Universal Cinema Film & TV Journal’s Amir Ganjavie interviewed Eva Sangiorgi about the Viennale’s peculiarities and finding true diversity.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): Introduce yourself and tell me about your role in your organization.
Eva Sangiorgi (ES): I am the Artistic Director at the Viennale, that is the film festival in Vienna, the main film festival in Austria. In the structure of the Viennale, there is a managing director and an artistic director, the main focus on the artistic side.
(UM): How does the selection process take place? Do you have programmers that are specialized in each region?
(ES): It’s very peculiar how the Viennale works. I inherited the structures that I like and enjoy very much. Being a programmer before, you’re just the artistic director who’s the person responsible for making the selection of films and I work with consultants. They’re people who recommend films and work with me in different ways depending on the relationships that I have with them. In this case, I only have three main consultants who accompany me during the selection process and they are not focused on a specific area even if they work with a specific city and have the knowledge and experience in Latin America, like Roger Koza. They’re working yet suggesting and also commenting on some films I need feedback for or let’s say a dichotomic exercise because otherwise it’s very solitary.
Then there are some historical programs that I organize, or I work with the specialists depending on the topic.
(UM): Do you have any definition about a good movie? A movie that, when you are watching you say “It’s a good movie, it should be at my festival.” I know it’s very hard or difficult, but I’m just trying to see.
(ES): That’s a good question, but it is difficult, as you say. There are so many criteria, and you are a programmer yourself, so what can I say? I don’t need to be surprised and see something I have never seen before, but I’m interested when I see a perspective or an authorial voice that can happen in different ways. Following a strong tradition with this consistency of the form and the language of cinema that can be connected also to history. Or, of course, trying and experimenting in a very personal way of expressing feelings and concepts through images and sounds. I need to be engaged in a way, not into people of course, that could be so stupid, but that happens when I recognize that there’s a voice. The same in literature.
(UM): How do you know about a new film? Are you mostly inviting films to your festival or is it a festival where everybody could submit?
(ES): It’s a festival by invitation. It is known for this specific characteristic abroad in the sense that it’s a festival that is made after a selection as we are not asking for any kind of award or an international premiere as a condition, and we do not have any competition. We try to be a quality selection of what happened during the year.
We also specify that it’s for free, but we also do not answer all the applicants, but of course, we use it as a source, as one possible source we pass through, I pass through. Many times I find coincidences of things that I was looking for. I can track the directors who passed through the Viennale before or producers et cetera. But mainly, I’m scouting myself. Following directors, producers I know, watching films at the main festivals, and of course, a little bit of researching what’s going on in a specific geography I’m particularly interested about.
(UM): I imagine you don’t showcase movies that have never been to other festivals before.
(ES): Very rarely. It happens but I try not to get into this game. Of course, there’s particular attention towards Austrian films, it’s not an Austrian city festival at all, but of course, there’s a representative of a certain kind of very independent art house cinema made in Austria.
I even turn myself into a kind of promoter of the film, the specific film itself. It happens very often with Austrian films even. Young filmmakers who showed me their film, I have many many examples of that, but also with international ones I try to also suggest other festivals to try if I like the film very much, because I can’t wait one year to see it. Even so, especially for people who do not want you to wait, and they are very independent, and make films from time to time, a world premiere is very nice.
(UM): Are there any particular film festivals that you are very interested in?
(ES): Yes. It’s changing. There’s also new artistic directors, new teams, and so on. I was very interested in the Viennale before when Hans Hurch was directing, and I would come every year from Mexico, where I was based to scout it. I was very interested in Paolo Moretti’s Quinzaine des realisateurs. Also Venice is very important for me because, at that point of the year, I’m trying to catch big authors and films with hight production values. And then there are small festivals that are always very interesting. FIDMarseille for example, or also Cinema du Reel. For some experimental and short films it’s a reference for me. Otherwise, the New York Film Festival is picking up an interesting diversity of outstanding films. The Toronto Wavelengths, now it’s a little bit reduced insize but has always been very important to me.
(UM): In terms of a film selection, do you have any quota in terms of race, gender, or geography?
(ES): Not exactly a quota, but of course, trying to find a balance, because that is very important. I’ve seen models in the United States that have a representativity that is more on paper. But of course, I’m concerned during the process, and especially getting to the end to have a look and calculate, and not only a feeling but really have an understanding of what’s going on. That does not mean that it’s distributed equally in all the latitudes and genres, and even social groups, but I believe and I know that I’ve been stressing the importance of having cinema from film productions that are not the main ones and films by women, and we raise the number. But it has been organic, is what I want to say. Of course, I evaluate, I ponder, but at the same time, I try not to be influenced but to be open, and it’s happening in a very organic way.
(UM): In terms of controversy, are you a festival that shies away from controversial figures? For example, some festivals told me they are open even to invite Polanski movies because Polanski is separate from his movies.
(ES): It depends on case to case, of course. I’m not keen to invite people who have unclear legal situations because it’s also very symbolic in that sense. But on the other hand, I’m not closing my eyes and door without any criteria. We had a very special presentation last year of Sparta. You may be aware of it or not, but there was a big scandal concerning the condition of the production of the film’s path. A rumor very much pushed by sources that need to be clarified but also a little bit of journalistic sensationalism. So we evaluated, we listened, we discussed, we watched the film, and we decided to show it and very proudly. On the political crisis between Russia and Ukraine, Russian production has also been affected by what’s going on, especially the independent voices, and independent voters under threat politically. So that is another selection that I do independently. Yeah, that is another example. I’m also open to Russian films.
