10 Best Austrian Movies to Watch First

10 Essential Austrian Films

Ranked native cinema in Austria’s own creative voice.

1. 

   1. The White Ribbon

   Das weiße Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte · 2009

   In a small northern German village on the eve of World War I, a schoolteacher looks back on a string of cruel and inexplicable incidents that unsettled the community. Michael Haneke's austere black-and-white study of authority, discipline, and creeping malice.

2. 

   2. The Counterfeiters

   Die Fälscher · 2007

   A gifted Jewish counterfeiter is pulled from a concentration camp and put to work forging currency for a secret Nazi operation, forced to weigh his own survival against the harm his skills enable. Based on a true story, it won the Oscar for best foreign film.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: The story of Jewish counterfeiter Salomon Sorowitsch, who was coerced into assisting the Nazi operation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II.

3. 

   3. Goodnight Mommy

   Ich seh, Ich seh · 2014

   In an isolated country house, nine-year-old twin boys await their mother's return from cosmetic surgery. When she comes home swathed in bandages and strangely altered, the boys begin to doubt she is really their mother. A chilling Austrian horror.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: In the heat of the summer lays a lonesome house in the countryside where nine year old twin brothers await their mother’s return. When she comes home, bandaged after cosmetic surgery, nothing is like before and the children start to doubt whether this woman is actually who she says she is.

4. 

   4. The Edukators

   Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei · 2004

   Three young idealists break into the homes of the wealthy to rearrange their belongings and leave unsettling notes, never stealing a thing. When one job goes wrong and a rich businessman ends up their captive, their politics collide with reality. A thoughtful drama about conviction and compromise.

5. 

   5. Sissi – The Young Empress

   Sissi - Die junge Kaiserin · 1956

   Newly crowned empress of Austria, the free-spirited Sissi struggles to master court etiquette and to hold her own against a formidable mother-in-law who means to run the throne. The lush second chapter of the beloved royal romance.

6. 

   6. Revanche

   2008

   An ex-convict working as muscle in a Vienna brothel dreams of running away with the woman he loves. When their bid for freedom goes catastrophically wrong, his fate becomes entangled with that of a rural policeman. A taut, slow-burning drama of guilt and chance.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: Alex, an ex-con working as muscle in a Vienna brothel, dreams of escaping with his girlfriend Tamara, who also works there. Their attempt to break free sets off a chain of events that links their fate with a rural police officer and his troubled marriage. As their lives intersect, a quiet struggle unfolds between guilt, grief, and the desire for redemption.

7. 

   7. The Dark Valley

   Das finstere Tal · 2014

   A mysterious lone rider claiming to be a photographer arrives in a remote Alpine village ruled by a tyrannical clan and asks to winter there. His quiet presence stirs old secrets and simmering menace. An Austrian Western set in the snowbound mountains.

8. 

   8. Corsage

   2022

   A fictionalized year in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who, turning forty and pronounced past her prime, chafes against the corseted expectations of the court and searches for a self beyond her public image. A wry, deliberately anachronistic period drama.

9. 

   9. Mostly Martha

   Bella Martha · 2001

   A brilliant, controlling head chef who lives only for her kitchen has her ordered world upended when tragedy leaves her the guardian of her young niece — just as an easygoing Italian cook joins the restaurant. A warm romantic comedy-drama.

10. 

    10. Funny Games

    1997

    A vacationing family is taken hostage in their lakeside home by two polite young men who subject them to a series of sadistic games. Michael Haneke's coldly confrontational thriller turns the audience's appetite for screen violence back on itself.

    Why & details

    Curator’s note: Michael Haneke's Austrian German-language psychological thriller.