Film Industry
Movies Shot in Austria
Austria as Filming Location for Hollywood
Last updated on January 17th, 2025
Last updated on January 17th, 2025
The most globally renowned film shot in Austria is undoubtedly The Sound of Music (1965), starring Julie Andrews. The movie was set in Salzburg, the country’s second-largest city. Fifty years later, the Progressive Crew had the privilege of revisiting the film’s iconic locations with Julie Andrews herself. In recent years, Vienna, Salzburg, and the Austrian Alps have once again become sought-after destinations for Hollywood productions. This article will introduce you to some of these remarkable projects.
The most globally renowned film shot in Austria is undoubtedly The Sound of Music (1965), starring Julie Andrews. The movie was set in Salzburg, the country’s second-largest city. Fifty years later, the Progressive Crew had the privilege of revisiting the film’s iconic locations with Julie Andrews herself. In recent years, Vienna, Salzburg, and the Austrian Alps have once again become sought-after destinations for Hollywood productions. This article will introduce you to some of these remarkable projects.
Classic Movies Shot in Austria
Long before the turn of the millennium, Austria served as the backdrop for several iconic films in cinematic history. Few films are as closely tied to Vienna as Carol Reed and Graham Greene’s 1949 Oscar-winning masterpiece, The Third Man. Even today, fans flock to Vienna to explore the movie’s famous locations, including its atmospheric sewer system, thanks to the popular The Third Man tours.
Another classic connected to Austria is Alfred Hitchcock’s 1920s silent film, The Mountain Eagle. Although set in Kentucky, it was filmed in Tirol, Austria. Considered a lost film, no known copies of The Mountain Eagle have survived. However, photographs from the production surfaced and were auctioned in Los Angeles in December 2012. The fate of the film remains one of Hitchcock’s enduring mysteries.
James Bond: Spectre (2015)
Locations: Sölden, Altaussee, Obertilliach
The Ice Q restaurant, perched atop Gaislachkogl, the highest peak in Austria’s Sölden, serves as a clinic in the film. This striking cubic glass structure became one of the movie’s standout locations. A dramatic car chase unfolds along a 16-kilometer stretch of the Ötztaler Gletscherstrasse, a mountain highway situated at an altitude of 1,377–2,800 meters between Sölden and the Ötztaler Glacier.
In the film, one of the Bond girls is kidnapped in a Jeep, prompting James Bond to give chase in a small plane. The Gletscherstrasse was closed for the sequence, which culminates in Bond crash-landing on a ski run, destroying a cabin, and eventually coming to a skidding halt.
Shooting the Scene: The plane featured in the sequence was stored in a tent, as none of the hangars in eastern Tyrol were large enough to accommodate it. Filming required the use of a snowplow and tractor to drag the sliding plane back to its starting position for each take. Two operational planes—one for flight and one for ground use—along with several prepped crash models were used to simulate the dramatic crash landing.
Additional scenes were filmed around Obertilliach, near the Italian border in eastern Tyrol. One example was the construction of a Bond hideout on the Golzentipp ski resort. Actor Dave Bautista described the filming locations as “The whole thing is surreal, like a painting.”
The lake and village of Altaussee also served as filming locations, showcasing its picturesque villas and hunting lodges. A favored holiday destination during the imperial era, Altaussee is also home to Austria’s largest operational salt mine. This mine was famously used by the Nazis to hide over 6,700 works of art, including masterpieces by Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Rembrandt.
The 20-minute Austrian segment of the film generated immense tourist interest, bringing over 100 million euros in revenue to the country. On the first day of shooting at Obertilliach, two calves were born and were fittingly named after Daniel Craig and Léa Seydoux.
Spectre is not the first James Bond film to feature Austria. The 1987 movie The Living Daylights and the 2008 film Quantum of Solace were also shot here, in Bregenz and Feldkirch, respectively.
The Three Musketeers (1993)
The 1993 film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers was primarily shot in England and Austria. Apart from Vienna, it was also filmed in several locations in Lower Austria, including Perchtoldsdorf, Schloss Petronell, Korneuburg, Hinterbrühl, Maria Enzersdorf, and Retzer Windmühle, as well as in the Burgenland region at Markt Sankt Martin. The locations and castles, such as Landsee Castle and Burg Liechtenstein, perfectly portrayed historic France. The film’s main characters were played by famous actors like Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland.
Season of the Witch (2011)
The fantasy adventure film Season of the Witch, starring Nicolas Cage, premiered in 2011 and was filmed in Austria, Hungary, and Croatia. The filmmakers scoured Europe in search of the perfect locations, with one of the key requirements being an authentic medieval castle. This quest led them to the fairytale-like Austrian Kreuzenstein Castle, located just 20 kilometers north of Vienna, overlooking the Danube Valley. The castle’s authenticity was essential to the story, with manufactured sets serving only as supplements to the location’s natural charm.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performed classical works for 20 minutes of the film, including pieces by Puccini, Mozart, and Beethoven. These works were recorded over two days in the golden hall of the Wiener Musikverein. Director Christopher McQuarrie described the experience as an instant classic, stating, “These two days were very special for me. I heard the best music, from the best musicians, in the best hall there is.” Every movement in the frame was meticulously synchronized with the music, as if the compositions had been written specifically for the film. For instance, dramatic sections accompanied action sequences, while quieter melodies underscored mysterious moments.
