The annual balance of Austrian filmmaking is clear: school films are doing well in the Alpine republic. While “School of Magical Animals”, which started on October 14, 2021, secured first place with 143,308 viewers, this year the minority co-production “Häschenschule 2”, which started on March 17, is ahead with 108,755 cinema fans. In the case of the majority of productions from local forges, however, the decidedly Austrian themes attract the most guests.
According to Film Austria and the Austrian Film Institute, Marcus H. Rosenmüller’s Deix animated film “Rotzbub – Willkommen in Siegheilkirchen” was in first place among Austrian films in 2022 as of December 12. According to ÖFI, 99,635 cinema-goers have bought a ticket for this since March 24th. In second place is Christine Nöstlinger, also a local original, since the film adaptation of her “Tales of Franz” by Johannes Schmid has had 85,700 paying guests since April 14th. And the Bavarian Habsburg Empress Sisi is still moving, Marie Kreutzer’s feminist drama “Corsage” has been guaranteed a place on the podium with 53,628 screen fans since July 7th.
The following places are occupied by the Stipsits vehicle “Love Machine 2” (43,703 visitors), Adrian Goiginger’s Mitterer film adaptation “Märzengrund” (35,460), Florian Klenk’s agricultural reportage “Der Bauer und der Bobo” (28,822), David Wagner’s outing drama in military milieu “Eismayer” (26,486) and Michael Ostrowski’s comedy “Der Onkel” (20,382). The top ten complete Ulrich Seidl’s pop singer homage “Rimini” with 18,053 viewers and the minority co-produced Nobel Prize winner essay “Elfriede Jelinek. Letting the language off the leash” by Claudia Müller (17,011).
Ultimately, surprisingly not among the top ten are works that were among the most discussed of the current year. Kurdwin Ayub’s youth film “Sonne”, which received an award at the Berlinale, came in 15th place with 5380. And Ruth Beckermann’s sexuality project “Mutzenbacher”, which was also recognized in Berlin, only came in 19th in the domestic film list with 3945 people interested since the cinema opened on November 4th.
In other dimensions, however, some major productions from Hollywood play. On Monday, Disney reported the best start of a work of the current year for its blockbuster “Avatar: The Way of Water”. Accordingly, James Cameron’s animated adventure attracted more than 150,000 viewers to Austrian cinemas on the opening weekend.
