My First Film: Austria program selected by the film critic and editor Nenad Polimac will bring us five debut films by the renomated directors from Austria.

For My First Film program Nenad Polimac has selected the first works of the filmmakers who achieved acclaim in the past two and a half decades and who are today the most intriguing Austrian directors. Among them is the inevitable Haneke with the already mentioned Seventh Continent (1989); provocative Ulrich Seidl and his Models (Croatian premiere; 1999), a pseudodocumentary in which his author has used fragments of fiction film for the first time; Barbara Albert, who worked with Andrea Štaka and Jasmila Žbaniæ on their awarded debuts, will present its first feature film, Northern Skirts (1999); Jessica Hausner, proclaimed to be the new great hope of European cinema owing to her excellent Lourdes, had her debut with the acclaimed Lovely Rita (2001). Götz Spielman's debutant film is the oldest among these, dating way back to 1990. It is called Erwin and Yulia.

Ever since, the adjective "Austrian" can be spotted at world festivals more and more often. Austrian cinema has so far won an Oscar for Best Film in Foreign Language (The Counterfeiters by Stephan Ruzowitzki), a nomination for the same award (Revanche by Götz Spielmann), two Golden Palms in Cannes (Haneke's films, White Band and Love) and numerous recognitions at other festivals. We can single out here – because they were presented in our neighborhood – Golden Heart of Sarajevo for Breathing (directorial debut of actor Karl Markovics, the star of The Counterfeiters) and Golden Pram at last year's Zagreb Film Festival for Michael, also a debutant film of Haneke's close collaborator Markus Schleinzer.

‘Austrian cinema is today the talk of the world. Even a witty remark has been coined for it: In his article on the Week of the Austrian Film in New York's Lincoln Center, American film critic Dennis Lim wrote that Austria is the world capital of the phenomenon of "feel bad cinema". Indeed, if there is anything that characterizes the new Austrian film, then these are the topics that trigger anxiety. However, when exceptionally intriguing works are in question, a film experience can be stimulating indeed.’, says Nenad Polimac.