| 1967 | Born in Salzburg on May 16, and grows up in a 500-year-old house on the Mönchsberg. Neighbor of Peter Handke; Wim Wenders is a frequent visitor. |
| 1973 | First time in a cinema. After a showing of "Bambi," his parents explain that visiting the actors behind the stage is not possible. First impression of the way film works. |
| 1979 | Daily observation of Ronald Neame filming the spy comedy "Hopscotch" with Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson near his parents' house. |
| 1980 | Finally given his first Super 8 camera and shoots his first three films that same year: "My Homelife," a documentary about an old house; "Gebratenes Fleisch," a story of crime and cannibalism inspired by Roald Dahl; and a portrait of the Carinthian "mirror artist" Arnulf Komposch entitled "3 x Ulf." |
| 1981 | Sees a TV documentary about Walt Disney and starts work on his own animation film. The film, entitled "Auch Farbe kann träumen" (Color can dream) and finished in six months, comprises over 1000 cut-up overhead transparencies. |
| 1982 | Production of his first film with real actors at age 15. Libgart Schwarz, star of the Berliner Schaubühne, plays a role in a Godzilla-inspired science-fiction film entitled "Monster in Salzburg." Models are built of a number of Salzburg's streets for this work. The monster is a 30-cm wooden doll with yarn hair, which is brought to life by means of stop-motion. His study of film theory begins this year with the purchase of numerous relevant books and the analysis of screenplays. |
| 1983 | After lengthy preparations, work begins on his first full-length feature film, "Vom Geist der Zeit." ("The Spirit of Time") While his grades drop, a 14-months' shooting produces a 112-minute genre cross-over mixing action, horror and science fiction in the past, present and future. Peter Handke plays a guest role as an excited passer-by, and lay actors from his school play the other parts. The living room in his parents' house is closed for a period of almost two years due to filming. |
| 1984 | Work as an extra and then property man for the Salzburg Festival for productions by Jean-Pierre Ponelle, Michael Hampe, Gernot Friedel, Johannes Schaaf and Herbert von Karajan to raise the Schilling 70,000.-(Euro 5.000) budget for "Vom Geist der Zeit." This year marks the beginning of his growing love of computers: He programs a number of video games on a Sinclair computer with colorful keys. |
| 1985 | Premiere of "Vom Geist der Zeit" in the Mozart-Kino in Salzburg; presentation at the Austrian Film Days in Wels in the fall. "Vom Geist der Zeit" consists of over 1.000 shots, some of which were exposed over 20 times. Horst Christoph wrote the following comment in Profil: "Two hours of cinematic fireworks!" Barely passes his A-levels at the Akademisches Gymnasium in Salzburg and is accepted at the Vienna Film Academy. At age 18, his first public speech (on "Vom Geist der Zeit" at the invitation of the Academy of Design in Linz). |
| 1986 | Leaves the Vienna Film Academy in disappointment after a few weeks; devotes himself to screenwriting. A science-fiction film which takes place in a microcosm is planned, but never realized. Invitation to Cinecitta from Johannes Schaaf to the shooting of Michael Ende's "Momo". "The Name of the Rose" with Sean Connery is being shot in the neighboring studios at the same time - the process is being observed quite closely. |
| 1987 | Classic Films, a film distribution company specializing in art films, is founded together with two partners. The 60 films comprising its rental program include the Oscar winner "Babette's Feast," "The World According to Garp", "Eraserhead" by David Lynch, John Huston's last film, "The Dead" - and a film directed by a then-unknown Spanish director, Pedro Almodóvar, entitled "Law of Desire". Distribution of "Drowning by Numbers" marks the beginning of long-term contact with Peter Greenaway. |
| 1988 | Classic Films' re-release of films by Andy Warhol and Max Fleischer as part of retrospectives. Distribution of all works of Wim Wenders in Austria begins. |
| 1989 | Participation in planning a retrospective of Laurel & Hardy films, which were presented in the uncut original version for the first time. This successful project toured Austria and was later shown in theaters in Germany. Met the cameraman and director John Bailey (camera for "American Gigolo," "Mishima," "Silverado," "As Good As It Gets," etc.). |
| 1990 | Invitation to Hollywood. John Bailey's assistant for the comedy "The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe" with Lily Tomlin ("Nashville," "The Player," "Short Cuts"). Beginning of years of cooperation in marketing the then-new series of concerts put on by Vienna's Konzerthaus ,"Wien modern," for Karsten Witt. |
