Vienna Shorts
27.05—01.06.2025
Do you adore strolling down the streets of a historical, beautiful, and cozy city? And what about dancing until late for six days in a row (you know, technically speaking, it is called “networking”)? If you fancy all that: welcome to Vienna Shorts!
Founded in 2003 with the goal of “presenting independent films and promoting exceptional talent” (their words), the festival has managed to establish itself as one of the prime yearly events for people in the European short film industry. Taking place between the end of May and the first days of June, festival goers can benefit from the late spring hot climate of the city, which anyway always comes second to the warm welcome offered by the festival’s team (partly helmed by Talking Shorts co-founder Daniel Ebner). Maybe that is one of the reasons why 10,000 film lovers and 600 accredited professionals show up every year.
Definitely one of the most politically outspoken events in the short film festival circuit, Vienna Shorts can be seen as a hub where serious issues are tackled and presented through films, giving rise to meaningful discussions afterwards. This approach can be resumed in the catchphrase “We Need To Disagree”, the successful festival motto of a previous edition.
As an EFA-, BAFTA- & Oscar-qualifying event—also promoting professional Industry days and a month-long artist residency in the beautiful Austrian capital—Vienna Shorts is an opportunity emerging directors look to for a leap in their careers.
Text by Enrico Vannucci
Reading List

Jyoti Mistry on We Come in Peace, They Said

City of Poets by Sara Rajaei

Oyu by Atsushi Hirai

Nastia Korkia on Dreams About Putin

Nikola Ilić on Exit Through the Cuckoo’s Nest

Pavel Mozhar on Unwanted Kinship

Alessandro Novelli on De Imperio

Zima by Tomek Popakul, Kasumi Ozeki

Yann Gonzalez on Hideous

Aunque es de noche by Guillermo García López

Mast-del by Maryam Tafakory

Digital Textures As An Existential Compass

Using Home Videos in Documentary Filmmaking

Anna Vasof on Saving Some Random Insignificant Stories

How Different Sources of Capital Direct Our Personal Agency

Palestinian Short Films Towards Liberation

Flores del otro Patio by Jorge Cadena

Fractured Identities of Post-War Former-Yugoslavia in Short Films

All Inclusive by Corina Schwingruber Ilić

Leandro Goddinho and Paulo Menezes on Paradise Europe

Sam Manacsa on Cross My Heart And Hope To Die

27 by Flóra Anna Buda

A Kind of Testament by Stephen Vuillemin
Reading List

Square the Circle by Hanna Hovitie

Exploring Blackness

Remember How I Used to Ride a White Horse by Ivana Bošnjak Volda, Thomas Johnson Volda

The Veiled City by Natalie Cubides-Brady

The Maestrat on Film by Fermín Sales

Until I Lie Still by Yana Eresina

Land der Berge by Olga Kosanović
Reading List

backflip by Nikita Diakur

On The Japanese Artist’s Singular Work

Will My Parents Come to See Me by Mo Harawe

It’s Raining Frogs Outside by Maria Estela Paiso

Janaina Wagner On Curupira and the Machine of the Destiny
Reading List

Vienna Shorts 2020

One Hundred Steps by Bárbara Wagner, Benjamin de Burca

A Lack of Clarity by Stefan Kruse Jørgensen

The Criminals by Serhat Karaaslan

Tracing Utopia by Catarina de Sousa, Nick Tyson

Naya – Der Wald hat tausend Augen by Sebastian Mulder