Eight awards

“The Devil’s Bathroom” tops the film awards

The winner of the evening was the film "Des Teufels Bad" with Anja Plaschg and David Scheid.(Bild: Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion/Heimatfilm)

All the winning productions shed light on the Austrian soul, with "Des Teufels Bad" coming out on top with eight awards, followed by "Rickerl" - the leading actors in both films, Anja Plaschg and Voodoo Jürgens, are the discoveries of the year.

The productions that were honored yesterday, Wednesday, at the Austrian Film Awards in Vienna look deep into the Austrian soul. The winner of the evening was "Des Teufels Bad" (producer: Ulrich Seidl), which was honored in eight categories, including "Best Film", "Best Female Lead" for Anja Plaschg and "Best Supporting Female Role" for Maria Hofstätter. The dark film by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala tells the story of female depression and is set in 18th century Upper Austria. Plaschg's performance put her on the local cinema map as the discovery of the year.

"Rickerl" took home the important prizes for "Best Leading Actor" (Voodoo Jürgens, pictured), "Best Director" and "Best Screenplay" (Adrian Goiginger).(Bild: Filmladen)

Voodoo Jürgens, who is actually known as a musician, achieved the same with his heartfelt role as the unsuccessful Viennese songwriter "Rickerl" - he also received the award for Best Male Actor in a Leading Role. "Rickerl" director Adrian Goiginger ("Der Fuchs") was also delighted to receive the important awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Actor Karl Fischer was honored as best male supporting actor in "Mermaids Don't Cry".

The prize for the most popular film with the public went to Josef Hader with "Andrea Gets Divorced.(Bild: www.dapic.rocks DAVID PICHLER)

A very special film was unfortunately left empty-handed by the jury, but still managed to scoop an important prize: Josef Hader's ingenious portrait of rural life, "Andrea Gets Divorced" starring Birgit Minichmayr, made it onto the list of honors thanks to the overwhelming audience response of around 175,000 cinema-goers in Austria alone (300,000 including Germany and Switzerland) and was awarded the prize for "Most Popular Cinema Film", which has been awarded since 2020.