Lovers of Austrian film now have a chance to revisit old favourites on the new WatchAUT streaming platform, which went online on 16 December. For the price of €4.90, viewers get 48-hour access to a movie of their choosing. For new subscribers, WatchAUT is additionally offering one film for free. Access is restriction-free, and English subtitles are provided. Currently, 200 films are available to watch in Austria, and a limited selection of 100 in Germany and Switzerland. Furthermore, a small number of movies will be available for worldwide viewing soon.

Among the movies already available are classics from the “Österreichischer Film” collection, such as India by Paul Harather (1993), Mother’s Day by Harald Sicheritz (1993), Northern Skirts by Barbara Albert (1999) and The Counterfeiters [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Stefan Ruzowitzky (2007), newer titles such as the Austrian-coproduced Quo Vadis, Aida? [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jasmila Žbanić
scheda film] by Jasmila Žbanić (2020), Oskar & Lilli – Where No One Knows Us [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Arash T Riahi (2020), The Trouble with Being Born [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Sandra Wollner
scheda film] by Sandra Wollner (2020) and Fox in a Hole [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Arman T. Riahi
scheda film] by Arman T Riahi (2020), as well as successful documentaries such as But Beautiful [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Erwin Wagenhofer (2019), Johanna Dohnal – Visionary of Feminism [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Sabine Derflinger (2019) and Whores’ Glory [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Michael Glawogger (2011).

By 2026, the chief executives of the platform want to have 1,500 titles on offer, 1,000 of which will be available worldwide. This development will go hand in hand with the establishment of an English-language version of the currently exclusively German interface. CEO Georg Hoanzl considers WatchAUT as an opportunity for Austrian film. “It’s a meaningful way for Austrian film to be positioned even more intensively and with even more variety than has been the case so far on the usual platforms.”

Early talks of cooperation with the Filmarchiv Austria, the Diagonale festival, production company sixpackfilm, the Filmmuseum Wien and the Austrian Film Commission should be key to making this repertoire as accessible as possible. “This way,” continues Hoanzl, “we will complement the important work of the already established platforms.”

Besides making Austrian film more readily available to a local and international audience, this distribution initiative is intended to secure additional licensing revenues for the copyright holders. Promoting the internationalisation of the Austrian film catalogue is one of the main goals that the platform is aiming to achieve.

Further information can be found here.