The Drehbuchforum Wien is a service centre for screenwriters in Austria and acts as a platform for know-how and as a mediator for material, authors, dramaturges and producers. We promote networking and communication within the film industry and make screenwriters visible.
Drehbuchforum Wien offers lectures, workshops, international masterclasses and seminars for both professionals and up-and-coming writers. Event series such as Let's talk about scripts and Arbeit Alltag Welt excursions are also accessible to a wider audience.
We are also involved in the area of script development: our aim is to increase the range of artistically ambitious and commercially viable material. The scriptLAB fiction and scriptLAB docu programmes provide authors with financial support and dramaturgical advice. With the programmes Table Reading for Dialogues, United Writers and the screenplay competition “If she can see it, she can be it” we complete the wide range of support and services for screenwriters.

The Drehbuchforum Wien and the Drehbuchverband Austria are partner organizations.

Geraldine Bajard: “World-Building” in Film: From Genre to Arthouse.
A talk and two workshops. January 2024
We were able to win the French screenwriter, dramaturge and director Geraldine Bajard (co-author and artistic collaborator of Jessica Hausner) for a talk and two workshops on the fascinating topic of “World-Building” in film: From Genre to Arthouse . The talk on the topic of world-building between fascination and necessity How genre and arthouse are a “winning team” was aimed at the entire film industry.
At the Create a World and Bring your own World workshops, participants worked in small groups, created worlds and scenarios in guided steps and reflected on the process, and it was also possible to receive individual feedback on their own project.
The interest in the event was enormous: the two workshops were booked out immediately and the room was bursting at the seams for the talk.

Let´s talk about scripts - Panel Discussions
Let´s talk about scripts is our main program to call attention to the work of screenwriters. In several discussions with screenwriters about their lmost recent Austrian films. On one hand we do reach the movie audiences, on the other hand writers can share their experiences with the panellists. The popularity among the public is increasing every year, at the last 8 events this year we had about 500 participants who joined us in lively discussions.
Before the talk, we usually show the film to be discussed in a cinema setting, and after the event there is still an opportunity to chat informally.
 
 
scriptLAB fiction / scriptLAB docu
script-development program
scriptLAB helps authors to improve their script in the early phase of writing, it is available to both professional and also young writers. The authors are working in close cooperation with a script consultant and are financially supported by the Austrian Screenwriters Forum. With this efficient, low cost program we contribute to the diversity of projects, the innovative character and the heightened quality of the scripts. Thus the writer/filmmaker can profit directly from the growing acceptance on the producers’ side.
Since the program was founded, about 1550 exposes have been submitted, nearly 200 of these were funded. Most of the script development projects are now available as screenplays and are on their way to be adapted for the screen, 9 have been already being filmed, 5 are currently made into films.
Since 2013 we have extended our script development program scriptLAB also to documentaries. With that we take into account the frequent blending of the boundaries between fiction film and documentary and the need for script development of documentary films. More than 317 projects have been submitted, 45 were selected for the program, 7 are in preparation for being filmed, 3 are currently be made into films, and two have already had a cinema release.
 
 
United Writers
A Weekend-Feedback-Workshop for professional screenwriters and filmmakers
In our program United Writers 4 professional scriptwriters or auteur-filmmakers have the opportunity to get feedback to their scripts. The workshop is moderated by an experienced script-consultant, but the main interchange is between the writers themselves. Each script gets feedback for half a day.
The projects can be in varying stages between an elaborated treatment and various versions of a finished script. Due to the high demand United Writers takes place twice a year, giving 8 scriptwriters per year the opportunity to work on their scripts by this successful model of collaboration.
 
 
IF SHE CAN SEE IT, SHE CAN BE IT
Female characters beyond clichés – screenwriters competition
This two-phase competition for screenplays took place already for the seventh time in 2023. This time it focused on the genre of comedy. The aim of the competition was to promote the heightened representation of differentiated and complex female characters beyond the clichés in Austrian cinema. The response has been surprising from the start: The enormous number of submissions was unexpected and has shown that there are enough ideas to portrait women away from traditional stereotypes.
Prizes are awarded for a total amount of 40.000 Euro in two phases, the prize money will benefit the screenwriters. In addition the screenwriters are given script-consultant support to the equivalent of 10.500.- Euro to develop the story. In the first step 5 exposes are being selected by a jury to be worked into treatments. In the second step one of these five treatments will awarded to be expanded into a feature length screenplay.
Additionally, we invited 16 authors for a pitching, where they had the chance to present their exposés to female producers. This competition is financed by and conducted in cooperation with The Austrian Film Institute.

Jasmila Žbanić: Keynote - Talk on the political thriller IF SHE CAN SEE IT, SHE CAN BE IT
8th screenplay competition
November 20, 2023
In the course of the main award ceremony of last year, we could proudly announce  the 8th continuation of this popular and successful screenplay competition, together with the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport and the Austrian Film Institute.  The theme for the eighth edition of the competition will be political thriller.
We have therefore invited Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director Jasmila Žbanic' to a discussion on the subject of political thrillers based on her film Quo Vadis, Aida? The screenwriter and dramaturge Kathrin Resetarits was her discussion partner, the genre of the political thriller, the development of the main character Aida and political cinema in general were extremely exciting aspects of the conversation.
 
 
Arbeit Alltag Welt – Everyday’s Work, Unknown places
Excursions
To inspire writers creativity, we offer excursions to places, where someone could not go so easily as a single, private person. In May 2023 we started the series on the topic of science in cooperation with the Magistrate's Office of the City of Vienna, Department of Science, Research and Business Location.
 
- Science: Institute for Conservation and Restoration / November 2023
As one of the most internationally renowned competence centers for conservation and restoration issues and the preservation of art and cultural assets, four areas of specialization are offered for conservation and restoration: Paintings, Objects, Textiles and Stone.
 
- Crime Scene Cleaning / March 2024
Whether it's a suicide, an accident or a body found weeks or months later - the Karwas family business “AK Tatortreinigung” (AK Crime Scene Cleaning) specializes in special cleaning, especially of crime scenes and places where bodies have been found.
 
Coming soon
In autumn 2024 excursions to the Austrian aerospace industry and the National Bank will follow.
 
 
Table Reading for Dialogues
Due to the very positive feedback over the past years, we organized table reading for dialogues twice in 2024. This model of supporting writers and actors in dialogue writing, which has proven very successful in the Writers Guild of Great Britain, is intended to provide support with the development of individual screenplay scenes in the script phase. The skill of actors in dialogue scenes is exploited by winning them to read selected passages of the screenplay with distributed roles.
Each project has 90 minutes to read and discuss the screenplay scenes. In a moderated conversation, the impressions are shared with the actors and the other authors, possible solutions are being discussed.
Table reading for dialogues is not a public event but is a closed round of invited participants only.