Virgil Widrich
Encyclopedia
Virgil Widrich is an Austrian director
, screenwriter
, film-maker and multimedia artist
.
Widrich works on a large number of films and multimedia projects, sometimes as part of a creative team. He is known especially for his numerous short films.
, Virgil Widrich spent his childhood in a house that is over 500 years old and stands on the Mönchsberg. While there he became acquainted with artists such as Peter Handke
, who was his neighbour, and Wim Wenders
, a frequent visitor. He gained his first experience with film at a very young age and was given his first camera, a Super-8, at the age of 13. That same year (1980) he made three films, "My Homelife", "Gebratenes Fleisch" and 3 mal Ulf. He followed that with an animated cartoon
titled Auch Farbe kann träumen. At the age of 15 he made Monster in Salzburg, on which he worked with actors for the first time. He created the rampaging monster using stop-motion photography. In 1983 he began work on Vom Geist der Zeit (Spirit of Time). Even bad marks at school were not enough to prevent him finishing his first feature-length movie, which took him 14 months. During this time he also took on a job as a props manager at the Salzburg Festival
to finance his films. In 1984 he began to take an interest in computers and programmed a number of simple games.
After passing his school-leaving exams at the Akademisches Gymnasium in Salzburg
he entered the Vienna Film Academy, only to leave again after a matter of weeks to work on the script for a science fiction
film which, in the end, he never made. In 1987 he founded the film distributing company Classic Films with two partners with the aim of distributing mainly artistic films. Later on he became assistant to John Bailey
, a camera man and director, and in 1990 he went to Hollywood to work with Bailey on the science fiction comedy The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe. After selling Classic Films in 1991 Widrich again turned his attention to the computer and the possibilities it offered for creating art. His next major project, which saw him working as production manager
, was a new festival for Austrian film, held for the first time in 1993 under the name Diagonale
. In the second year he also compiled a film database. More databases relating to film followed, and he was also involved in the creation of an interactive CD-ROM
.
In 1997 Widrich started concentrating more on making his own films again, producing the short film "tx-transform", which was a great success at the Ars Electronica
festival. He also returned to his script for "Heller als der Mond (Brighter than the Moon)", which he filmed in 1999. The film premiered in 2000 in Rotterdam. "Copy Shop" was his next project, and one of his most successful to date. Following its premiere in 2001 the film won numerous awards, was nominated for the Oscar
and was shown on television and numerous film festival
s. His next short, "Fast Film", was likewise very successful and won 36 international awards. A large number of multimedia projects for companies followed (in 2001 he founded the firm, checkpointmedia AG, and is its CEO) and he continued producing films with his company Virgil Widrich Film- und Multimediaproduktionen G.m.b.H. Together with other filmmakers he also co-founded the production company Amour Fou Film in 2001, focusing on arthouse movies from young directors.
In 2004 Widrich was a member of the jury for Ars Electronica
and became chairman of the Austrian Film Directors’ Association until 2007. He is also a member of the Academy of Austrian Film.
From 2007 to 2010 Virgil Widrich taught as Professor at the University of Applied arts Vienna, teaching the class of “digital arts”. Since 2010 he is the leading Professor of the post-graduate Master Programme Art & Science Visualization.
Since 2008: Project development of Virgil Virgil Widrich's next feature film "Die Nacht der tausend Stunden" ("The Night of a Thousand Hours").
for Copy Shop (A 2001):
for Fast Film (A, LUX 2003):
for checkpointmedia AG:
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
, film-maker and multimedia artist
Multimedia artist
Multimedia artists are contemporary artists who use a wide range of media to communicate their art. Multimedia art includes, by definition, more than one medium, therefore multimedia artists use visual art in combination with sound art, moving images and other media...
.
Widrich works on a large number of films and multimedia projects, sometimes as part of a creative team. He is known especially for his numerous short films.
Biography
Born in SalzburgSalzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, Virgil Widrich spent his childhood in a house that is over 500 years old and stands on the Mönchsberg. While there he became acquainted with artists such as Peter Handke
Peter Handke
Peter Handke is an avant-garde Austrian novelist and playwright.-Early life:Handke and his mother lived in the Soviet-occupied Pankow district of Berlin from 1944 to 1948 before resettling in Griffen...
