Anja Salomonowitz

Anja Salomonowitz (born in Vienna) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter, specialised on documentary films with political or social background.

Biography

Anja Salomonowitz was born in Vienna and started to study art history and dramatics and film theory at the University of Vienna, but broke the study to change to the film academy, based in the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. There she specialised on the field of studys directing and cutting. As a cutter she attended also the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen (college for film and TV) in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany.[1]

Anja Salomonowitz developed her own poetic film language for her films. Real human experiences are condensed through artistic alienation. Her films received international recognition and numerous film awards. They found their way into relevant film literature. They are shown at hundreds of film festivals worldwide.

In 2014/15 she was the chairwoman of dok.at, the Austrian Documentary Film Interest Group, and in 2016/17 she was the chairwoman of the Austrian Film Directors Association. In 2014-2017 she was on the supervisory board of the Austrian Film Institute.

Her hybrid films follow a strict color concept. She is known for the fact that her films are explicitly political and that their artistic form extends the limits and possibilities of the cinematic.

Her first movie which started in the cinemas was the 52 minutes documentary film YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THIS (2003). There she confronted herself and her family with their family's history. Her Jewish grandaunt was in a concentration camp, her nanny joined the socialistic resistance and her grandmother "did nothing".[1]

In her one-minute-long, shortest short film CODENAME FIGARO – as a contribution to the "Mozart year 2006" – she raises the ironic and politics critic question if „Le nozze di Figaro“ actually was a fictitious marriage.[2]

IT HAPPENED JUST BEFORE is a film about human trafficking. This film has an artistic clou: the woman, whose stories are told, do not appear themselves in the movie but the stories are told by other people. These people have connections to the stories because of their daily work. IT HAPPENED JUST BEFORE is therefore also talking about usual documentary strategies.

SPAIN is Anja Salomonowitz´first feature realized in 2012 and started at the international forum at the Berlinale.

Her latest film, THIS MOVIE IS A GIFT with the artist Daniel Spoerri and her son Oskar had its cinema release in December 2019 and is currently running at film festivals and in museums and exhibitions worldwide, including mumok, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Vienna, Art Berlin, Paris internationale.

Anja Salomonowitz has three sons with film director Virgil Widrich, one of whom, Oskar Salomonowitz (born 20.7.2008) died in an accident on 27.10.2020.

Filmography

documentary films:

  • 2003: Das wirst du nie verstehen, 52 min.
  • 2006: Kurz davor ist es passiert, 72 min.

feature films:

  • 2012: Spanien (Spain), 102 min.

Short films:

  • 2000: Carmen, 23 min., Video
  • 2001: get to attack, 5 min
  • 2002: Projektionen eines Filmvorführers in einem Pornokino, 14 min., Video
  • 2005: Monument, Videoinstallation
  • 2006: Codename Figaro – Mozart 2006, 1 min., Video

Awards
  • 2010 "Outstanding Artist Award" of the Federal Ministry of Art in Austria
  • Kurz davor ist es passiert:
    • 2006: Wiener Filmpreis (Vienna Film Award)
    • 2007: Caligari-Filmpreis, Internationales Forum des Jungen Films – Berlinale 2007
    • 2007: Innovative Artistic Award, Mar del Plata
    • 2007: New Vision Best Director Award, Alba International Film Festival
    • 2007: Friedensfilmpreis der Stadt Osnabrück
  • Das wirst du nie verstehen
    • 2003: Audience Award, Vienna students film festival
    • 2004: Prix Regards Neufs, Visions du Réel, Nyon

References
  1. Daniel Ebner, celluloid – die österreichische filmzeitschrift: Anja Salomonowitz – „Das wirst du nie verstehen“ (PDF) Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine. no date
  2. summary to Codename Figaro Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine, www.anjasalomonowitz.at
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