VIENNA SHORTS
Attention in Focus
May 28 to May 31, 2026

Under the motto Eyes Wide Open, VIENNA SHORTS will focus on the attention economy in an age of information overload, artificial intelligence, and right-wing populist polarization from May 28 to 31. More than 300 international short films will be shown in Vienna’s most beautiful cinemas, including competitions, portraits, late-night screenings, and programs for children.

This year, the renowned short film festival will once again take place at mumok cinema from May 28 to 31, 2026.

VIENNA SHORTS at mumok

Thursday, May 28, 2026

11 am
Fiction & Documentary 2: Raw & Radical

Raw & Radical brings together five short films that center  exclusively on female perspectives, probing social constraints, power structures and personal boundaries.

12.30 pm
Österreich Wettbewerb 1: The Undiscovered Country

The Undiscovered Country tells of journeys into the unknown—undiscovered lands, some of which lie hidden within our own cities and neighborhoods, within our communities, and within our own hearts and minds.

2 pm
Animation Avantgarde 1: Strange Headworks

Between hallucinatory body ritual and geometric score, between proto-cinematographic apparatus and digital system failure, Strange Headworks seeks out the friction between construction and everything that stubbornly escapes it.

3.30 pm
Fiction & Documentary 1: Wide & Wavering
Wide & Wavering brings together six films that intertwine memory, history and perception.

Friday, May 29, 2026

5 pm
Fiction & Documentary 3: Tender & Torn
Tender & Torn presents five short films in which people move between political exhaustion, childlike fantasy and atmospheric melancholy.

Saturday, May 30, 2026

11 am
Österreich Wettbewerb 2: Am Tag vor morgen

In The Day Before Tomorrow films oscillate freely and boldly across timescapes – personal, global, cosmic – as they extravagantly transgress cinematic categories, excitingly probing the possibilities of the short film format.

12.30 pm
Fiction & Documentary 4: Dense & Disturbing

Dense & Disturbing presents four documentary short films that intertwine personal perspectives with political realities while experimentally exploring different cinematic forms: from the body to the gaze, from staged scenes in front of the camera to family confrontations.

2 pm
Animation Avantgarde 2: Unidentified Desires

Unidentified Desires is an invitation into spaces where dreamlike inner worlds, desire and visual eruptions condense into an uncompromising examination of our present. 

3.30 pm
Österreich Wettbewerb 3: All That Is Solid

In All That Is Solid five interlocking roadmaps come together that might perhaps provide remedies to soul-shredding disorientation. 

Sunday, May 31, 2026

11 am
Fiction & Documentary 6: Bond & Becoming

Bond & Becoming brings together films about closeness, loss and the state of being in between.

12.30 Uhr
Austrian Music Video Award: Ratatatatatata

Ratatatatatata makes the diversity of Austrian music video art tangible.

2 pm
Fiction & Documentary 5: Recall & Resonate

Recall & Resonate brings together four films that intertwine memory, the body and self-empowerment.

3.30 pm
Animation Avantgarde 3: No Ground Beneath

In No Ground Beneath these seven films search for the moment when control tips – and something unforeseen, liberating or simply disturbing breaks through. 

5 pm
Österreich Wettbewerb 4: Body Talk

Body Talk tells of how we sense ourselves, others, and the world beyond.