Austrian Film Museum

About

The Austrian Film Museum (German: Österreichisches Filmmuseum) is a film archive and museum located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Peter Konlechner and Peter Kubelka in 1964 as a non-profit organization.

In February 1964, independent filmmaker Peter Kubelka and film enthusiast Peter Konlechner founded the Austrian Film Museum. They had met in 1962 at the "Internationale Kurzfilmwoche" (International Short Film Week), which Konlechner organized as part of his student film club Cinestudio at the Technical University of Vienna. The Austrian Film Museum aimed to preserve films and present them to the public, affirming what the founders thought to be the two roles of film: "as the most important form of artistic expression in modernity and as the chief historiographical source of the 20th century." This effort was financially supported through the Austrian government as well as the City of Vienna. Private sponsors alongside the membership and admission fees have kept the establishment functioning. Within a year's time of its inception, the Austrian Film Museum was inducted as a member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). After changing venues during its first 18 months, the Film Museum found its permanent location for film presentations and office space in Vienna's first district in the Albertina building in the course of 1965. The events of the Filmmuseum were accompanied by great audience interest. Especially the retrospectives, which the Film Museum organized as part of the Viennale since 1966, gave it a unique rank in the German-speaking countries.

In 2005, the Austrian government awarded the Film Museum the Honorary Prize at its annual Austrian Museum Awards. In their verdict, the jury emphasized that the Austrian Film Museum ranks among the best in the world in its field.

From its inception, Konlechner and Kubleka remained as the co-directors until the end of 2001, when both retired. Curator and author Alexander Horwath was appointed as their successor and took over on January 1, 2002. He maintained the fundamental goals of the museum, expanded the range of programming and the number of screenings, intensified collection and restoration activities, and strengthened the areas of education, research, and publications. In 2014, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the Film Museum realized a total of 21 different projects that reflected not only upon the history, the collections, and the founders of the institution, but also on the cultural moment of the museum's "birth", as well as questions of future historiography and the importance of a museum dedicated to cinematographic film.

In November 2016, the Board of the Austrian Film Museum appointed Michael Loebenstein, former Chief Executive of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), as the new director. Alexander Horwath retired from the role of director, effective October 1, 2017 after 16 years of leadership at the museum.

- 1964 to 2001: Peter Konlechner and Peter Kubelka

- 2002 to September 2017: Alexander Horwath

- From October 2017: Michael Loebenstein

The concept of an "Invisible Cinema" first emerged in conversations between Peter Kubelka and architects Johannes Spalt and Friedrich Kurrent around 1958, before the founding of the Austrian Film Museum. The cinema was envisaged as a machine that serves as a relay between director and audience, with an architectural space that is completely focused on the image and sound of the film. In 1989, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Film Museum, the "Invisible Cinema" was opened according to Peter Kubelka's concept: a black-in-black screening room, a "seeing and hearing machine" that strives for the highest possible concentration on the cinematic event itself. Kubelka had already realized his concept of the "Invisible Cinema" at the opening of the Anthology Film Archives in New York in 1970.

In October 2003, in consultation with Peter Kubelka, Friedrich Mascher and Erich Steinmayr realized the "Invisible Cinema 3" at the same location, now significantly renovated and expanded, with new seating and improved possibilities for image and sound reproduction.

From 1964 to 1984, the Austrian painter and graphic artist Gertie Fröhlich designed over 100 posters for the Austrian Film Museum and was also responsible for choosing the Film Museum's trademark logo: the magical fable creature "Zyphius", which she found amongst renaissance illustrations of mythical animals.

Honorary President and Guests of the Film Museum

Since 2005, acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese who is also a vocal supporter of film preservation serves as Honorary President of the Austrian Film Museum. In 1995, Scorsese visited the Film Museum on the occasion of a complete retrospective of his work.

Artist VALIE EXPORT was named the first Honorary Member by the Film Museum's Board of Directors in the summer of 2021.

Among the filmmakers who have visited the museum throughout its history are Martin Scorsese, Chantal Akerman, John Alton, Olivier Assayas, James Benning, Busby Berkeley, Bernardo Bertolucci, Stan Brakhage, Luigi Comencini, Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Catherine Deneuve, Claire Denis, Lav Diaz, Jean Eustache, Valie Export, Harun Farocki, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Federico Fellini, Michael Haneke, Werner Herzog, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Danièle Huillet, Chuck Jones, Elia Kazan, Alexander Kluge, Kurt Kren, Fritz Lang, Claude Lanzmann, Richard Leacock, Sergio Leone, Richard Linklater, Dušan Makavejev, Gregory J. Markopoulos, Groucho Marx, Jonas Mekas, Jeanne Moreau, Marcel Ophüls, Arthur Penn, Christian Petzold, Yvonne Rainer, Eric Rohmer, Jean Rouch, Paul Schrader, Werner Schroeter, Ulrich Seidl, Don Siegel, Michael Snow, Alberto Sordi, Jean-Marie Straub, Tsai Ming-liang, Agnès Varda, Paul Verhoeven, Luchino Visconti, Viva, Kôji Wakamatsu, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Frederick Wiseman.

From its inception, Konlechner and Kubleka remained as the co-directors until the end of 2001, when both retired. Curator and author Alexander Horwath was appointed as their successor and took over on January 1, 2002. He maintained the fundamental goals of the museum, expanded the range of programming and the number of screenings, intensified collection and restoration activities, and strengthened the areas of education, research, and publications. In 2014, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the Film Museum realized a total of 21 different projects that reflected not only upon the history, the collections, and the founders of the institution, but also on the cultural moment of the museum's "birth", as well as questions of future historiography and the importance of a museum dedicated to cinematographic film.

In November 2016, the Board of the Austrian Film Museum appointed Michael Loebenstein, former Chief Executive of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), as the new director. Alexander Horwath retired from the role of director, effective October 1, 2017 after 16 years of leadership at the museum.

- 1964 to 2001: Peter Konlechner and Peter Kubelka

- 2002 to September 2017: Alexander Horwath

- From October 2017: Michael Loebenstein