Jessica Hausner, director and screenwriter, was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1972. Raised by a
family of artists – her father, Rudolf Hausner, and her sister, Xenia Hausner,
are painters –, she chose cinema as her career when she began to study at the
Filmakademie in Vienna. In 1999, with directors Antonin Svoboda and Barbara
Albert and director of photography Martin Gschlacht, she founded the production
company coop99, responsible for producing several films by the founders and
other emerging Austrian filmmakers. Before that, Hausner had already directed
her first short film, Flora (1995),
followed by a feature, Inter-view
(1999). However, her following film, Lovely
Rita (2001) would be the one to bring her international recognition, being
displayed at the Cannes festival that year, in the “Un Certain Regard” section.
Her next movie, Hotel (2004), also at
the French festival, confirmed the attention her work was beginning to spark.
In 2006, Hausner was invited to make the introduction trailer for that year’s
edition of the Diagonale film festival, in Graz, Austria. In the same year, she
completed her short film Toast. It
took five years for Hausner to present a new feature work, but the waiting
period did not wane the acknowledgement. Lourdes
(2009) was selected for the
Venice Festival competition and won the FIPRESCI award, among other awards in
other film festivals. Another five-year hiatus followed, at the end of which
came Amour Fou (2014), again selected
for “Un Certain Regard” in Cannes. It was the opening movie at the Viennale and
won the Best Film Award at the 2014 edition of the Lisbon & Estoril Film
Festival.
Jessica Hausner
Producer
