Montage is one of cinema's most important causal instruments of style and so elementary that its significance is easily forgotten. Montage gives structure to space and time, creates continuities and breaks and can have a dynamic and rhythmic effect. The Soviet avant-garde filmmakers were quick to recognize and explore the value of montage. However, the film language that was so seminal and continues to shape our watching habits today was developed in Hollywood – découpage classique, which evokes a flowing continuity of movement. The editing is as unobtrusive as possible and gives the impression of a light and effortless, seamless narrative.

Cinemascope – rarely has another cinematic term aroused more expectations in the cinemagoer. As the curtain opens slowly at the beginning of a showing, it reveals an ever-growing screen that the walls of the cinema seem hardly able to contain. Expanding images, spectacular expanses, breathtaking proximity, visual wealth – bigger than life or just unnecessarily oversized? Billy Wilder found sober words for this technological innovation that Twentieth Century Fox unveiled with the epic costume drama The Robe in 1953: "An ideal format for filming the life of a dachshund!" Fritz Lang's remark in Godard's Scope film "Le Mépris" is also unforgettable: "Cinemascope is fine for snakes and coffins, but not for people." The films of our Cinemascope retrospective hail from five decades and there is not one dachshund to be seen and only a few snakes and coffins. They impart a sense of the immense scope (!) there is for different artistic approaches to the over-sized 2:35:1 aspect ratio and its impact on the use of space and narrative strategies.

Nikolaus Geyrhalter's ÜBER DIE JAHRE (OVER THE YEARS) has received the award for "Best Austrian Documentary Film" endowed with 15.000 Euros as well as the award for "Best Artistic Editing" at the Diagonale, Festival of Austrian Film.

The Film had its world premiere just recently as part of this year's Forum programme. Taking the demise of a textile factory in Austria’s Waldviertel region as its starting point, with the antiquated manufacturing plant initially shown in full operation, this film poses the question of what work means for people’s self-image and character. After the factory goes bankrupt and closes, the filmmaker accompanies some of its employees as they continue to make their way, questioning them about their daily routines, the circumstances in which they live, about looking for work or the new jobs they find.

For her role in Karl Markovics' SUPERWELT (SUPERWORLD) Ulrike Beimpold received the Grand Diagonale Acting Award. SUPERWELT was also awarded for best cinematography and production design.