SCREENSHOT – Review of the Open Air Football Film Festival

Over four festival days, SCREENSHOT presented selected documentaries, feature films and short films as well as exciting discussion guests on all relevant and less relevant aspects of the world of film and soccer. The festival was organized by the Football and Culture Association 1210 Vienna, the fairplay initiative, the Volxkino and the Vienna Libraries. With three feature-length films and seven short films as well as a diverse supporting program, the premiere of the festival already offered a dense program for those interested in soccer and culture. A total of around 250 people attended the festival programs at 1210 Vienna in Floridsdorf.

In particular, the critical examination of the social and political effects and tendencies of soccer played an important role and provided plenty of material for discussion before and after the films. As part of the opening ceremony with the films “The Little Team” and “Next Goal Wins” by Oscar winner Taika Waititi, reference was made to the fairplay action weeks currently taking place. Niki Staritz from the fairplay initiative and Mathias Slezak from the Austrian Football League presented the campaign to around 70 festival guests and reminded them of the urgency of not standing by and watching violence, sexism and hatred. The campaign weeks will run until October 31 under the motto “Violence is not a game” and are aimed at everyone involved in soccer.
Shortly before the film started, multiple German-language poetry slam champion David Friedrich provided amusement when he performed a text written by his colleague Yannik Steinkellner about the Floridsdorf soccer icon Marko Arnautovic.  

The second day of the festival was all about fan culture. While the supporting film “Kopfball” by Eva Hausberger was dedicated to the emotions in the stands of the Viennese clubs “First Vienna FC 1894” and “Wiener Sport-Club”, “Istanbul United” took a closer look at the political protests in Gezi Park and the joint actions of the actually rival fan groups in Istanbul. In March 2024, ballesterer already dedicated a focus to the soccer city of Istanbul. Before the film, Michael Schmied (fairplay prevention) discussed their experiences and impressions during the research trip with ballesterer journalists Moritz Ettlinger, Tobias Fries and Alexander Danzinger, as well as the potential of fan culture in political protest.

The weekend started with a short film program called “Football for All”. Four films were curated by the Vienna Shorts Film Festival that dealt with the versatility of soccer in all its facets. Because the ball may be round, but the game has many rough edges.

The final day of SCREENSHOT brought another Austrian film to the festival. The soccer mockumentary “Diamante - Football God” explores the question of how the unsuccessful professional footballer Rudi Varda rose to become one of the most revered ball wizards in Brazil. Directors Karin Berghammer and Georg Nonnenmacher spoke with SCREENSHOT curator Andreas Kous (Volxkino) about the background and challenges of this extraordinary soccer film.

In addition to the film program, SCREENSHOT also organized a wide-ranging supporting program, some of which invited visitors to join in. In the Molton Arena, for example, visitors were able to play soccer themselves underneath a 200 square meter molton surface. The fabric arena transforms the pitch into an amorphous space. The audience thus becomes witness to an expressive dance of soccer.
The photo exhibition “Women's soccer without boundaries” by artist Lara Krampf showed the hurdles and positive stories from the world of women's soccer. On top of this, visitors were able to put their marksmanship to the test at the goal wall she had designed.

The fact that not all aspects of soccer could be discussed in the four days of the festival is not only proof of the complexity of this sport, but also a mandate for the festival team to work on a new edition and establish SCREENSHOT in the Austrian festival landscape. Always with the aim of conveying enthusiasm for film and soccer and promoting a critical examination of topics relating to the sport.

Photos: Paul Schütz