High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Austria has had an active cinema industry since the early 20th century as the transcultural empire of Austria-Hungary and following 1918 as a republic. Producer Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky, producer-director-writer Luise Kolm and the Austro-Hungarian directors Michael Curtiz and Alexander Korda were among the pioneers of early Austrian cinema. Several Austrians pursued a career in Weimar-era Germany and later in the United States, among them Fritz Lang, G. W. Pabst, Josef von Sternberg, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann, and Otto Preminger.