Virgil Widrich (* 16 May 1967 in Salzburg) is an Austrian director,
screenwriter, filmmaker and multimedia artist.Widrich works on a large
number of films and multimedia projects, sometimes as part of a
creative team. He is known especially for his numerous short films and
multimedia works.Born in Salzburg, Virgil Widrich spent his childhood
in a house that is over 500 years old and stands on the Mönchsberg.
While there he became acquainted with artists such as Peter Handke,
who was his neighbour, and Wim Wenders, a frequent visitor. He gained
his first experience with film at a very young age and was given his
first camera, a Super-8, at the age of 13. That same year (1980) he
made three films, "My Homelife", "Gebratenes Fleisch" and 3 mal Ulf.
He followed that with an animated cartoon titled Auch Farbe kann
träumen. At the age of 15 he made Monster in Salzburg, on which he
worked with actors for the first time. He created the rampaging
monster using stop-motion photography. In 1983 he began work on Vom
Geist der Zeit (Spirit of Time). Even bad grades at school were not
enough to prevent him finishing his first feature-length movie, which
took him 14 months. During this time he also took on a job as an extra
and props manager at the Salzburg Festival to finance his films. In
1984 he began to take an interest in computers and programmed a number
of simple games.After passing his school-leaving exams at the
Akademisches Gymnasium in Salzburg he entered the Vienna Film Academy,
only to leave again after a matter of weeks to work on the script for
a science fiction film which, in the end, he never made. In 1987 he
founded the film distributing company Classic Films with two partners
with the aim of distributing mainly artistic films. Later on he became
assistant to John Bailey, a camera man and director, and in 1990 he
went to Hollywood to work with Bailey on the science fiction comedy
The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe. After selling Classic
Films in 1991 Widrich again turned his attention to the computer and
the possibilities it offered for creating art. His next major project,
which saw him working as production manager, was a new festival for
Austrian film, held for the first time in 1993 under the name
Diagonale. In the second year he also compiled a film database. More
databases relating to film followed, and he was also involved in the
creation of an interactive CD-ROM.
screenwriter, filmmaker and multimedia artist.Widrich works on a large
number of films and multimedia projects, sometimes as part of a
creative team. He is known especially for his numerous short films and
multimedia works.Born in Salzburg, Virgil Widrich spent his childhood
in a house that is over 500 years old and stands on the Mönchsberg.
While there he became acquainted with artists such as Peter Handke,
who was his neighbour, and Wim Wenders, a frequent visitor. He gained
his first experience with film at a very young age and was given his
first camera, a Super-8, at the age of 13. That same year (1980) he
made three films, "My Homelife", "Gebratenes Fleisch" and 3 mal Ulf.
He followed that with an animated cartoon titled Auch Farbe kann
träumen. At the age of 15 he made Monster in Salzburg, on which he
worked with actors for the first time. He created the rampaging
monster using stop-motion photography. In 1983 he began work on Vom
Geist der Zeit (Spirit of Time). Even bad grades at school were not
enough to prevent him finishing his first feature-length movie, which
took him 14 months. During this time he also took on a job as an extra
and props manager at the Salzburg Festival to finance his films. In
1984 he began to take an interest in computers and programmed a number
of simple games.After passing his school-leaving exams at the
Akademisches Gymnasium in Salzburg he entered the Vienna Film Academy,
only to leave again after a matter of weeks to work on the script for
a science fiction film which, in the end, he never made. In 1987 he
founded the film distributing company Classic Films with two partners
with the aim of distributing mainly artistic films. Later on he became
assistant to John Bailey, a camera man and director, and in 1990 he
went to Hollywood to work with Bailey on the science fiction comedy
The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe. After selling Classic
Films in 1991 Widrich again turned his attention to the computer and
the possibilities it offered for creating art. His next major project,
which saw him working as production manager, was a new festival for
Austrian film, held for the first time in 1993 under the name
Diagonale. In the second year he also compiled a film database. More
databases relating to film followed, and he was also involved in the
creation of an interactive CD-ROM.
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