Life and career
Pfaffenbichler was born in Steyr, Upper Austria, in 1967. From 1992 to 1994, he studied theatre studies and journalism at the University of Vienna. He subsequently studied visual media design under Peter Weibel at the University of Applied Arts Vienna from 1994 to 2001. He has worked as an independent artist and curator in Vienna and was a founding member of the experimental media initiatives VIDOK and lanolin.
His early films include santora (1998), made with Jürgen Moritz, and 36 (2001), made with Lotte Schreiber. Both are abstract works concerned with editing, rhythm and the relationship between sound and image. In the early 2000s, Pfaffenbichler began making films almost entirely from existing footage.
He has also curated film programmes and exhibitions. His films have been screened at the Venice Film Festival, the Locarno Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, among others.
Film work
Early films and Notes on Film
Pfaffenbichler began his Notes on Film series in 2002. The films re-edit existing footage, often isolating particular gestures, movements or recurring visual motifs. Several works in the series use material from early cinema or concentrate on individual actors and their screen personas.
In Mosaik mécanique (2007), Pfaffenbichler rearranged Charlie Chaplin's short comedy A Film Johnnie (1914) into 98 simultaneously displayed, continuously looping images. Instead of watching Chaplin's film unfold from beginning to end, the viewer sees its individual shots arranged across the screen.
Conference (Notes on Film 05) (2011) consists of close-ups of actors portraying Adolf Hitler in films made over several decades. Their performances are edited together, bringing out similarities in their gestures, expressions and mannerisms.
Three subsequent feature-length works concentrate on individual actors. A Messenger from the Shadows (2013) uses performances by silent-film actor Lon Chaney, while A Masque of Madness (2013) is assembled from films featuring Boris Karloff. Invest in Failure (2018) uses footage of James Mason. Material from different periods of the actors' careers is edited together, at times making them appear to encounter earlier or later versions of themselves.
Pfaffenbichler's found-footage films draw on extensive research into early cinema and classic horror actors, involving the cataloguing and reorganisation of large amounts of archival footage.
The 2551 trilogy
2551.01 – The Kid (2021) was Pfaffenbichler's first instalment in a trilogy of experimental horror films. Loosely based on Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921), it follows a masked, ape-like man who encounters an abandoned child during a violent confrontation between police and protesters. He takes the child with him into an underground city, where the child is eventually abducted.
The story continues in 2551.02 – The Orgy of the Damned (2023) and concludes with 2551.03 – The End (2025). The subsequent films follow the protagonist's search through a subterranean world of masked figures, violence and exploitation. The trilogy contains little intelligible dialogue. Its soundtrack consists largely of music, sound effects and distorted speech.
The films borrow from silent comedy, German Expressionist cinema, body horror and underground filmmaking.
Reviewing 2551.01 for critic.de, Martin Gobbin noted the film's oppressive atmosphere, elaborate sets and use of silent-film techniques. He argued that much of its disturbing effect comes from the sustained atmosphere rather than individual scenes of violence.
Theodoor Steen reviewed the complete trilogy for ScreenAnarchy following its presentation at the 2025 MOTELX festival in Lisbon. His review discussed the films' grotesque imagery, violence and references to early cinema, particularly Chaplin.
The Austrian art journal Springerin published an essay by Marc Ries on the trilogy in 2025. Ries examined its depictions of bodies, sexuality and power, with particular attention to the relationship between the individual and the social order represented in the films.
2551.03 – The End had its world premiere at the 2025 International Film Festival Rotterdam and was subsequently shown at the Diagonale in Graz. In her review for Cinema Austriaco, Marina Pavido discussed the film's treatment of parenthood, revenge and unconditional love.
Later work
ADGIN PRRX (2026) is a found-footage film made from John Frankenheimer's Grand Prix (1966). Pfaffenbichler rearranged the original film's shots according to their duration, beginning with the shortest and ending with the longest. The 167-minute work premiered in the Cinema Regained section of the 2026 International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The film's rearrangement of the original's editing patterns has been noted for its unconventional treatment of cinematic time.
Also in 2026, Pfaffenbichler made Frankenstein Fragment, a 28-minute experimental horror film presented as a reconstruction of a supposedly lost German silent-film adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The lost film is fictional, forming part of the work's premise. Frankenstein Fragment premiered at the SLASH Filmfestival in Vienna in September 2026.
Recognition and retrospective
Pfaffenbichler received the Austrian Art Prize for Film in 2020. The prize is awarded by the Austrian federal government. His film 2551.01 – The Kid received the Crossing Europe Award – Local Artist in 2021.
From 5 to 22 November 2021, the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna presented a retrospective of his complete film work. The programme also included a carte blanche selection of films chosen by Pfaffenbichler and a programme titled Das Groteske (The Grotesque), which he curated from the museum's collection.
