© Elisabeth Weydt

Austrian documentary filmmaker whose films mostly deal with worlds separated by intangible borders, be they geographical or those of imagination or loss. With a passion for hybrid documentaries, mood boards and found footage material that begins to tell a new story.

After studying at the European Film College in Denmark, Clara Trischler lived in Israel for a year, where she worked at the Yad Vashem Holocaust documentation archive, participated in films and film festivals, wrote articles about everyday life in Jerusalem and later shot her film “The First Sea”. After several film and festival jobs in Berlin and New York, she studied screenwriting at the Vienna Film Academy and the Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte Buenos Aires, where she rediscovered her love of documentary film (which began with Hi8 camera experiments as a teenager). This led her to Berlin, where she studied documentary film directing at the Konrad Wolf Film University in Babelsberg. She is an editor and host of the documentary podcast “Szene für Szene” and a co-organizer and co-curator of the annual film forum “Feminist Perspectives” in Vienna.

© Caroline Spreitzenbart

GRANTS | PROGRAMS | RESIDENCIES

2026           Work Scholarship Film | Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Housing, Media & Sports, Austria
2019|2026  Writing Fellowship with Dramaturgical Support: ScriptLAB Docu | Drehbuchforum Wien
2025-26      Selected for dok.art | Year-long mentoring program for debut films by Drehbuchwerkstatt München
2025            IDFAcademy | Selected for the Talent Hub of the Internat. Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
2025            Participation at Arsenal summer school | Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlin
2025            Selected for Berlinale Talents | Talent hub of the Berlin International Film Festival
2025            Selected for Filmshop Europe | Half-year professional Peer-to-peer filmmaker’s workshop
2025            One-year working scholarship film | Cultural Department of the City of Vienna
2024            Artist residency Multimadeira
2023/24       FC Gloria Mentoring Program Mentee • Women* Film Network Austria
2023            Selected for Visits to Ukraine for international artists as a visual artist | Insha Osvita, Prague Civil Society Center, Asortymentna kimnata, photo produkciia
2021-2022  Artist in Residence, Fellowship Pixel, Bytes + Film | Austrian Ministry of Culture & ORF III
2019            Selected for the Cinema Next - Europe Club | Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz, Austria
2018/19       ScriptLAB Docu Screenwriting scholarship and mentoring program | Drehbuchforum Wien (Screenwriting Forum Vienna)
2018            Selected for the DOX:ACADEMY | Filmfestival CPH:DOX Copenhagen, Denmark
2017/2018  Selected to pitch at the Berlinale reception of the German film schools
2017            Interactive audiovisual installation “Rimini Protokoll meets Filmuniversität Konrad Wolf”
2016            Film Scholarship „Start“, development of a film project | Federal Ministry of Culture Austria
2015            Screenwriting grant | Literar Mechana, collecting society for literature, Austria
2015            Filmmaking exchange program between Turkish and German film students, Datça, Turkey „Get your own picture“, European Union
2013            Selected for the Zurich Film Festival Academy
2011            Selected for BABYLON Feature Film Development & Production Workshop at Intern. FF Rotterdam and Festival de Cannes witcraft scenario/„Diverse Geschichten“
2010            Scholarship „Perspective Austrian Newcomer Filmmaker“ Drehbuchforum Wien (Screenplay Forum Vienna) and Youki International Youth Media Festival