Viennale 2025 Roundup
A summary of the films I watched and liked at Viennale which took place between October 16-28, plus other film festival highlights. This was my fifth time attending the festival, and may this tradition continue.
I had intended to write a more detailed roundup, but ever since I got back to Dubai, I found myself caught up with other personal commitments, so I’ve not had the time to sit down to write something longer or more thoughtful about the films I watched. I do want to dig into a couple of the films I watched, hopefully I get a chance before the year ends.
I’ll start with my most memorable screening. Similar to last year, my most memorable screening happened on a weekend morning, discovery and enjoying films that were made more than 80 years ago.
Cinematography: Gasparcolor was a programme of 13 shorts curated by Chiara Marañón and Juan Soto Taborda and most were screened on film (16mm and 35mm).
“Gasparcolor was invented by the Hungarian-born engineer and chemist Béla Gáspár, who had been experimenting with color film since 1906. In the mid-1920s, he worked in the Agfa laboratory in Berlin; in the early 1930s, he registered the first patent for Gasparcolor. Contrary to earlier systems, it used special, double-coated film. On one side was a layer of cyan, on the other, layers of magenta and yellow.” via viennale.at
”Most people know Technicolor as the hallmark of Hollywood’s golden age of colour cinema, yet few have heard of one of its most direct predecessors: Gasparcolor—a groundbreaking three-channel monopack film stock, the first of its kind and the most stable system of its era. Its trailblazing, complex technology marks a fascinating, if brief, chapter in cinema history, and the vibrancy and endurance of its colours remain unmatched to this day.” via viennale.at
These were the films we watched, my favourites are in bold and I’ve added stills from them below:
Colour On The Thames (Adrian Klein, UK, 1935, 35mm)
The Ship Of The Ether (George Pal, Netherlands 1934)
Incandescent Love (Gyula Macskássy, György Szénásy, Hungary, 1938)
Cinderella's Fairy Laundry (Gyula Macskássy, Hungary, 1940)
Dance Of The Colors (Hans Fischinger, Germany, 1938)
Fantaisie Érotique (Irena Dodalová, Karel Dodal, Czechoslovakia, 1936)
The Wizard Of Tones (Irena Dodalová, Karel Dodal, Czechoslovakia 1936)
Blue Beard (Jean Painlevé, France, 1938, 35mm)
Rainbow Dance (Len Lye, UK, 1936, 35mm)
Colour Flight (Len Lye, UK, 1938, 35mm)
Kreise (Oskar Fischinger, Germany 1933-1934, 16mm)
Komposition In Blau (Oskar Fischinger, Germany 1935, 16mm)
Allegretto (Oskar Fischinger, United States, 1936-1943, 16mm)
I think it matters what time of the day a film should be watched, and this was perfectly scheduled on a Sunday morning. An uplifting viewing experience and a reminder there’s still lots to learn from early cinema.
There was a focus on Digna Sinke, a Dutch filmmaker whose films are about memories and her surrounding landscapes. Curated by Gerwin Tamsma. He wrote a lovely piece, Digna Sinke - The Keys to Memory, about the director and her films:
Digna Sinke has crafted her body of work much like a landscape architect designs a garden. She started out by learning about what grows close to where she lives and making use of that knowledge. The specific personality of this cineaste-as-gardener becomes more and more visible in the process, and with each new season separate parts of her particular plot of land have grown together and connected in surprising ways. Trees and plants have taken root, and different, sometimes forgotten flowers have bloomed.
This gardening comparison is actually Sinke’s own. On her website, she talks about filmmaking and its segues as follows: “I know a little bit about most things, but what I really know about is maintaining a kitchen garden on loamy soil. That is also largely a question of ordering things, lugging things and toiling; and doing things in the right order. But always with complete dedication. Otherwise, there’s no point.”
I only got to watch 3 of the 13 films from the line up. My favourite was Lovely Weather Everyday (2013).
