Austrian Studies Vol. 33: Austria and Film in the Twenty-First Century

Twenty years after Dennis Lim labelled Austria the ’world capital of feel-bad cinema’, Austrian Studies 33 takes stock of films from and relating to Austria in the twenty-first century. In many ways Lim’s conjunction of nation and negative feeling remains pertinent, but as the contributions in this volume attest, the relationship between Austria and film is nuanced and multifaceted, and directors have variously adopted, rejected and subverted the ’feel-bad’ label. The place, too, of Austria in the global context of cinema, has shifted: while international exports such as Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl continue to fascinate audiences around the world, many other directors (e.g. Ruth Beckermann, Umut Dağ, Adrian Goiginger, Jessica Hausner, Marie Kreutzer, Stefan Ruzowitzky) have shored up a reputation at home and abroad. This oscillation between Austria and the world is also characteristic of a cinema that focuses variously on the domestic and the global, and moves between adaptation of the Heimat genre and large-scale documentary visions of global capitalism and ecological collapse. And, as this volume shows, although many filmmakers focus on contemporary concerns, the past - imperial, fascist and colonial - continues to shape twenty-first century productions.

Volume 33 of Austrian Studies is edited by Katya Krylova and Dora Osborne.