Since 2009, the Vienna Business Agency has been promoting creative multimedia productions with Content Vienna – from games to XR and animation to AI applications – thereby strengthening talent, innovation, and Vienna as a media location.

This year, five production grants of €10,000 each and two special digital literacy prizes of €5,000 each will be awarded. In addition, six projects will benefit from a women's bonus of €1,000 each.

In addition, five projects will be awarded South by Southwest special prizes in cooperation with WKO Außenwirtschaft – Creative Industries, enabling them to travel to the festival in Austin (Texas) or London (UK).

“A Past Unspoken” is a story-based computer game about a taboo in Austria: the Nazi past in families, which is often never talked about. The game deals with the question of what happens to the memory of a loved one when the truth about their past suddenly comes to light.

„Children of Saturn“ is a story-based adventure game. It tells a coming-of-age story about a group of teenagers growing up with the consequences of climate change. Their experiences are repeatedly interrupted by real video footage—for example, of forest fires, floods, and other climate damage.

The project “Hallucinations 2.0 – 360° Live AV Performance” creates an interplay between electronic music (Ursula Winterauer aka GISCHT) and AI-transformed imagery (Claudia Larcher). The 40-minute live set explores memory technologies and how they are changing between the analog past and digital futures.

„Merging Visions“ is a mixed reality experience in which you not only see a story, but also experience it spatially—and in some cases even feel it. The project shows how architecture, nature/ecology, and memories of history and culture interact in cities.

The project investigates how neuroscience and activities such as bread baking can interact and have a therapeutic effect. Sensors on the head and arm measure a person's current mental state. A wearable device on the forearm responds with small vibrations. This “haptic language” can feel like a soothing touch or help the person to control their movements more consciously.

“Choose Your Own FER” is an interactive story in which you control your adventure with your own face. Facial emotion recognition (FER) detects emotions such as joy, anger, or surprise and allows the plot to continue differently depending on your emotional expression.

The Total View project is developing AI-supported methods for analyzing 360° image material. This image material is used to visualize democratic participation in public spaces, using the People's Republic of China as an example. To this end, an interactive web tool is being developed that allows users to mark and examine images and conduct their own research.

What if crows, rather than humans, had conquered the world? In the city-builder computer game “Crowded,” players lead a crow civilization from the treetop Stone Age into various new eras and build their own crow world.

An “immersive art space” uses state-of-the-art technology to combine Vienna's cultural heritage with contemporary digital art. Several evenings a month, Viennese artists will be given a digital stage to showcase their work and develop their own regularly recurring shows.change and artistic innovation.

Production Support 2025

•    “A Past Unspoken” by Christian Hübel
•    “Children of Saturn” by Boie Thomsen
•    “Hallucinations 2.0 – 360° Live AV Performance” by Studio Claudia Larcher
•    “Merging Visions | Expanded Immersive Twin” by Merve Sahin
•    “Neuro Cooking – connecting brain and touch” by Chmara.Rosinke

Digital Literacy Special Prizes 2025

•    “Choose Your Own FER” by Sara Mlakar
•    “Total View” – Sensing Sinicization by Total View – Association for the Promotion of Investigative Methods in Media Art

South by Southwest Special Prizes 2025

•    “Neuro Cooking” – connecting brain and touch by Chmara.Rosinke OG
•    “Total View” – Sensing Sinicization by Total View – Association for the Promotion of Investigative Methods in Media Art
•    “Crowded – A Crow City Builder” by Nestwork Games
•    “Immersive Art Space” by Mediaapparat GmbH
•    “Hallucinations 2.0” by Studio Claudia Larcher

Women's Bonus 2025

•    “A Past Unspoken” by Christian Hübel – Women's Bonus for Eline Muijres
•    “Hallucinations 2.0 – 360° Live AV Performance” by Studio Claudia Larcher
•    “Merging Visions | Expanded Immersive Twin” by Merve Sahin
•    “Neuro Cooking – connecting brain and touch” by Chmara.Rosinke OG
•    “Choose Your Own FER” by Sara Mlakar
•    “Crowded – A Crow City Builder” by Nestwork Games