Austria's biggest film festival once again offers film highlights from around the world from 19 October to 2 November. An homage is dedicated to the director of the Viennale, Hans Hurch, who passed away this year. Also in focus are Soviet and new Neapolitan cinema.

Each year, the Viennale brings the latest feature, documentary and short films to Vienna from around the world. Among them are many unknowns, unusual discoveries, as well as great films that have already been shown at the film festivals in Venice, including "Hanna" by Andrea Pallaoro with Charlotte Rampling and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" by Martin McDonagh with Frances McDormand. Austrian cinema is also represented, including with Barbara Albert's movie "Licht", which has already been rapturously received at the film festival in Locarno. The Austrian actor Georg Friedrich shines in the German-Norwegian co-production "Helle Nächte" [Bright Nights].

An homage entitled "14 friends, 14 films" is dedicated to Hans Hurch, the director of the Viennale, who passed away suddenly this year in July. The special "Napoli! Napoli!" shows the creation of new Neapolitan cinema at the end of the 1980s/beginning of the 1990s, which presents a different Naples from the picture postcard idyll usually found in the movies. The retrospective "Utopia and Correction" focuses on Soviet cinema between 1926 and 1977. The Austrian silent movie star Carmen Cartellieri is also the focus of a special. The screened silent movies from the 1920s are accompanied by live music.

The Viennale is always a showplace for popular parties and premieres. These are mostly held in the festival headquarters (location to be announced).

Viennale. 19 October - 2 November 2017
Various cinemas in Vienna
The full Viennale program can be download online from 10 October:
www.viennale.at