The Pyrker Collection

When Reinhold Pyrker, the long-time head of the ÖFB [Austrian Film Bureau] and organizer of the Austrian Film Days Wels, unexpectedly passed away in 1997, he left behind the largest existing archive of documents relating to contemporary Austrian cinema. In addition to more than a thousand fact-filled dossiers ‒ containing bio- and filmographical tables, press reviews, photographs, programs, etc. ‒ on practically everybody who was anybody in the Austrian film industry from the 1960s onwards, his impressive archive includes collections of screen plays and posters, the Austrian Film Days’ video collection, an extensive library and various bequests.

It is perhaps Pyrker’s greatest achievement that by keeping such a meticulous record of the entire domestic film production he has supplied serious scholars of Austrian cinema with a sound empirical basis on which to conduct their research. The files of the Pyrker archive cover the history of Austrian film from around 1960 to the middle of the 1990s. The dossiers can be viewed at the FAA’s Study Center.