The Staatsoper and Schottenring metro stations served as primary locations for the scene. Most of the action sequences were filmed around and on the roof of the Opera House. While some shooting took place inside the Opera House, the majority of interior scenes were recreated later using reconstructions. This scene involved a 300-person technical team and 1,200 extras, making it the most expensive shoot in Vienna in the past 30 years. The Opera scenes alone generated 4 million euros in revenue for the city.
Woman in Gold (2015)
The producers of Woman in Gold found filming in Vienna to be a highly enjoyable experience and were more than satisfied with the Austrian team. Authenticity was a top priority for the filmmakers, making it essential to shoot in Vienna, as the actual events depicted in the film took place there.
The production involved a technical crew of over 100 people and several thousand extras. Executive produced by Oscar winner Harvey Weinstein, the film stars Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, and Daniel Brühl. Notable Vienna locations featured in the movie include St. Ulrichs, Juden- und Rooseveltplatz, the Parliament Building, Kaiserwiese, Belvedere, the Opera House, Hotel Sacher, Palais Auersperg, and Semperdepot.
A Dangerous Method (2011)
This historical drama, which explores the conflict between Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung, was filmed on location in Vienna, including at the Belvedere Castle and Sigmund Freud’s actual house, now the Sigmund Freud Museum. In a remarkable nod to authenticity, the production even used Freud’s real desk during filming.
While Jung traditionally worked and studied along the shores of Lake Zurich (Zürichsee), filming there was not feasible due to the area’s modern architecture. Instead, these scenes were shot at Lake Constance (Bodensee). With its historically rich architecture, Bodensee provided an ideal stand-in for the period setting. Known as a cultural hub throughout history, Bodensee is the largest body of freshwater in Europe after Hungary’s Lake Balaton and Switzerland’s Lake Geneva.
Before Sunrise (1995)
This entire film is set in Vienna, following a young man and woman who meet on a train and decide to explore the city together. Cinematographer Lee Daniel masterfully captures Vienna’s charm, presenting it free of tourists. Their journey begins and ends at Vienna’s Westbahnhof. Along the way, they visit the Albaner Hafen Cemetery, where one of the protagonists, Celine, reflects on the story of a 13-year-old girl named Elizabeth at an unmarked grave. The couple continues their exploration, traveling through the city center from Albertinaplatz to the Hotel Palais Schwarzenberg.
Stops
1. Westbahnhof: This is where Celine and Jesse begin their journey through Vienna.
2. Zollamtssteg Bridge: The couple meets two strangers on this bridge, who invite them to the theater, where the piece is the story of a cow.
3. Maria Theresia Platz: They stroll along the square.
4. Ferris Wheel: Where they have their first kiss.
5. Donaukanal: Celine and Jesse meet a poet who asks them to say a word that he can write about. Their response: “Milkshake”
6. Kleines Cafe: This is where they have their first coffee together and meet a palm reader who tells them that they are both stars.
7. Maria am Gestade Cathedral: Jesse and Celine talk
8. Cafe Sperl: They share their second coffee together, and simulate a telephone conversation between Celine and her girlfriend (played by Jesse) in paris who she was supposed to have lunch with that afternoon.
9. Albertina Museum: They watch the sunset over the city from the museum balcony.
10. Johann Strauß boat at the Donaukanal: This is where Jesse and Celine have their goodbye talk.
11. Our protagonists have a bottle of wine in the park and then head back to Albertina, where Jesse recites a poem.
12. Westbahnhof: They return to the train station where their journey began, where they promise each other that they would meet at the same place in 6 months.
Knight and Day (2010)
Eighteen minutes of this action-packed film, starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, take place in Salzburg. Linzergasse, Salzach, Hotel Stein, Dom, and Max Reinhardt Platz are all seen in the film. The railway station shown in the film is not actually in Salzburg. A huge job during production was just keeping fans and paparazzi off the set. Cameron Diaz said that “When we were filming the shooting sequences, you could hear gunshots all through the whole city, seeing as how Salzburg is a pretty small city. It was incredible, it was like the whole city was getting bombed by helicopters!”
And many more...
From the 1965 Beatles film Help! to Bridget Jones’s Diary, Austria continues to host a wide range of film productions even today. This is largely thanks to the Austrian government’s proactive measures to make the country an attractive destination for filmmakers, including large-scale productions. Their goal is to provide as many opportunities as possible to support and facilitate these creative endeavors.
