ASIFA Austria was founded in 1985 by students of the “Studio for Experimental Animation” at the University of Fine Arts in Vienna. The Masterclass for Painting, under the leadership of Maria Lassnig, had opened this unique studio for animation just two years ago, and Hubert Sielecki, leader of that studio since its foundation until today, played an important role in the foundation of ASIFA Austria. He also served as the first ASIFA Austria president from 1985 – 1992. In the first years the ASIFA Austria Studio was used exclusively by the Academy Students, as a meeting place and production center for animated films. One of the central activities of the first years were the animation school workshops, organised by people like James Clay, Gerlinde Thuma or Roland Schütz. The animated films were produced on 16mm, and the sponsorship of the Austrian Ministery for Education was mainly targeted to cover the production expenses for these workshop, as the filmmaterial would have been too expensive to be covered by the participating school classes.
The “ASIFA Austria animation studio” was a meeting-place for “new & wild” 1980ies Austrian Scene of Experimental Animation, a first generation of filmmakers included such important artists like Mara Mattuschka, Sabine Groschup, Stefan Stratil, Peter Putz, Thomas Steiner, Renate Kordon, James Clay, Roland Schütz, Gerlinde Thuma, Susi Praglowski and others. One tendence of the partly chaotic but usually funny time was to carry out collective film projects, such as “Das 1×1 des täglichen Lebens” (The 1×1 of daily life”). The work of the early Austrian School of Experimental Animation was also honored with a prize given by the Austrian TV Station ORF. The technical equipment of the ASIFA Austria Studio of the first time was limited to a 16mm Bolex camera, a silent Steenbeck 16mm editing table and a stereo sound recording machine.
In 1992 Thomas Renoldner, – representative of a ’second generation’ of experimental animators - followed Hubert Sielecki as a president of ASIFA Austria and served in this function until 2003. In that period many important initiatives were realised, many of them were financed by the Austrian Ministery of Culture and later also by the City of Vienna.
(1) Technical expansion of the Animation Studio, including: audio recording room and equipment, 16mm and 35mm CRASS animation table including aerial image projection, several changing equipments for animation workshops (video animation recorder, Lunchbox, etc.). In that time ASIFA Austria also enlarged the space for its activities, and replaced the insufficiant oil heating with a modern central gas heating.
(2) Expansion of Animation Workshop: The tradition of animation workshops with children and adults was expanded. A part of the workshops were for children and youngster, but ASIFA Austria also started a collaboration with the “Polycollege” where during almost 10 years artists from different disciplines attended the animation workshop carried out by Thomas Renoldner. Quite some of these workshop participants, such as Billy Roisz, Leopold Maurer, Katrin Resetarits, Linda Wolfsgruber, and others are today well-known artists.
(3) Production of animated films by ASIFA Members: Many important animation films of the “first generation” of New Austrian Animation had been realised at the Academy Studio. The ASIFA Austria Studio served then as an important production house for post-graduates, several important films on 16mm and 35mm were produced, such as “Ghosts” by Sabine Groschup, “Pique Nique” by Martin Anibas, “Mao Tse Tung – Vol.2″ by Heimo Wallner, “The Man in the Electric Blanket” by Nicolas Mahler, practically the ASIFA Austria Studio was one of the very few animation studios in Vienna to produce ‘art animation’ in 35mm format under non-commercial conditions – Thomas Renoldner served as production manager or camera-man in most of these productions.
(4) Research and Publications
