Christoph Kuschnig (Austria)

Christoph Kuschnig received his M.F.A. with Honors from Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program. His thesis film, the Academy Award qualifying short Hatch, was selected for Faculty Selects in Columbia’s Film Festival and was awarded a NBR Student Grant. It has since gone on to screen at over 90 festivals worldwide and has won 25 awards, including being a regional finalist for the 2012 Student Academy Awards–Oscars®, winner of Best Student Short Film at the 2012 Palm Springs International Short Film Festival, Best Short at the 2012 BAFTA qualifying Foyle Film Festival, and Best Live Action Short at the 2013 Nashville Film Festival. Christoph is a Fulbright Scholar and a Hollywood Foreign Press Association grant recipient. His previous short films, Eiko and Junkyard Jesús, have won numerous awards and have screened at dozens of international film festivals. In 2012 Christoph was selected to be part of the Berlinale Talent Campus.

Hatch — On a wintry Vienna night around Christmas, a newborn’s destiny hangs in the balance, as grown-ups come to terms with what they cannot have.