The Vienna Film Commission celebrates its 15th anniversary. Managing Director Marijana Stoisits looks back, talks about the filming boom and reveals her favorite places in Vienna.
The Vienna Film Commission celebrated its 15th anniversary in spring. What makes you particularly proud when you look back?
Marijana Soisits: I am proud to have shaped the Vienna Film Commission into an institution that everyone knows exists, that you can turn to, that it will support you and that you know you can tap into a lot of know-how here to ensure smooth filming. When the City of Vienna decided to found the Vienna Film Commission 15 years ago, the politicians only had a rough idea of what such a contact point was supposed to do. I was given a small desk at one of our financing partners with my private laptop and my private cell phone. So it was ideal for me to be able to shape the institution according to my own ideas. That has proved very successful. What we do is highly appreciated by the domestic and international industry. Before I took on the task of setting up the Vienna Film Commission, I worked in the private sector for many years at „Spiegel TV“ in Hamburg and Vienna. I had virtually no contact with the Austrian industry, nor with the Vienna city government. So these were all new fields for me and I often wondered whether politics would interfere with my work. The great thing is that they never did! The city has always given me free reign and trusted me. And as far as the industry is concerned, there is definitely no Austrian production company that we haven’t supported several times in their work.
What are your personal milestones?
Marijana Soisits: For me, milestones are often the very small, inconspicuous things, filming permits that you have fought for, that seemed completely hopeless and were finally able to be realized. One example from the recent past was the filming of Adrian Goiginger’s „Rickerl“ on the Wienerberg. That was quite complicated due to the strict requirements of the environmental protection agency. Or filming at an underground ÖBB shunting yard. It’s simply a joy when you manage to pull it off despite all the adversities. Surprisingly, Austrian producers in particular often don’t even realize what we do behind the scenes to make a shoot possible. Our direct contacts are the respective production managers or location managers. The situation is different for international productions: Surprisingly, the producers are always aware of everything and are accordingly full of appreciation for our work.
Your job certainly requires a lot of diplomatic tact, doesn’t it?
Marijana Soisits: Absolutely! I’m actually in the diplomatic service …
What do you love most about your job?
Marijana Soisits: The challenges! Otherwise I would be completely wrong here. I am a very communicative person, I like exchanging ideas with people, communicating with people, connecting people. I have always been and still am a very political person, not in the party-political sense, but my job is indeed very political in the broadest sense. In addition, you should definitely be resilient, resistant, crisis-proof and, above all, fearless.
Looking back on 15 years of the Vienna Film Commission, you were able to announce that the volume of filming in Vienna has finally consolidated after the pandemic years. The Vienna Film Commission’s figures for applications rose by almost five percent compared to 2023 vs. 2022. Do you actually reach the limits of your capacity at some point?
Marijana Soisits: I think an increase is still possible until the numbers level off. The introduction of FISA+ and ÖFI+ at the beginning of 2023 has simply triggered another strong run on Vienna as a location. However, we have already reached the ceiling when it comes to finding enough crew members. Recruitment for all departments is the order of the day. Full employment in the industry is great on the one hand, but also critical when you are working at the limit of your capacity. If the German sector follows suit with its own incentive, this will of course also have an impact on the situation in Austria.
With the introduction of the new incentive model, have you also noticed changes in the requested locations?
Marijana Soisits: Since ÖFI+, FISA+ and the Vienna Film Incentive, there has actually been much more demand for locations in the city, including those that previously received little attention. In the first ten years of our existence, film productions came to Vienna because of the classic things that are associated with the city of Vienna: Buildings from the Baroque or Wilhelminian era, the historic, imperial ambience, in short, Sissi Vienna. The Netflix production „Extraction 2“, for example, had the Danube plateau as a filming location for the first time. That was quite extraordinary because it shows something about Vienna that people abroad don’t tend to know about Vienna.
Keyword Vienna Film Incentive. It was introduced in 2022 for two years and with two million euros to create an incentive for international film projects. Is the extension already in the bag?
Marijana Soisits: We are already in the extension phase and I am sure that this offer will continue. In contrast to FISA+, the Vienna Film Incentive is capped at a maximum of 400,000 euros per production and is aimed exclusively at international productions with Viennese service production.
That’s still a lot of money.
Marijana Soisits: Absolutely. Especially when you can combine the federal film incentive FISA+ and our regional offer.
During the year, you spend a lot of time taking American or international producers on location tours through Vienna. How important are these personal contacts?
Marijana Soisits: Very important! The personal contacts you can build on location tours are worth their weight in gold and, above all, are great fun. You get to know a lot of very different characters. For example, the producer Jake Myers, who came to Vienna in 2014 with „Mission: Impossible“. The contact has remained, and his good experience with Vienna as a film location recently led him back to us with a new film by Guy Ritchie. It was filmed for five days in the National Library, at the Hochstrahlbrunnen on Schwarzenbergplatz and in the Hofburg, and the whole thing was filmed with incredible effort.
I’m sure your location tours with the international producers also include schnitzel, Sachertorte and apple strudel. But now I would like to know something about your private Vienna. Let’s start with the districts: Which is your favorite district?
Marijana Soisits: The 3rd!
Why?
Marijana Soisits: Because I live there, right next to Stadtpark and because my office is also there, albeit in a completely different corner in the former slaughterhouse district. The 3rd is a wonderful district with a great deal of diversity. From the top of the Upper Belvedere, you have a fantastic view over Vienna’s city center all the way to the Wienerwald on the horizon. Next to it is the embassy district, and the city park is not far away either. In the third district there is a very middle-class part, but also huge municipal buildings and even completely new districts with modern buildings. The district is also not completely flat, but full of hills, which I really like.
Do you have a favorite place in Vienna?
Marijana Soisits: I like the Hochstrahlbrunnen fountain on Schwarzenbergplatz. It was built at the time when the first water pipeline was laid for the city of Vienna. Vienna’s drinking water comes directly from the Alps. I like it when you cycle past the fountain in summer and always get a cool breeze. When my children were small and we passed the fountain on the way to kindergarten, we had to stop there regularly.
I’m sure you also have a favorite café. Which one is yours?
Marijana Soisits: I like to meet at Café Engländer in Postgasse, especially for a business lunch. It’s always quick and centrally located.
What is your favorite destination around Vienna?
Marijana Soisits: I think the whole Wienerwald is wonderful. I love walking up through the vineyards to the Cobenzl, they have a fine restaurant and you sit with a fantastic view over the city. For the lazy, there is also a bus that goes straight up. These inviting views over the city can now be found in several places in the Wienerwald. And then, of course, there are the many wine taverns where you can sit in the middle of the vineyards. 50 percent of Vienna’s urban area is green space. Selling Vienna is simply a beautiful thing, because there is hardly a more beautiful and liveable city.
Barbara Schuster