| 1991 | The problems experienced by art cinemas in Vienna begin to affect Classic Films. The distributor is sold to one of the partners and reduces the extent of its activities. Return to work with computers: An animation film database is developed for the Academy of applied Arts in Vienna to administer the presentation of films at festivals around the world. The fact that computers and film are progressively growing into a single medium does not go unnoticed after 1991: start of work with CD-ROMs. |
| 1992 | Six-months of work on Peter Greenaway's internationally acclaimed exhibit "100 Objects to Represent the World" in Vienna's Hofburg, the Semper Depot and the Academy of Fine Arts. First artistic cooperation on a short film by Peter Greenaway, "The falls remake," which was never completed. |
| 1993 | Work on the CALSI project for the Vienna Festival exhibit entitled "Der zerbrochene Spiegel." In this project, the largest computer-generated image in the world, which was entered into the Guinness Book of Records, is affixed to the outer wall of the Kunsthalle. In March, work begins on a total overhaul of the Diagonale, the new "Festival of Austrian Film." The foundation of the new festival is put into place together with Martin Schweighofer and Peter Tscherkassky: programming, organization, infrastructure, sponsor acquisition, ticket-sales system, visitor organization and service, catalog production, events and marketing for them, and advertising. Translation of the German subtitles for Peter Greenaway's film "The Baby of Macon." |
| 1994 | The second Diagonale is organized in Salzburg with Virgil Widrich as production manager. A film database is created which can be used for automatic layouting of the entire catalog of the Austrian Film Commission and the Diagonale in a few minutes (by means of desktop publishing). |
| 1995 | A second film database is commissioned by the Austrian Film Commission, this time for the "Europeans" at the Cannes film festival. Last Diagonale is held in Salzburg with the new director, Heinrich Mis (then ORF's Kunststücke). Parts of the new program is presented on the Internet for the first time under curator Konrad Becker. A database is created for "hundertjahrekino" (curated by Hans Hurch); comparisons and evaluations of the data from all movie theaters in Austria are now possible. Work with screenplay software begins this year, leading to numerous lectures and articles on this subject. |
| 1996 | First creative work on a CD-ROM: He writes the screenplay and dialogs for "Robbi - Abenteuer auf CD-ROM." The story of a baby seal which flees hunters to a desert island becomes a CD-ROM bestseller for children with sales of 20,000. Virgil Widrich develops for this project an interactive dialog engine, which gives archetypal characters concrete thoughts and injects new dramatic situations. This invention is met with interest around the world and is presented in lectures in Austria and abroad (e.g. at the Medienlabor München and the University of Vienna's Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence). An opera film project with Peter Greenaway in which, for the first time, an opera will be filmed by the singers with helmet-mounted cameras, is abandoned due to problems with the composer. A film database is developed for the short-film distributor Sixpack Film; this database is used to administer the rental of Austrian short films throughout Austria and abroad. |
| 1997 | The CD-ROM is established as a medium. At the same time, two of the largest CD-ROM projects to have been realized in Austria go into development: He develops the didactic concepts and the interactive characters and writes the screenplay and dialogs for a four-part mathematics series, and creates the "Salzburg Festival CD-ROM," which includes a database containing the credits from all performances given over the past 75 years. After this excursion into the world of this interactive medium, renewal of work with linear story-telling: The screenplay "Heller als der Mond" ("Brighter than the Moon") is completed. The story of aliens - both domestic and foreign - is awarded Salzburg's screenplay prize 1997. |
| 1998 | A marriage of film and electronics gives birth to the short film entitled "tx-transform," which was created together with Martin Reinhart; this short presents an innovative new technique which transposes the time and space axes in film. This invention is presented with 40 other submissions from a group of 1.500 at the Ars Electronica in Linz and is acclaimed by the international audience. A number of tx-transform projects in the areas of film, multimedia and art exhibition are planned in Austria, England, Italy, Switzerland and the USA. In one of few breaks from regular work, a screenplay is written for a new short film: "Copy Shop." After the shift in time and space, this film describes a shift in the identity of the observer in film and the story of a man who copies himself until he fills up the entire world. |