“For over a hundred years, postcards were a tangible way of expressing affection, conveying trivial news and staying in touch. Artists have long recognised their potential to experiment and subvert. As an avid collector, Digna Sinke unsurprisingly kept the postcards she received—and those of others—since her childhood. In ALLE DAGEN EVEN MOOI, this collection forms the raw material for a kaleidoscope tracking a hundred years of change. Unassuming, yet deeply personal and moving, the result is full of care: each card, each sentence evokes love and loss in equal measure.”
Favourite new films:
Top 5:
Kontinental 25 (Radu Jude)
The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)
The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
The Currents (Milagros Mumenthaler)
Two Seasons Two Strangers (Sho Miyake)
Also liked, in alphabetical order:
Blue Moon (Richard Linklater)
Daria's Night Flowers (Maryam Tafakory)
Dry Leaf (Alexandre Koberidze)
The Love That Remains (Hlynur Pálmason)
Memory (Vladlena Sandu)
Miroirs No. 3 (Christian Petzold)
Short Summer (Nastia Korkia)
Slet 1988 (Marta Popivoda)
Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)
That Summer in Paris (Valentine Cadic)
Favourite Rep Screenings (alphabetical order):
The Arch Tang (Shu-Shuen, 1968)
Colour Flight (Len Lye, 1937)
Colour on the Thames (Adrian Klein, 1935)
Double Love (Jean Epstein, 1925)
The Fall of the House of Usher (Jean Epstein, 1928)
Heart of Tramp/Vagabond (Jean Epstein, 1936)
Rainbow Dance (Len Lye, 1936)
Six and a Half by Eleven (Jean Epstein, 1927)
The Arch Tang (Shu-Shuen, 1968)
New films by favourite directors that I wish I liked more:
Die My Love (Lynne Ramsay)
The Fence (Claire Denis)
Film by a favourite director that was wild to watch, had a lot of walkouts too, and was happy to see someone I know acting in it:
Dracula (Radu Jude)
Wish I skipped:
The Chronology of Water (Kirsten Stewart)
Had to watch again (after seeing it in Venice) because I was in Vienna and stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel:
The Souffleur (Gastón Solnicki)
Wanted to watch but couldn’t fit in my schedule:
Below the Clouds (Gianfranco Rosi)
It Was Just An Accident (Jafar Panahi)
Keeping & Saving Or How To Live (Digna Sinke)
One Of Those Days When Hemme Dies (Murat Fıratoğlu)
A Poet (Simón Mesa Soto)
The Prince Of Nanawa (Clarisa Navas)
Resurrection (Bi Gan)
Romeria (Carla Simón)
Other highlights:
Hanging out with Sara Gazini and talking about Vienna, films and life. Do read her review of the Viennale, where she makes some good thematic connections between some of the films and and observations about the festival, and do subscribe to/follow her Substack account Brief Glimpses, especially if you live in Vienna, she shares monthly cinema highlights happening in the city and other film/festival writings too.
Hanging out with Matt Mansfield, a frequent film festival friend where we reunite and also talk about films and life. I enjoyed his review of some of the films he watched on his blog This Theater Is Haunted. He is also on Substack. I am hoping we write something together soon about our experience of the festival. So watch this space.
Hanging out with Neil Young, one of my favourite film critics, who is also my favourite moderator at the festival, and also this year appears in one of the films, Dracula by Radu Jude. Always great insights on films and festivals and current affairs.
When it was announced in May that Christian Petzold is the new president of Viennale, I immediately made a wish that I run into him at the Intercontinental Hotel and ask him about Den of Thieves (he had it in his 10/10 list for Grasshopper Films who invite filmmakers to share their top 10 films between 2008 and 2018) - and I film that I too like a lot. On October 18 my wish came true!
There was a post screening discussion after his film Miroirs No. 3 which I assumed would include someone translating to English. Sadly it was in German only, so I stepped out, and was sad to miss listening to him speak. After walking and talking with Sara Gazini who also stepped out like me because she too doesn’t understand German, I headed to my hotel. I found Petzold standing outside. So I approached him right away, told him I liked his new film and discussed it for a couple of minutes, then I asked what was it like to be a president of a film festival. He said he has never been a president of anything before, and he likes Viennale because it feels like a proper city film festival, made for its people. I told him that’s why I keep coming back because there is no red carpet or industry talks and networking and it’s so easy to navigate because all the cinemas as close to each other. I then asked if I could ask one last question, he said it has to be the last because he had to be somewhere else. That’s when I brought up Den of Thieves. He said he didn’t get a chance to watch the sequel which came out this year. His son told him it’s not as good as the first one, and he hopes to watch it on Blu-ray.Running into him outside the Intercontinental and talking to him was a great compensation prize for missing out on the post screening discussion. I felt like the happiest gal in Vienna that night.
