THE WITNESS (SHAHED) WINS AUDIENCE AWARD AT VENICE BIENNALE

Following its premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, THE WITNESS (SHAHED) by Nader Saeivar, co-written and edited by Jafar Panahi, has been awarded the Armani Beauty Audience Award in the Orizzonti Extra section.

The film is a co-production of German Arthood Film, Golden Girls Film and Sky films.

TO CLOSE YOUR EYES
AND SEE FIRE -
WORLD PREMIERE

The first feature film by Nicola von Leffern and Jakob Carl Sauer premiered at ZFF on October 6th.

The film is a long term documentary about Beirut's inhabitants, who are furious about needing to play the role of the phoenix. In the aftermath of the Beirut explosion, the city faces the challenge of healing while new crises inflict further wounds. Who will leave the country and at what cost? TO CLOSE YOUR EYES AND SEE FIRE is a poetic mosaic about the vacuum in life after tragedy.

HOW TO BE NORMAL AND THE ODDNESS OF
THE OTHER WORLD -
COMING SOON

The first feature film by Florian Pochlatko is being expected to premiere beginning of 2025.

PIA, fresh out of psychiatry, moves back in with her parents to get her life together. Torn between a new job, lovesickness, psychotropic drugs and social stigmatization, she emerges into a world where everything seems out of control.

PERLA - PICTURE LOCK

The editing of Alexandra Makarová's new feature film has been successfully completed by Joana Scrinzi.

PERLA tells the story of an impulsive painter's return to 1980s Czechoslovakia to settle an old debt. The historical drama takes us deep into the Austria’s and Czechoslovakia’s societies during the Cold War era.

The film is being expected to premiere beginning of 2025.

PICTURE LOCK FOR
GIRLS AND GODS

The new film by Arash T. Riahi and Verena Soltiz raises the question:
What happens if women decide to revolutionize religions instead of rejecting them? Radical feminist Inna Shevchenko (FEMEN) leads together with other female atheists a controversial journey into an age-old conflict between religion and women, encountering believers and theologians. Girls & Gods is a quest to find whether monotheistic religions can be feminist and whether feminism can be religious.

DIARY OF AN AMBASSADOR - IN POSTPRODUCTION

The documentary by Natalie Halla is about the Afghan ambassador in Vienna, Manizha Bakhtari, who is in a bizarre situation since the Taliban took power: she represents a country whose old government fled and whose new Taliban government has no international recognition. Under increasingly difficult conditions, she decides to stand up to the Taliban and continue her courageous fight for the rights of Afghanistan's women.

READ MY BREASTS -START OF EDITING

The new film by Anja Salomonowitz has started into editing with cutter Florencia Alberti from Barcelona. 

Read my Breasts is a documentary about the FEMEN activist Inna Shevchenko and is expected to premiere middle of 2025.