, who was his neighbour, and Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
, a frequent visitor. He gained his first experience with film at a very young age and was given his first camera, a Super-8, at the age of 13. That same year (1980) he made three films, "My Homelife", "Gebratenes Fleisch" and 3 mal Ulf. He followed that with an animated cartoon
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
titled Auch Farbe kann träumen. At the age of 15 he made Monster in Salzburg, on which he worked with actors for the first time. He created the rampaging monster using stop-motion photography. In 1983 he began work on Vom Geist der Zeit (Spirit of Time). Even bad marks at school were not enough to prevent him finishing his first feature-length movie, which took him 14 months. During this time he also took on a job as a props manager at the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
to finance his films. In 1984 he began to take an interest in computers and programmed a number of simple games.
After passing his school-leaving exams at the Akademisches Gymnasium in Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
he entered the Vienna Film Academy, only to leave again after a matter of weeks to work on the script for a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
film which, in the end, he never made. In 1987 he founded the film distributing company Classic Films with two partners with the aim of distributing mainly artistic films. Later on he became assistant to John Bailey
John Bailey (cinematographer)
John Bailey, A.S.C. is an American Cinematographer and Film Director.Born in Moberly, Missouri, Bailey attended Santa Clara University and Loyola University Chicago. During his junior year he studied German language and culture at the University of Vienna, where he developed an appreciation for...
, a camera man and director, and in 1990 he went to Hollywood to work with Bailey on the science fiction comedy The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe. After selling Classic Films in 1991 Widrich again turned his attention to the computer and the possibilities it offered for creating art. His next major project, which saw him working as production manager
Production management
Theatrical production management is a sub-division of stagecraft. The production management team is responsible for realizing the visions of the producer and the director or choreographer within constraints of technical possibility...
, was a new festival for Austrian film, held for the first time in 1993 under the name Diagonale
Diagonale
The Diagonale is a film festival that takes place every March in Graz, Austria.The festival was initially held under the auspices of the Austrian Film Commission in Salzburg from 1993 to 1995 but moved to Graz in 1998. Traditional cinema venues are UCI Kinowelt Annenhof, Schubertkino, augartenkino...
. In the second year he also compiled a film database. More databases relating to film followed, and he was also involved in the creation of an interactive CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
.
In 1997 Widrich started concentrating more on making his own films again, producing the short film "tx-transform", which was a great success at the Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society that was part of the International Bruckner Festival. Herbert W. Franke is one of its founders. It became its own festival and a yearly event in 1986. Its director until 1995...
festival. He also returned to his script for "Heller als der Mond (Brighter than the Moon)", which he filmed in 1999. The film premiered in 2000 in Rotterdam. "Copy Shop" was his next project, and one of his most successful to date. Following its premiere in 2001 the film won numerous awards, was nominated for the Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
and was shown on television and numerous film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
s. His next short, "Fast Film", was likewise very successful and won 36 international awards. A large number of multimedia projects for companies followed (in 2001 he founded the firm, checkpointmedia AG, and is its CEO) and he continued producing films with his company Virgil Widrich Film- und Multimediaproduktionen G.m.b.H. Together with other filmmakers he also co-founded the production company Amour Fou Film in 2001, focusing on arthouse movies from young directors.
In 2004 Widrich was a member of the jury for Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society that was part of the International Bruckner Festival. Herbert W. Franke is one of its founders. It became its own festival and a yearly event in 1986. Its director until 1995...
and became chairman of the Austrian Film Directors’ Association until 2007. He is also a member of the Academy of Austrian Film.
From 2007 to 2010 Virgil Widrich taught as Professor at the University of Applied arts Vienna, teaching the class of “digital arts”. Since 2010 he is the leading Professor of the post-graduate Master Programme Art & Science Visualization.
Exhibitions
- 2006: Virgil Widrich created computer-animated installations for the refurbished Mozarthaus ViennaMozarthaus ViennaThe Mozarthaus Vienna was Mozart's residence from 1784 to 1787. This building in Vienna's Old Town, not far from St. Stephen's Cathedral, is his only surviving Viennese residence and is now a museum.-History:...
