Haneke’s Amour and Christoph Waltz: Cinema Supplants Skiing?

 

 

 

Michael Haneke’s Prizes and His Appetite for Spinach, 2 Dec. 2012

by Michael Pekler

Malta provided the venue for the 25th European Film Awards. During the gala event in the fortress city Valletta, Michael Haneke’s Amour was the big winner – receiving four awards, including Best European Film. […]

This time a majority of the prizes were accepted in person, due to a handful of great films nominated in multiple categories: Michael Haneke’s Amour stood out as one of the favourites with six nominations, followed by Steve McQueen’s Shame and Thomas ­Vinterberg’s The Hunt with five nominations each.

The fact that a film like Amour, a French-German-Austrian co-production and already the winner of the Golden Palm in Cannes, was specifically honoured reduced the question of its national origin to absurdity: A theme that falls in perfectly with the self-proclaimed European community feeling [of this event].

 

 

 

 

 

Los Angeles Instead of Bergisel, 15 Dec. 2012

by Florian Asamer

Or, why there is more to gain at the Oscars these days than on the ski slopes.

It used to be Kitzbühel or the Bergisel. When it came to winter sports, Austria could always count on a podium finish and a few medals. [Franz] Klammer, [Annemarie] Moser-Pröll, [Petra] Kronberger and [Hermann] Maier were always a solid team. But for the last few years the game has shifted: to Los Angeles.

Today, there is no Oscar Award ceremony without Austrian favourites. After Stefan Ruzowitzky and Christoph Waltz received the award [in 2010], this year’s nominees include Michael Haneke and Christoph Waltz. Haneke could even break out of the category-ghetto of Best Foreign Language Film with his Cannes-winner Amour. Best Director? Maybe even Best Film? And Christoph Waltz has apparently solidified his position in the Best Actor category. In that case, why watch the Hahnenkamm races?

For a review of Haneke’s Amour, see "Haneke on Ageing Loss – and Liebe" in Sept. 2012 TVR.