after the german occupation of austria in 1938, ucicky returned to vienna and became a key figure of wien-film, the government-sponsored production company that was intended to shoot propaganda movies on behalf of the third reich. ucicky achieved acclaim for "der postmeister" (aka "the stationmaster", 1940), which won the mussolini cup for best foreign film at the venice film festival, and among his subsequent movies, "heimkehr" (1941) was also honored at the venice festival.