| 1999 | The production company is being made into a limited company (GmbH). In the course of the refurbishment of the Vienna Museum of Technology one hundred different media stations (including four cinemas) are created by a team of 35 specialists under the supervision of Virgil Widrich Film- und Multimediaproduktions G.m.b.H. These stations give visitors the chance to discover more about the individual themes by means of image and film projection, audio stations, acoustic installations and interactive text, image, music, video, animation and 3D technology applications. In the summer the shooting of the first feature film "Heller als der Mond" ("Brighter than the Moon") starts on a shoestring budget and with a very young team. The movie is produced and directed by Virgil Widrich and stars Piroska Szekely, Christopher Buchholz, Horst Buchholz and Lars Rudolph, among others. The film is finished at the end of the year. |
| 2000 | "Heller als der Mond" premieres in Rotterdam, scoops two prizes at the Angers Film Festival and is invited to 30 further film festivals. Work in the field of multimedia expands: three media stations are created for the "Museum Ladin" in South Tyrol, the websites for the Vienna Boys' Choir and the Austrian Film Commission are produced. Virgil Widrich co-founds filmpipeline GmbH., an Internet film company and subsidiary of webfreetv.com AG, taking on the post of managing director of the new firm. In April, the film "Copy Shop" is shot. Johannes Silberschneider plays a total of 280 roles. After 4 months' editing and a further 4 months' digital postproduction the film is completed at the end of the year. In November Virgil Widrich takes part in the Dutch Electronic Art Forum in Rotterdam, installing and demonstrating the "tx-transformator" together with Martin Reinhart. |
| 2001 | "Copy Shop" premieres in Rotterdam and wins 34 awards at various film festivals in the following months. It is then bought by TV companies in 12 countries and is invited to over 100 international film festivals. Following its foundation filmpipeline GmbH. is sold to the parent company webfreetv.com AG. The tx-transformator is exhibited at the Diagonale Film Festival in Graz. A new short film, "Fast Film", is written and work begins on the script for a new feature film. In March, checkpointmedia AG, a joint-stock company, is formed with Stefan Reiter, Stefan Unger and Dieter Göschler, which will be responsible for the multimedia branch in future. The film production company is maintained as an independent firm. The new company's first projects are the planning of the website for the Museumsquartier in Vienna, media stations for the Lower Austrian Regional Exhibition 2001, a DVD for the Museum of Natural History in Vienna and the creation of a database for Centropa on the life of Jews in the 14 countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In August a second film company is founded: Amour Fou Filmproduktionen GmbH, together with Gabriele Kranzelbinder, Alexander Ivanceanu and the Wiener Volksbildungsverein/Polyfilm. In December Amour Fou Filmproduktion GmbH. and Virgil Widrich Film- und Multimediaproduktionen G.m.b.H. move into a new office at Lindengasse 32, 1070 Wien. |
| 2002 | Amour Fou Filmproduktion GmbH. produces the films by
Bady Minck ("Im Anfang war der Blick") and Martin Arnold ("Deanimated
- The invisible Ghost"). checkpointmedia AG moves into the new office
at the "Haus der Musik", Seilerstätte 30, 1010 Vienna. The new software
"Genesto", which was produced in cooperation with Mensalia Unternehmensberatung,
is presented. "Genesto" is a content management system to produce
interactive annual reports for the internet. First clients are DaimlerChrysler,
Sanochemia and the Vienna International Airport. Other multimedia
projects are: installations for the Giant Ferris Wheel, Kunsthalle
Leoben and the Museum SMCA Salzburg. The "Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Science" nominates "Copy Shop" for the Oscar. |
