Klaus Höring was honored as “Actor of 2023”.
In the 31st audience poll conducted by ORF, Ö1 listeners chose the winner from 22 new radio drama productions in 2023. The “Audience Award” went to “The Funeral” by Mark Cornell. “Blasse Hours/Blijedi sati” written by Manuela Tomic won the “Best Original Radio Play” Award by Literary and Culture Critics. The audience's results and the jury's results were announced on Friday 23 February at the “Ö1 Radio Play Gala” at the ORF RadioKulturhaus. Klaus Horing was honored as “Actor of the Year”. The “Best Sound Design” award went to a new interpretation of the radio play “A Shared Childhood” by Ernst Jandl and Friedrich Maröcker.
“Track 5'”, the winning projects of the Ö1 short radio drama competition organized in cooperation with the “schule für speise” (School for Poetry) were also honored.
Award-winning radio dramas will be rebroadcast on “Ö1 Hörspiel” (Saturday, 2pm): “Best Original Radio Drama” “Blasse Hours/Blijedi sati” by Manuela Tomic on February 24th, “Audience Prize”- March 2nd Mark “Das Bekrabnis” by Carnall was a hit. Hits from “Track 5'” can be heard on March 9th, and “Gemensem Childhood” on March 23rd.
“Ö1 Audience Award” for Mark Cornell's “The Funeral”
Mark Cornell won the “Ö1 Audience Prize” in 2022 with his radio drama “The Wedding”. This year, Ö1 listeners voted the sequel “The Funeral” as their most popular radio drama. Like its predecessor, “Funeral” is written throughout in double syllables — and thrives on a raw, satirical depiction of the human abyss. The setting was the funeral service of the late Chancellor Walter List. Family and friends gathered at a picturesque provincial cemetery to pay their last respects to the recently deceased. But controversy is inevitable: the billionaire reportedly recently changed his will and lost both of his children. As if that weren't enough, an alcoholic priest and stoned grandchildren finally turn the funeral into a fiasco. Christophe Crissman once again serves as the narrator. Other roles include Michaela Bilgeri, Reinhold G. Moritz, Sarah Viktoria Frick and Martin Vischer.
Ö1 listeners were “runner-up to Harmony. A case for Dattinger and Kastner”, the grotesque indictment of FM4 presenter duo Hannes Shower and Roland Gratzer. The protagonists Dattinger and Kastner are an unlikely duo and rather an arbitrary team – working together as a “tandem” brought together by a police psychologist is the last chance to avoid dismissal. For their first case, the two investigators go undercover as nurses at the “Harmony” retirement home. A ridiculous comedy tour with a main cast: in the ensemble, Maya Unger is a police psychologist, Johannes Silberschneider is an elder, Inge Max is a resident of a nursing home and singer Voodoo Jürgens is a civil servant.
Third place is “Greatest Hits” by Florian Grunmandel. The radio play is a live production, recorded in front of an audience in 2023 at ORF Studio Troll under the direction of Martin Seiler. The two protagonists, pop singer Gustavo and his backing singer Lalala, have already left their most successful years behind. In the radio drama, the two look back on their lives as a romantic and musical couple. Lalala, in particular, takes pride in her role alongside Gustavo. It's a story about madness, lies, fan culture and – of course – love. Harald Windisch and Jasmine Meyerhofer can be heard as Gustavo and Lalala.
Manuela Tomic's “Balle Hours/Bligedi Sati” was named “Best Original Radio Play”.
Since 2007, the “Best Original Radio Play” prize has also been awarded as part of the “Ö1 Radio Play Gala”. This year, a jury consisting of literary and cultural critics from “Salzburger Nachrichten”, “Presse”, “Kleine Zeitung”, “Falter” and “Standard” awarded “Blasse Hours/Blijedi sati” by Manuela Tomic. Directed by Andreas Jungwirth. In “Bale Hours,” protagonist Mira, voiced by actress Marie-Louise Stockinger, must return to her “foreign” homeland of Bosnia for her grandfather Ivo's funeral.
