Beatrice Riesenfelder

Head of Sales & Acquisitions, Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF)

What are some of your top properties for MIPTV? 
Fast Forward –  now 28 episodes available in HD, The Voynich Manuscript,  Trick Factory, Operas 2010 Line Up, The Infernal Comedy

Why will these programs appeal to buyers?
European feature films, TV movies and series are on the rise again and compete successfully with US ware in termof ratings, so we count on Fast Forward, the successful ORF crime series with Oscar-nominated leading actors, Ursula Strauss and Andreas Lust.
Trick Factory, the successor to ORF’s science kids show Explorer Express, will meet expectations of those broadcasters and VOD providers who wish to provide their young audience high quality educational content with an entertaining factor.
UNIVERSUM films have again won several awards at festivals all over the world. This year’s output of more than 20 new titles and 30 projects in development provide a secure investment to all coproducing partners and buyers.
A new Opera  line up featuring the titles Lulu, Through Roses, La Calisto, Les Paladins, La Muette De Portici, Tristan and Isolde, Faust, Notre Dame, The Ring of the Nibelung, Louise, Radamisto, Love and Other Daemons, Don Giovanni, La Donna del Lago and From the House of the Dead, produced in 2010 and available in HD, will dazzle our music buyers and their audience.
The Infernal Comedy, confessions of a serial killer featuring John Malkovich is a very special gem: a play in one act, directed by Michael Sturminger which premiered in July 09 in Vienna an will hit several European theaters in 2010 with music by Antonio Vivaldi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn and Carl Maria von Weber.

What are your expectations for MIPTV?
We expect a better outcome as at last year’s MIPTV which was clouded by the financial crisis. We feel that the buyers still have restricted budgets and therefore select the programs more carefully. This is however a good development for ORF content, as instead of flooding the 2010 markets with masses of new releases, the sales department carefully looks for top notch documentaries and selected TV movies to present to our existing client base. Nontheless, the new ORF catalogue has more than 120 new titles of all genres: classical music, children’s factual content, documentaries, TV movies and brand new episodes of the most successfull series. The variety is important, because the digitalisation in many countries has brought up numerous new digital channels that we aim to provide as comprehensively as we can. We are looking forward to a fruitful market.