. - 2008: 13 works by Virgil Widrich and his students of “digital arts” were displayed at the “Essence08” in the MAK Museum of Applied and contemporary Arts Vienna.
- 2009: Virgil Widrich took on the role as art director for the exhibition "Linz. City in Luck" at the museum Nordico, that formed part of the city's year as European Capital of Culture.
- "Alias in Wonderland" took place from 25th June to 12th July in the Freiraum/quartier 21 in the MuseumsquartierMuseumsquartierThe Museumsquartier is a 60,000 m² large area in the 7th district of the city of Vienna, Austria; it is the eighth largest cultural area in the world. The Museumsquartier contains Baroque buildings as well as Modern architecture by the architects Laurids and Manfred Ortner . The renovation of the...
in Vienna, a project carried out with his students. - 2009: 10 works by his students of “digital arts” were displayed at the “Essence09” in the Expositur Vordere Zollamtsstraße Vienna.
- 2010: 15 works by his students of “digital arts” were displayed at the “Essence10” in the Künstlerhaus Vienna.
- 2010: Widrich was art director of the exhibition “90 Jahre Salzburger Festspiele” (90 years celebration of the Salzburg Festival) at the Museum Salzburg.
Filmography
- My Homelife (A 1980) 6 mins. (Documentary about an old house)
- Gebratenes Fleisch (A 1980) 11 mins. (Crime thriller about the murder of a woman in a restaurant)
- 3 mal Ulf (A 1980) 12 mins. (Documentary about Arnulf Komposch)
- Auch Farbe kann träumen (A 1981) 12 mins. (Animated cartoon in which a worm and a little man flee from the destruction of the environment)
- Monster in Salzburg (A 1982) 12 mins. (Animated filmAnimationAnimation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
in which a monster goes on the rampage in Salzburg) - Vom Geist der Zeit (A 1983–1985) 112 mins. (An assortment of many different genres)
- tx-transform (A 1998) 5 mins. (Experimental animated film using intriguing techniques)
- Heller als der Mond (Brighter than the Moon) (Europe 2000) 88 mins. (Comedy about being a foreigner in Vienna)
- Copy Shop (A 2001) 12 mins. (A man copies himself until he fills the entire world)
- LinksRechts (A, F 2001) 4 mins. (Interviews on the subject of "Left and right in film and politics")
- Fast Film (A, LUX 2003) 14 mins. (animated film with printed scraps of other films telling the story of a chase)
Since 2008: Project development of Virgil Virgil Widrich's next feature film "Die Nacht der tausend Stunden" ("The Night of a Thousand Hours").
Awards (selection)
for Heller als der Mond (Brighter than the Moon) (Europe 2000):- Scriptwriting prize of the City of Salzburg for the best script (1997)
- Jean Carment Award for Lars Rudolph — Angers European First Film Festival (2000)
- Laser Vidéo Titres Award — Angers European First Film Festival (2000)
for Copy Shop (A 2001):
- Oscar nomination in 2002 in the category "live action short" by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- Prix de la meilleure création sonore / Best Music and Sound DesignSound designSound design is the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating audio elements. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking, television production, theatre, sound recording and reproduction, live performance, sound art, post-production and video game software...
— Festival du Court-Métrage de Clermont-FerrandClermont-FerrandClermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department...
(26 January 2001 - 3 February 2001) - Best Experimental Short — Toronto — International Short Film Festival (6 June 2001–10 June 2001)
- Kodak Award — Jury's choice for short film — Puchon 2001 - Int. Fantastic Film Festival (12 July 2001–20 July 2001)
- Jury Prize — IMAGO 2001 - Covilha, Portugal (25 September 2001–30 September 2001)
- Silberne Taube — Leipzig 2001 – 44th International Film Festival (16 October 2001–21 October 2001)
- Best Short film — Lleida 2001 - inCurt (7 November 2001–11 November 2001)
- Best Experimental — Shorts International Film Festival New York 2001 (12 November 2001–15 November 2001)
- 1st Comunidad de MadridMadrid (autonomous community)The Community of Madrid is one of the seventeen autonomous communities of Spain. It is located at the center of the country, the Iberian Peninsula, and the Castilian Central Plateau . The community is also conterminous with the province of Madrid and contains the capital of Spain, which is also...
