Jessica Hausner

Jessica Hausner (born 6 October 1972) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter, and a professor of directing at Filmacademy Vienna.

Early life Jessica Hausner is the daughter of Viennese painter Rudolf Hausner, sister of costume designer Tanja Hausner and half sister of set designer and painter Xenia Hausner. She studied at Filmacademy Vienna.

She received international attention in 2001 when her film Lovely Rita, a portrait of a young girl who feels confined by family constraints, was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. At that time Austrian cinema was dominated by commercial comedies and the general public was prejudiced against auteur and genre cinema. Art-house oriented and disturbing, Lovely Rita became a breath of fresh air and revitalized Austrian film. In 2002, Hausner was invited to join the jury at the 24th Moscow International Film Festival.

In 2004, she returned to Cannes with her film Hotel, a psychological horror inspired by David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, and Michael Haneke.

Her next feature, Little Joe, became her English-language debut, it was sold in 20 countries. The film was selected in Competition at Cannes and brought the lead Emily Beecham the Best Actress award. while in 2021 she joined the main jury. In the same year, she was a special guest and mentor at Sarajevo Film Festival.

As of 2023, Hausner is regarded as one of the most outstanding Austrian directors and holds a professorship at the Film Academy Vienna. was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. The 29th Sarajevo Film Festival paid a tribute to Hausner with a retrospective of her features.

In December 2023, Club Zeros soundtrack, by Markus Binder of the Austrian folk-punk band Attwenger, was awarded best European Soundtrack at the European Film Awards.

In May 2024, Hausner was named the jury president for the main competition of the 77th Locarno Film Festival that August.

Filmography Short film Year Title Director Writer Producer 1994 Kilometer 123,5 1995 Flora 2006 The Mozart Minute 2017 Glitch Hotel Feature film Year Title Director Writer 1999 Inter-View 2001 Lovely Rita 2004 Hotel 2006 Toast 2009 Lourdes 2014 Amour Fou 2019 Little Joe 2023 Club Zero Producer''' Sleeper (2005) Immer nie am Meer (2007) Reclaim Your Brain (2007) Little Joe'' (2019)