| 2003 | checkpointmedia continues to grow in 2003: Dommuseum Salzburg, Telekom Austria, RWE, Henkel and Austrian Airlines are only some of the new clients. On behalf of Red Bull expansive Multimedia-Installations are being created for the Hangar-7 in Salzburg. Only one and a half year after it's foundation, Amour Fou presents four films at the Cannes Filmfestival: "Im Anfang war der Blick" (Bady Minck), "Struggle" (Ruth Mader), "Pas de repos pour les braves" (Alain Guiraudie) and "Fast Film" by Virgil Widrich which is presented in the official selection competing for the Golden Palm. "Fast Film" wins "Best Animated Short" in Toronto and other awards at the Festivals inCURT/Spain and Vila do Conde/ Portugal. In July presentation of the short films at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Until the end of 2003 "Fast Film" wins 19 international short film awards. In December reopening of the "Swarovski Chrystal World" with several multimedia installations by checkpointmedia AG. |
| 2004 | Now checkpointmedia staff members Ralph Ortner and Mattias Schnellnberger are equipping the four new halls of the Wiener Musikverein with state-of-the-art media technology. checkpointmedia is assigned to provide the acoustic equipment for the new a1 lounge of Mobilkom Austria. From March 3 to 7, Graz sees the "Diagonale der
Filmschaffenden", a festival organized by Austrian filmmakers; the rival,
Government sponsored festival does not take place. Amour Fou is co-producing "Ma Mère" (directed by Christophe Honoré) with Isabelle Huppert, in Cannes, Thomas Woschitz's "Girls and Cars" is presented. The success of "Fast Film" continues: 34 international awards and 257 festival invitations. In May, Virgil Widrich is elected chairman of the "Verband der österreichischen Filmregisseure", the association of the Austrian movie directors. He is member of the jury at the 2004 Ars Electronica Festival and the Filmfestival in Annecy. On June 16th "Fast Film" and a portrait of Virgil Widrich are shown on ARTE in "court-circuit le magazine". The Pantin Festival in Paris presents a retrospective of films by Virgil Widrich. The "Semaine du cinéma autrichien" in Paris shows "Copy Shop". checkpointmedia wins the "German Multimedia Award" for the Red Bull Mayday Bar. |
| 2005 | "Copy Shop" is presented at the film festival in Cannes in the series "Tous les cinémas du monde". checkpointmedia is assigned the multimedial realisation of the Mozart House Vienna that will open at the begin of the Vienna Mozart Year on Jan. 27, 2006. In the Vienna Museum of Natural History, the light controls for the 4 to 6 meter and 3 meter high shark cabinet is being realised. Amour Fou finishes "Crash Test Dummies" (Director: Jörg Kalt). The shooting for György Pálfi's "Taxidermia" starts in April, autumn will see the shooting for Anja Salomonowitz' "Kurz davor ist es passiert". The shooting for "Every seventh Person" in China continues and will be finished by the end of 2005. In October the new visitor's centre of the Austrian Parliament is opened. checkpointmedia has designed and realized all the multimedia stations there, including a 20 sqm rear-projection wall and 15 other innovative interactive media stations. |
| 2006 | On January 27, 2006 the "Mozarthaus Vienna" opened its doors. The audiovisual installations in the Mozarthaus were inspired by the media technology and "Worlds of Wonders" of Mozart's time. The highlight is the multimedia tribute to "The Magic Flute": a stage landscape consisting of sets, projections and lighting effects shows an abridged version of "The Magic Flute" as a "virtual mirrored opera" from 1791 to the present day.In May the "Museum Arbeitswelt - Steyr: working_world.net" opened. checkpointmedia was responsible fort the technical realization of the media stations. In September checkpointmedia was awarded the State Prize for Mozarthaus Vienna (in the category "Culture and Entertainment") and the Category Prize "Public Information and Services" for the Austrian parliament's Visitors' Centre. The Vienna Film festival premieres "Every seventh Person" by Ina Ivanceanu and Elke Groen. The film was produced by Virgil Widrich Film- und Multimediaproduktions G.m.b.H. und Minotaurus Film sàrl (Luxembourg). |
| 2007 | Son Zino Salomonowitz born on 14 Jan 2007. After 6 years on the board of the Austrian films directors' association "Verband Filmregie Österreich" (three of them as chairman) Virgil Widrich declines to stand for election again and leaves the board. There are also changes in the film production company Amour Fou: the managing directors Gabriele Kranzelbinder and Alexander Ivanceanu part company while Thomas Woschitz and Virgil Widrich resign as partners. Alexander Ivanceanu continues the company together with Bady Minck while Gabriele Kranzelbinder founds a new production firm, "KGP - Kranzelbinder Gabriele Production GmbH". In the middle of the year checkpointmedia is working on over 50 projects, including websites, media installations, concepts for exhibitions, Smart Homes, cabinets of curiosities and many more. |
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