Biography
Lothar Josef Riedl is an Austrian director, author and television producer as well as a member of the Austrian Directors Association (ADA). He studied political science, journalism and communication science with a focus on film at the University of Salzburg. In addition he obtained part of his education at the ORF (Austrian broadcasting services), at the New York Film Academy (New York City) and at the Hollywood Acting Workshop (Los Angeles). He started working as the department head at Bavaria Film (Munich, Germany) and as the head of the "EuroPrix Teams" at the Salzburg Research GmbH (Salzburg, Austria). Subsequent he built the studio for the television station "Jedermann TV". He also took on the head position of the technical staff and the online editorial office. Television productions for arte, ATV, BBC, BR, NDR, ORF and Servus TV followed.
He designed inter-medial live performances with Professor Helmi Vent at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK) and the Mozarteum University Salzburg (Austria). He also initiated the diversity project "Equipes" with institutions from Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Germany and Austria (Lifelong Learning Award 2012). Together with the composer Klaus Schlapfl and the author Matthew Faulk (Oxford) he realized the project "Social Media Content" for the opera "Caravaggio". With Stradivari Expert Julian Anderson he worked on a feature for the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Beares, London. For different advertising films Lothar Riedl has worked with various artists such as actress Caterina Murino, moderator and frontman Klaus Eberhartinger and model Iris Strubegger. Also, he created a feature for the exhibition "Echophysics" with science historian Peter Maria Schuster.
Cooperating with the cultural association "Kulturverein Neustein Salzburg" Lothar Riedl invited young talents such as Valentina Lisitsa, Cordelia Williams, Jan Lisiecki and Chad Hoppes to Salzburg. Working with established artists such as Professor Paul Badura-Skoda and Professor Benjamin Schmid he recorded and filmed "Meisterwerke der Klassik" (which can be translated to "Classical Masterpieces") for the broadcasting service Servus TV. He also documented concerts by "Junge Philharmonie Salzburg" (conductor: Elisabeth Fuchs) with the pianist Katie Mahan (Denver) and the violinist Vladimir Tsypin (New York Philharmonic).
In 2015 he started filming the series "Beim Erzbischof zu Gast" ("Visiting the archbishop") as a live stream show on the public broadcasting service "ORF" with guests such as EU commissar Franz Fischler, physicist Anton Zeilinger, journalist Heinz Nussbaumer, philosopher Clemens Sedmak and actors Otto Schenk, Peter Lohmeyer and Christoph Franken.
Also in 2015, he filmed and directed the documentary "One of Us" (book and idea by Peter Schierl) which celebrated its premiere at the Austrian embassy in Washington, D.C. in 2017. In 2020 the movie was also released in Italian as "Uno di noi".
In 2016 Lothar Riedl was awarded with the international prize for "Best Music Video" with "I give you my hand" (singer Johanna Mucha, composer Nikolaus Schapfl).
For the broadcasting service Servus TV he developed and produced a documentary starring a rural town and its natural surroundings, situated in lower Austria ("Allentseig- Ein heimliches Naturparadies"). The documentary depicts how humans and nature live alongside each other near the historical military base; also Austria's first ever wolf pack is shown.
In 2019 he produced a documentary for which he also wrote the script. It shows one of Austria's impressive national parks named "Gesäuse".
In 2020 he produced and directed the documentary "Die dritte Dimension- Helikopter in den Bergen" which translates to "The third dimension- helicopters in the mountains". To promote the documentaries he also produced clips on Facebook and Instagram for Servus TV's social media content.
In 2021 he released the short film "Short Trip" starring Tom Beck and Natalie Spinell.
Lothar has taught at the degree course of economy and law at the University of Salzburg and the faculty of communication science. He also taught at the college Fachhochschule Hagenberg and Fachhochschule Salzburg and at the academic course for multimedia at the pedagogical institute in Vienna. He has also been in charge of the academic course for media and computer science at the pedagogical institute in Salzburg. Lothar Riedl has taught the subject film at the faculty for media and computer science in Linz, Austria. In addition he taught masterclasses for photography in Linz and Salzburg.
