part of the director’s envisaged trilogy that started with Sun (2022). She is expected soon to start work on the final part, Stars.

The AFI has supported Ayub throughout her career as she has moved between art, documentary and feature fiction.

“She comes from the arts, not from classical film education. She was always very interesting because she was, in a positive way, a sort of crazy artist with a very special language and kind of humour,” the AFI boss said. “She’s a bit like Ulrich Seidl so it’s not for nothing she is within his company but she has totally different handwriting.”

The AFI also has high hopes for young director Florian Pochlatko’s new feature How To Be Normal, made through Golden Girls Filmproduktion and currently in post-production. It is about a young woman who discovers she isn‘t the only one whose life is going off the rails.

It’s now 20 years since Teichmann has been at the helm of the AFI. “I still love what I am doing,” he commented.

Austria has both an automatic and selective support scheme for feature filmmaking. Combined, this is worth close to €50m a year. The AFI looks to support around 25 features a year, of which two-thirds are dramas and one-third are documentaries.

While supporting independent filmmakers with distinctive visions, the Fund also backs family fare, animation and local comedies.

“We try to find the balance in a yearly portfolio of films that on the one hand have a high chance on an international level, like at A-listed festivals and [with international] sales… and also to have always a reasonable amount of films, basically comedies and family entertainment for a national audience so that the national tax payer get the impression that what we support is not just for the international arthouse [audience],” Teichmann commented.

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