Sigrun Höllrigl has founded the Austrian Poetry Film Festival in 2013. She studied literature (MA) and works as a writer, film maker and event organizer in Vienna. In 2015/16 she has published two novels "Odysseus X" and "The Camp" and realized poetry films with other film makers.

Festival poet 2019 was the Viennese author Sophie Reyer. A total of 12 film adaptations of her poem "Zuerst/First" (English translation Mark Kanak) were shown at the festival as part of the poetry film competition. Sophie Reyer writes plays, novels and poems. She is a composer and makes her own poetry films. However, her very own profession is poetry.