In 2009 he established the film academy at WIFI Salzburg and is since then conducting the diploma course "Video and Film". In 2016 he founded the master course "Film, TV and Media" at the college Fachhochschule St. Pölten together with Prof. Rosa von Suess and Hannes Rauchberger. He has been a member of the leadership team ever since.
His enterprise carries the seal of being a "Certified Austrian Film Producer". Since 2017 he has been declared as a judicially certified specialist for the subject matters television, film, cinema and video.
Awards: Cannes Corporate Media Award, Silver Dolphin, Cannes 2010 Lifelong Learning Award, Wien 2012 Erster Preis, Oberösterreich im Film, 2015 Musikvideopreis Wellington Festival, Florida 2016
Selected Media Projects:
"Die Dritte Dimension- Helikopter in den Bergen": translated title "The third dimension- helicopters in the mountains" editorial staff: Hans-Peter Stauber, Tabea Salome Baur; camera: Jens Börner, Roland Chytra, Benjamin Paya, Jonas Widmer; speaker: Otto Clemens; cut: Jörg Achatz
"Das Gesäuse- Schroffe Gipfel, tiefe Schluchten, wilde Wasser": translated title: Gesäuse- rough summits, deep canyons, wild waters" editorial staff: Hans-Peter Stauber, Stefanie Fuchs; script: Lothar Riedl, Nik Mahatsek; director: Nik Mahatsek; camera: Jens Börner; speaker: Otto Clemens; cut: Jörg Achatz
"Allentsteig- Ein heimliches Naturparadies": translated title: "Allentsteig- a secret natural paradise" editorial staff: Hans-Peter Stauber, Tabea Salome Baur, Andrea Thek; script: Lothar Riedl, Barbara Puskas, Martin Betz; director: Martin Betz; camera: Harald Mittermüller, Klaus Achter, Klaus Illitisch, Werner Vitztum; speaker: Robert Reinagl; cut: Jörg Achatz
"I give you my hand": music video with soprano singer Johanna Mucha, composition: Nikolaus Schapfl It received the music video prize at the Wellington Festival, Florida
"Einer von uns" translated title: "One of Us" A documentary about Franz Jägerstätter which received the first prize at "Oberösterreich im Film" and the prize given by the audience jury
Documented concerts:
"Junge Philharmonie Salzburg" (conductor Elisabeth Fuchs) with Katie Mahan and Vladimir Tsypin
Series "Meisterwerke der Klassik" ("classical masterpieces") with Valentina Lisitsa, Prof. Paul Badura-Skoda, Benjamin Schmid, Chad Hoppes, Cordelia Williams, Jan Lisiecki, M.C. Klettner for Servus TV
"Humanitarian Broadcast": television and radio campaign for "World Vision", "Care" and "AMREF" ("pro bono")
"Stradivari" Feature for the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Beares, London
"Caravaggio": interactive art project (social media opera) with librettist Matthew Faulk (Oxford) and composer Nikolaus Schapfl (Salzburg)
"Preventing Corruption": by Reinventing Local Government: Practical Lessons from La Paz; documentary for the World Bank Institute, Washington D.C., with BBC, London
"Short Trip": production and direction of a multilingual motion picture with Tom Beck
Language Contest: live direction of a two-hour long television show with online voting at the grand studio of the ORF (Austrian broadcasting services), broadcasted via satellite and IPTV-Streaming
Image films: Mozarteum University; the companies Actavis, Malteser, ASVOE, Stiegl; Austrian military association; hotels and tourism; mining and Gothic Museum Leogang (Austria); metal association of Bavaria (Germany); Salzburg mountain railway; 100-year anniversary of Caritas Salzburg (charity association)
"Wie Salzburg zu seinem Gesicht kam": translated title: "How Salzburg got its face" Interactive CDROM production with a slide film for the city of Salzburg (Austria)