Award — Best Film — Madrid — Semana de Cine Experimental (16 November 2001–23 November 2001) - Best Short film — Barcelona L'alternativa 01 (16 November 2001–24 November 2001)
- Jury Prize — Leuven Kort 2001 - International Short Film Festival (23 November 2001 - 2 December 2001)
- Best Of Festival — Boston Underground Film FestivalBoston Underground Film FestivalThe Boston Underground Film Festival is an annual event held in the Boston, Massachusetts area that specializes in alternative film and video. The Boston Underground Film Festival, also known as BUFF, is the largest underground film festival in New England, spotlighting short films and feature...
(20 February 2002–24 February 2002) - Prix des télévisions européennes — Brussels 02 - Festival of Fantasy, Thriller and Science Fiction (15 March 2002–30 March 2002)
- Special Prize — Hiroshima 2002 - International Animation Festival (22 August 2002–26 August 2002)
- Best Experimental FilmExperimental filmExperimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
— Thessaloniki 02 - Panorama of Ind. Film and Video Makers (14 October 2002–21 October 2002) - Jury's special prize — Tehran International Animation Festival (23 February 2003–27 February 2003)
for Fast Film (A, LUX 2003):
- Official selection Festival de CannesCannes Film FestivalThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
(2003) (nomination) - Best Animated Short (C.O.R.E. Digital PicturesDigital PicturesDigital Pictures was a worldwide American video game developer, founded in 1991 by Ken Melville and Tom Zito.On the Sega CD versions of certain games, if they are played on the systems "audio CD" mode, there is a short track of a phone ringing with a male voice answering "Good afternoon, Digital...
Award) - Worldwide Short Film Festival, Toronto (2003) - Grand Prix for Animation (Grande Prémio Animação) - Festival Internacional de Curtas Metragens de Vila do Conde, Portugal (2003)
- Best Experimental Short Film – 52nd Int. Film Festival, Melbourne (2003)
- Audience Award — Bearded Child Film Festival, Grand Rapids, MNGrand Rapids, MinnesotaAs of the census of 2000, there were 7,764 people, 3,446 households, and 1,943 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,057.8 people per square mile . There were 3,621 housing units at an average density of 493.3 per square mile...
/ Boulder, CO USA (2003) - Most Imaginative Film — Odense Film Festival, Odense (2003)
- High Risk Award — Fantoche – 4th International Festival for Animated Film, Zürich (2003)
- Best Experimental Film — Panorama of Independent FilmIndependent filmAn independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
& Video Makers, Thessaloniki (2003) - Most innovative short — Leipzig International Festival for Documentaries and Animated Film (2003)
- Grand Prix — Uppsala Short Film Festival (2003)
- Premio de la Comunidad de Madrid a la Mejor Película — Semana de Cine Experimental de Madrid (2003)
- Onda Curta, 2nd prize and jury's special mention — Cinanima Portugal (2003)
- Innova Award — Animadrid, Spanien (2003)
- Film Critics Award — Animafest Zagreb (2004)
- ASIFA Korea Prize for best Experimental SICAF (2004)
- Cartoon d'orCartoon d'orThe Cartoon d’Or is the pan-European award for animation short films. It rewards every year the best one since only prize-winning films from Cartoon’s partner festivals can compete....
— best animated cartoon Forum Galicia (2004) - It was also included in the Animation Show of ShowsAnimation show of showsThe Animation Show of Shows is a traveling selection of the year's best animated short films, curated and presented by Acme Filmworks founder, Ron Diamond. It began in 1998 with the aim of showing the most original, funny, intelligent short animated films from all over the world and presenting them...
.
for checkpointmedia AG:
- September 2006: National Award for the “Mozarthouse Vienna” in the category "culture and entertainment" and an award in the category "Public information and services" for the “Visitor Center of the Austrian Parliament”.