HigHlights

From the beginning of colour television to the streaming age.

In 1971, the former Sascha Film managing director Michael Wolkenstein founds a new film production in Vienna that is to write Austrian film history in the years and decades to come.

With legendary cinema films such as Maximilian Schell’s “Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald” (1979), Peter Patzak’s “Kassbach” (1979), the Academy Award-nominated “38 – Auch das war Wien” (1986) by Wolfgang Glück and Luc Bondy’s award-winning “Das weite Land” (1987), the production baptised “Satel Film” was already able to establish itself as a permanent fixture in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Der Schüler Gerber” (1979) becomes standard repertoire in school classes, the cult series “Kottan ermittelt” (1976-1984) brings zest into the rather dry crime world and “Die Piefke-Saga” (1990-1993) enrages domestic tourism associations and wins the Grimme Prize.

Long-running audience hits such as “Schlosshotel Orth” (1996-2004) and “SOKO Donau/Wien” (since 2005) continue to make Satel Film a guarantor of ratings success in prime time in the new century. Now under the leadership of managing partner Heinrich Ambrosch (since 2007) with “Die Toten von Salzburg”, an award-winning feature film series was created in 2015, top TV films such as “Wiener Blut” (2018) directed by Barbara Eder, the co-production “Lucky Per” (2017, directed by Bille August) and the event two-part movie “Im Netz der Camorra” (2020) with Tobias Moretti (directed by Andreas Prochaska) and its sequel “Der Gejagte – Im Netz der Camorra” (2022, directed by Rick Ostermann) follow on seamlessly.

In 2019, Satel Film realised the first Austrian Netflix series in co-production with Bavaria Fiction and ORF. “Freud”, directed by Marvin Kren, premieres at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, wins the Romy for “Best Production TV Fiction” and places in the Top10 of the Netflix charts in 67 countries.

In cooperation with Storyhouse Productions, the event series “Sisi” was created for RTL+ in 2021, directed by Sven Bohse. “Wiener Blut”, the successful thriller penned by Martin Ambrosch with Melika Foroutan as prosecutor Fida Emam, got a sequel in 2023 with “Berggericht”, directed by Katharina Heigl.

The new edition of the “Metzger” crime series by author Thomas Raab, with Simon Schwarz in the role of the quirky restorer, also became a success story. “Der Metzger traut sich” (directed by Michael Podogil) opened the Kitzbühel Film Festival in 2023 as the first TV film and was the only contribution from a private broadcaster to be nominated at the TeleVisionale Baden-Baden. A sequel followed in 2024 with “Der Metzger – Mordstheater”.

The six-part drama series “Hundertdreizehn” celebrated its world premiere at the Seriencamp Festival in Cologne in 2025. The books for the series were written by Arndt Stüwe and directed by Rick Ostermann. The series tells the story of six different people who are connected by a catastrophic traffic accident.

And another major international series production is currently being completed:
“1814 – Vienna Game” is dedicated to the Congress of Vienna, the first major European turning point in the 19th century, rich in intrigue, twists and multi-layered character studies. Stefan Brunner is responsible for the scripts, with Hannu Salonen directing.