All the films I watched at Viennale 2025:
Viennale Trailer:
Awakening (Joanna Hogg)
Features:
Blue Moon (Richard Linklater)
The Chronology of Water (Kirsten Stewart)
Cover-Up (Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus)
The Currents (Milagros Mumenthaler)
Die My Love (Lynne Ramsay)
Dracula (Radu Jude)
Dry Leaf (Alexandre Koberidze)
Evidence (Lee Anne Schmitt)
The Fence (Claire Denis)
Kontinental ‘25 (Radu Jude)
The Love That Remains (Hlynur Pálmason)
The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)
Memory (Vladlena Sandu)
Miroirs No. 3 (Christian Petzold)
Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
Rose of Nevada (Mark Jenkin)
The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
Short Summer (Nastia Korkia)
Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)
That Summer in Paris (Valentine Cadic)
Two Seasons, Two Srangers (Miyake Sho)
The Souffleur (Gastón Solnicki)
The Vanishing Point (Bani Khoshnoudi)
Short Film Programme: Flowers And Rituals
Slet 1988 (Marta Popivoda)
A Very Straight Neck (Neo Sora)
Daria's Night Flowers (Maryam Tafakory)
Keyhole Conversation (Peter Larsson)
Some Of You Fucked Eva (Lilith Grasmug)
Short Film Programme: Clouds And Memories
Memory Is An Animal, It Barks With Many Mouths (Eva Giolo)
As Told By A Corpse (Yace Sula)
09/05/1982 (Camilo Restrepo, Jorge Caballero)
From My Cloud (Kim Minjung)
Tigers Can Be Seen In The Rain (Oscar Ruiz Navia)
Retrospective: Jean Epstein
Double Love (1925, 35mm)
Six and a Half by Eleven (1926, 35mm)
The Fall Of The House Of Usher (1928)
Marius And Olive In Paris (1935, 35mm)
Heart of a Vagabond (1935, 35mm)
Retrospective: Jean Epstein - Short Films - Programme 1:
The Sea of Ravens (1930, 35mm)
The Gold of the Seas (1931, 35mm)
The Tempest: Poem On The Sea (1947, 35mm)
Monography: Digna Sinke
Above the Mountains (1992, 35mm)
Farewell (1990)
Lovely Weather Everyday (2013)
Cinematography: Gasparcolor
Colour On The Thames (Adrian Klein, UK, 1935, 35mm)
The Ship Of The Ether (George Pal, Netherlands 1934)
Incandescent Love (Gyula Macskássy, György Szénásy, Hungary, 1938)
Cinderella's Fairy Laundry (Gyula Macskássy, Hungary, 1940)
Dance Of The Colors (Hans Fischinger, Germany, 1938)
Fantaisie Érotique (Irena Dodalová, Karel Dodal, Czechoslovakia, 1936)
The Wizard Of Tones (Irena Dodalová, Karel Dodal, Czechoslovakia 1936)
Blue Beard (Jean Painlevé, France, 1938, 35mm)
Rainbow Dance (Len Lye, UK, 1936, 35mm)
Colour Flight (Len Lye, UK, 1938, 35mm)
Kreise (Oskar Fischinger, Germany 1933-1934, 16mm)
Komposition In Blau (Oskar Fischinger, Germany 1935, 16mm)
Allegretto (Oskar Fischinger, United States, 1936-1943, 16mm)
Cinematography: János Xantus
Eskimo Woman Feels Cold (1983)
The Rock Convert (1988, 35mm)
Historiography
The Arch (T’ang Shushuen, Hong Kong, 1968)
Those Whom Death Refused (Flora Gomes, Guinea-Bissau, 1988)