This is an autobiography written by author Manuela Tomic. He was born in Sarajevo in 1988 and had to flee the Bosnian war with his family as a child. The basis for the radio drama was an article he wrote in the weekly newspaper “Die Furch”, in which he wrote about his family history with black humor. Together with director Andreas Jungwirth, he created a bilingual radio drama version in German and Serbo-Croatian. An hour's drive to her grandfather's funeral becomes a reflection of a life that has known only two chapters: before the war and after the war. As she tries to understand what has happened to her and her family, Meera faces a collective sense of dread.
“Track 5'” – winning pieces in the Ö1 competition for short radio dramas
“I'm listening for the first time” is the motto of this year's Ö1 short radio drama competition “Track 5'”, which Ö1 organized again with “schule für speise”. From the 201 submissions that met the criteria, a jury recommended ten short radio plays: the required criteria, in addition to a maximum of five minutes, original sound and the phrase “I'm hearing this for the first time”. First place and thus the 1,000 euro prize money went to Stephen Poyntner with “Heist”. Second place with 500 euros went to “The Electric Men's Rider” by Anna Maria Balke. Third place, with 500 euros, goes to the radio drama “Listen. Fugue in A Minor(ity)” Artur and Robert Irmler. In addition, the “School for Poetry” awarded for the tenth time a special prize worth 1,000 euros, which Paul Schlager received for his short radio piece “The Kestrel”.
Award for Best Sound Design for “Childhood Together”.
This year the Radio Drama “Best Sound Design” award was presented for the second time. “Childhood Together” by Ernst Jandl and Friederike Mayröcker impressed the expert jury and took first place. More than 50 years after the original production recorded on Westdeutscher Rundfunk in 1970, Dorothy Hardinger, Philip Haus and Tobias Leibetseder have reinterpreted the strongly autobiographical work. The dialogue between the two protagonists represents a game of memory and discovery full of associations. The autobiographical references of Zandil and Merokar emerge vividly, and their own memories are enriched with those of the other.
The jury justified its decision as follows: “Here, an entire group enjoyed the rhythmic directions of the text and added a lot to them – the acting, sound design and movement instinctively balance language and music perfectly like children in a seesaw. The sound design against nature is lyrical, spherical and has some technical sophistication. It does not hide anything, it does not push itself forward. But it allows us to fly. The excellent rhythmic design of the cast contributes significantly to a highly successful sound experience. Congratulations to Tobias Leibetseder for music and sound design, Elmar Peinelt and Manuel Radinger for sound design and Dorothee Hartinger and Philipp Hauß for all roles, ASB Maienzeit for music and Alexandra Wimmer for assistant director!”
Britta Ketner's radio drama “Paula” was awarded an honorable mention for sound design. “Here, the entire team has succeeded in designing the various rooms, whose acoustic doors are interconnected and open and closed effortlessly, thus clearly framing the radio play and varying it throughout. The jury's unanimous verdict: a must-hear! Anna Cuncio and Manuel Radinger for the sound design, and the music. And we also congratulate Peter Kaiser for directing!
Klaus Horing “Best Actor of 2023”
Since 1997, an expert jury has chosen the best radio drama actress or actor of the year. Klaus Höring was chosen this time for his outstanding achievements in more than 50 ORF radio drama productions, including Daniel Visser's radio dramas “Die Vitaminlage” (2022) and “Wardesimmer” (2023), in the play “Sladek” by Oden von. Horváth (2001), “What do you see? The Night!” by Ludwig Fels (2022), Wolf Haas in “Come, sweet death” (2002) or Helmut Pesina's “Antigone. Poem directed by Elisabeth Weilenmann” (2020).
“Working with Klaus Haring has been a great blessing. His characters are direct, straightforward and unpretentious, youthful even in old age. His voice comes through the microphone immediately and naturally. He is a linguistic aesthete and vocal acrobat who loves and loves the microphone. It's like you're listening to a person who's completely oblivious and simply being who they are,” the jury said.
Those honored by the expert jury so far include Brigitte Garner, Bibiana Zeller, Peter Simonicek, Elisabeth Orth, Cornelius Obonia, Gerti Drasl, Petra Morse, Markus Mayer, Carl Markovics, Vera Borek, Johannes Silberschneider and Regina Frieder.
