Anja Salomonowitz

Anja Salomonowitz (born in Vienna) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter, specialised on documentary films with political or social background.

Biography
Anja Salomonowitz was born in Vienna. She grew up in a Jewish family and was a member of the socialist-Zionist youth organization Hashomer Hatzair. She studied film in Vienna and Berlin and worked for the film director Ulrich Seidl during her studies.

Anja Salomonowitz has developed her own film language for her films, in which documentary film, feature film and thesis are mixed. Real experiences of people are condensed through artistic alienation. Her hybrid films all follow a strict color concept. She is known for the fact that her films are explicitly political and expand the boundaries and possibilities of the cinematic in their artistic form. Her films have received international recognition and numerous film awards. They have found their way into the relevant film literature. They are screened at numerous international film festivals.

Her film IT HAPPENED JUST BEFORE, for example, had its world premiere in the Forum of the Berlinale 2007 and won the Caligari Film Prize there. This film on the subject of trafficking in women defies the rules of documentary film and is still considered a milestone in hybrid documentary storytelling today. THIS FILM IS A GIFT reflects on forms of the artist portrait: an unusual and tender portrait of the artist Daniel Spoerri, in which her son Oskar Salomonowitz plays the artist.

She studied film in Vienna and Berlin and worked as an assistant to director Ulrich Seidl. She worked with students at universities on their films, for example at the Aalto University Helsinki, Department for Film and Television or at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She is a tutor at the Documentary Academy at the Jihlava International Film Festival, together with the Filipino filmmaker Khavn de La Cruz. She was chairwoman of the Austrian Documentary Film Association and the Austrian Film Directors Association. Anja Salomonowitz works as a dramaturge for the Austrian Screenplay Association. She holds master classes on artistic film.

Her hybrid films follow a strict color concept. She is known for the fact that her films are explicitly political and that their artistic form extends the limits and possibilities of the cinematic.

Her first movie which started in the cinemas was the 52 minutes documentary film YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THIS (2003)''. There she confronted herself and her family with their family's history. Her Jewish grandaunt was in a concentration camp, her nanny joined the socialistic resistance and her grandmother "did nothing". ''

In her one-minute-long, shortest short film CODENAME FIGARO – as a contribution to the "Mozart year 2006" – she raises the ironic and politics critic question if „Le nozze di Figaro“ actually was a fictitious marriage.

IT HAPPENED JUST BEFORE is a film about human trafficking. This film has an artistic clou: the woman, whose stories are told, do not appear themselves in the movie but the stories are told by other people. These people have connections to the stories because of their daily work. IT HAPPENED JUST BEFORE is therefore also talking about usual documentary strategies.

SPAIN is Anja Salomonowitz´first feature realized in 2012 and started at the international forum at the Berlinale.

THIS MOVIE IS A GIFT with the artist Daniel Spoerri and her son Oskar had its cinema release in December 2019 and is currently running at film festivals and in museums and exhibitions worldwide, including mumok, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Vienna, Art Berlin, Paris internationale.

"THIS MOVIE IS A GIFT is a film about the artist Daniel Spoerri. Actually, it is a film about a thought of Daniel Spoerri: a film almost without Daniel Spoerri, actually it is mostly acted out by a child - a film namely about the thought of the eternal cycle, where even worn-out cooking spoons on the wall can live on as art."

Her latest film SLEEPING WITH A TIGER is a creative, inner portrait of the painter Maria Lassnig. Like memories and feelings that are not anchored in time and can evoke images at any time, as they did for Maria Lassnig, Anja Salomonowitz's hybrid film about the artist is not told in a linear fashion. Lassnig's work stands above all for the introspective feeling of one's own physical sensations and their artistic expression. The film makes this visionary approach to art not only visible, but tangible and experienceable. Having fallen out of time, Sleeping with a Tiger opens up Maria Lassnig's emotional world.

Anja Salomonowitz lives in Vienna. She is currently working on a film about the Ukrainian activist Inna Shevshenko, the prominent founder of the feminist group FEMEN. The film is an embodiment of FEMEN's visual political art and represents new pop feminism.

Anja Salomonowitz has three sons with film director Virgil Widrich, one of whom, Oskar Salomonowitz (born 20.7.2008) died in an accident on 27.10.2020.

Filmography
Documentary films:
 * 2003: You will never understand this (Das wirst du nie verstehen), 52 min.
 * 2006: It happened just before (Kurz davor ist es passiert), 72 min.
 * 2013: The 727 Days without Karamo (Die 727 Tage ohne Karamo), 80 min.
 * 2016: The boy will be circumcised (Der Junge wird beschnitten), 75 min.
 * 2019: This movie is a gift (Dieser Film ist ein Geschenk), 72 min.

Feature films:
 * 2012: Spanien (Spain), 102 min.
 * 2024: Sleeping with a Tiger (Mit einem Tiger schlafen), 100 min.

Short films:
 * 2000: Carmen, 23 min., Video
 * 2001: get to attack, 5 min
 * 2002: Projektionen eines Filmvorführers in einem Pornokino, 14 min., Video
 * 2005: Monument, Videoinstallation
 * 2006: Codename Figaro – Mozart 2006, 1 min., Video

Awards

 * 2010 "Outstanding Artist Award" of the Federal Ministry of Art in Austria
 * 2019 Honorary Award of the Women's Film Days for the film series WIDERSTANDSKINO together with the director Mirjam Unger
 * The 727 days without Karamo:
 * 2013: Silver Eye Award, Jihlava Int. Documentary film festival
 * It happened just before:
 * 2006: Wiener Filmpreis (Vienna Film Award)
 * 2007: Caligari-Filmpreis, Internationales Forum des Jungen Films – Berlinale 2007
 * 2007: Innovative Artistic Award, Mar del Plata
 * 2007: New Vision Best Director Award, Alba International Film Festival
 * 2007: Friedensfilmpreis der Stadt Osnabrück
 * 2007: Award for Image Design, Diagonale Graz
 * 2007: Special Mention, Cinéma du Réel, Paris
 * You will never understand this:
 * 2003: Audience Award, Vienna students film festival
 * 2004: Prix Regards Neufs, Visions du Réel, Nyon


 * This movie is a gift:
 * 2021 Franz Grabner Award
 * Sleeping with a Tiger
 * 2024 Thomas Pluch Special Award for the Screenplay to Anja Salomonowitz, Diagonale, Graz
 * 2024 Acting Award to Birgit Minichmayr for her portrayal of Maria Lassnig, Diagonale, Graz
 * 2024 Award for outstanding production achievements to Antonin Svoboda, Diagonale, Graz
 * 2024 Award for Best Production Design to Martin Reiter with Andreas Ertl, Diagonale, Graz
 * 2024 "Best Artistic Achievement" for Screenplay and Direction to Anja Salomonowitz, Bolzano Film Festival, Bozen