Beta Cinema has posted deals for award-winning Austrian Berlinale 2026 Panorama title Four Minus Three as it enjoys a strong theatrical launch in its home territory and sweeps nomination in key local film awards.
Directed by Adrian Goiginger, the film is adapted from the autobiographical bestseller by Barbara Pachl-Eberhart, telling her tale of loss as a professional clown working in children’s hospitals who lost her husband and two children in a car accident.
The film has sold to France (Pyramide), Benelux (Arti), Canada (A‑Z Films, Taiwan (Swallow Wing) and Palace Films has taken Australia and New Zealand.
The film is enjoying success in its home territory where it was released by Polyfilm/Alamode in March. It delivered the best opening weekend for an Austrian film in 2026 and continues to play in 86 locations in its fifth week on release for cumulative admissions of 70,096 and a gross of €730,705 ($860,576).
Alamode will kick off the German release on April 16.
Lead actress Valerie Pachner has won praise for her performance as Barbara, opposite Robert Stadlober as her late husband and clowning partner in flashbacks.
The film enjoyed a buzzy premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama section, where it won the Europa Cinemas Label Award and came second in the Panorama Audience Award. Pachner has since been honoured with the Best Actress Award at Diagonale film festival in the Austrian city of Graz in March.
The drama now also leads the nominations in the Austrian Film Awards making it into eight categories, including best film, director, actress and supporting actress.
Four Minus Three is a Austrian-German co-production, produced by 2010 Entertainment and Giganten Film in collaboration with ORF-FFA, BR, SWR and Arte.