(UM): Vienna is the most interesting city in the world to me, especially in terms of architecture, history, and culture. I’m just curious, how is the relationship between the city and the festival? Are you trying to bring some elements of the city into the festival? If so, how?
(ES): Have you ever been to Viennale?
(UM): I’ve been to the city, but not to the festival.
(ES): It’s very true what you’re imagining and suggesting through your question that there is a deep connection between the city and the cultural life. And so, the Viennale tries to take the best from that, and it’s a festival that defines itself as a city festival. A festival that also tries to foster the experience of the city, the cafes, the atmosphere, the main city that is walkable and has a very big tradition of social gatherings that one can encounter. The festival is organized in the center, in five theaters that are also supported in many cases by the city government because there’s a policy of preservation of the theaters here connected to the traditional culture of theaters and cinemas, and you can walk from one to the other. This is also part of the general idea of the festival itself.
(UM): How do you try to support the films that are coming to your festival? You say that you are not trying to promote films, but do you have any kind of cash awards, or any tactical screenings for the films? What opportunities do you offer to the filmmakers or the movies that come to the festival?
(ES): The main value of being selected at the Viennale is that the theaters are very beautiful, and there’s an extremely faithful, attentive, and interesting audience. The festival that is planned is a little longer than normal festivals, and it’s promoting the Viennale itself. A cultural event for the citizens, for the people in Vienna, or coming to Vienna for this reason. We have a magnificent theater from the 1960s, recently renovated, with 740 seats, and it stays very much in the memory of the filmmakers who normally are happy to come back. In an atmosphere of no competition, no red carpet, and very simple, where everybody is interacting. This is the experience that we can offer, but concerning the promotion of the films, we, of course, try to make this work of connection with the audience mostly but it’s a festival that is history because it’s a festival of selected films after or what happened during the year. It’s renowned.
The normal thing that every festival does is communication. Now, we’ve just passed two years of different settings and organizations because of the pandemic, and the activities were reduced. We started, since I’m here, a very strong connection with film criticism. One of the main activities organized on the side of the film projections are focused on film criticism. It will happen again this year with a special focus on young critics. On top of inviting a lot of critics from different generations, we have talks, workshops, and activities involving and hiring amateurs to be part of the creation of content for the festival. This is something that will be clearer after this edition. You will see.
(UM): Do you have a special vision for your festival? For example, saying, “In ten years I want to make my festival look like…” Are there any utopian wishes or dreams that you have for your festival that you want to achieve?
(ES): Yes, of course. In the case of this Viennale in particular, it’s a festival with personalities that are very clear and make so much sense, especially because they are not so festive with no competition. I’m not thinking of transformation, but there are things that I want to achieve. Specifically, get into a younger audience because we have a very trustful audience that is getting old and that is more represented by my generation, and so we are having activities connected with that. We are showing films to students through connections and then institutional agreements with the educational institutes and with the schools of Vienna. And of course, there’s a criticism side, a way to try to connect it with the cinephile side and the new generation of cinephiles.
(UM): At the end of our conversation, I wonder if there is anything else or anything that you think might be interesting for our audience to know about your festival.
(ES): Yes. You covered a lot in general terms, there are problems and I’m sure that you also are aware of and facing with your festival. It has changed a lot, especially in the last ten years. I’m always questioning myself how to maintain the importance of an event like a festival, and how to survive in a milieu where sometimes it’s getting difficult to get certain films that are important to be screened in a theater. The relationship with the streamers is complicated a little bit. If I then think about this idea of the crisis of spectatorship, I can absolutely state that the festival, like the Viennale and many others that are bigger, is demonstrating every day and every year that they are so important to maintain the cinema culture life and that there is an audience for that. Besides the change of habits in the free time of people and cultural consumption, we are still very important and one of the most important events, so we cannot be substituted, and it’s clear that the Viennale will have a long life. Especially because during the event, the cinema is full.
There’s this need of getting together and watching films in certain conditions, as the cinema has been conceived, that it is certain players like the streamers, who are of course helping the production of big movies, as only the studio could do before, they are sometimes not aware of the importance of this magic.
(UM): Yeah. You’re right, and as you mentioned, there is a very close relationship between the city and the cinema in your case, and I’m just imagining that during COVID that has been very difficult for you to decide if you wanted to do it online or not. Especially in a city like Vienna with lots of beautiful…
(ES): Yes and no. It’s been difficult, or very easy because I was very lucky. We happened anyhow. We changed a little bit the logistics in order to adapt, specifically with certain strategies that were great. But I decided not to go online immediately because of what we said: when a festivals can happen and in a satisfactory mode but online, that also means that it can cost less. And for me, to maintain the discussion with the founders, it was important to not try to have a variant, a diverse option. For the Viennale, it was an easy decision because it’s a festival that is, by definition, so connected to city life and the experience in the theater. It would have been just confusing, and not a clear message.
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