It was a well-received and -executed debut for new Diagonale festival runners Dominik Kamalzadeh and Claudia Slanar, who had taken over the event from Peter Schernhuber and Sebastian Höglinger after their eight-year stint. Changes included moving the gathering from its regular timeslot starting on Tuesday and wrapping on Sunday to a Thursday-Tuesday run, and including a remarkable number of world and Austrian premieres in the programme.

On 8 April, the Diagonale awards were handed out at the Orpheum in Graz. The recipients were a diverse mix of old hands and new faces, movies that had been on the festival circuit and in cinemas, and fresh output from Austria’s film creatives. While Anja Salomonowitz’s Sleeping with a Tiger [+lee también:
crítica
entrevista: Anja Salomonowitz
ficha de la película] won three awards throughout the evening, the Grand Diagonale Prize of the Province of Styria went to Losing Faith by Martha Mechow, which had its world premiere at FIDMarseille in 2023. The equivalent trophy for the best documentary was awarded to Anqa [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
ficha de la película] by Helin Çelik, which first premiered at the Berlinale in 2023. The director dedicated her award to all of the female protagonists in her movie and “to all women who are fighting for freedom in the Middle East”.

The jury recalled being “spellbound” while watching Mechow’s film: “With quiet amazement, we followed an unpredictable round dance, characterised by the unbridled joy of experimentation and a delight in storytelling.” Anqa’s director, on the other hand, managed to project “an intimate closeness to her protagonists, literally crawling under their skin”. Both awards are endowed with €20,000. Furthermore, Anqa won the Diagonale Prize for Best Artistic Editing in a Fiction Film, for Sara Fattahi. The equivalent for a documentary went to Leandro Koch and Javier Favot for The Klezmer Project [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Leandro Koch, Paloma Schac…
ficha de la película], another awards darling of the past year.

The Diagonale Prize for Innovative Cinema went to Simona Obholzer for DIN 18035. Obholzer jokingly claimed that she had applied for funding while pregnant and finally finished the short when her child was six years old. The jury called it “a captivating work that captures the mechanically modified landscape in the process of becoming a football field”. The Diagonale Prize for Best Short Fiction Film and Best Short Documentary went to Sallar Othman’s Yarê and Bernhard Hetzenauer’s Those Next to Us, respectively. The Diagonale Prize from the Youth Jury for Best Young Talent Film was awarded to Glückstag by Bernhard Wohlfahrter.

Further technical gongs included the Award for Best Cinematography in a Fiction Film and a Documentary Film. Nora Einwaller collected the former for Asche [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la película], while the latter went to Julia Gutweniger for Vista Mare [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la película]. The Awards for Best Sound Design went to Matz Müller, Tobias Fleig and the fiction feature The Devil’s Bath [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Veronika Franz y Severin F…
ficha de la película], and to Florian Kofler for the documentary Vista Mare. Jessica Hausner’s Club Zero [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Jessica Hausner
ficha de la película] won two awards for Best Original Score and Best Costume Design, while Adrian Goiginger’s Rickerl – Musik is höchstens a Hobby [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la película] scooped Best Actor (for Voodoo Jürgens) and Outstanding Production Services. Sleeping with a Tiger also managed to bag the second Outstanding Production Services Award, Best Actress for Birgit Minichmayr and Best Production Design.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Grand Diagonale Prize of the Province of Styria - Best Fiction Film
Losing Faith - Martha Mechow (Austria/Germany)

Grand Diagonale Prize of the Province of Styria - Best Documentary Film
Anqa [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
ficha de la película] - Helin Çelik (Austria/Spain)

Diagonale Prize for Innovative Cinema by the City of Graz - Best Innovative, Experimental or Animation Film
DIN 18035 – Simona Obholzer (Austria – short film)

Diagonale Prize for Best Short Fiction Film
Yarê - Sallar Othman (Austria)

Diagonale Prize for Short Documentary Film from the KULTUM - Best Short Documentary
Those Next to Us - Bernhard Hetzenauer (Austria/Switzerland/Germany/Mexico)

Diagonale Prize from the Youth Jury of the Province of Styria - Best Young Talent Film
Glückstag - Bernhard Wohlfahrter (Germany)

Diagonale Prizes for Editing from the Verband Filmschnitt

Best Artistic Editing in a Fiction Film
Sarah Fattahi - Anqa

Best Artistic Editing in a Documentary Film
Leandro Koch, Javier Favot - The Klezmer Project [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Leandro Koch, Paloma Schac…
ficha de la película] (Austria/Argentina)

Diagonale Cinematography Prizes from the Verband Österreichischer Kameraleute AAC

Best Cinematography in a Fiction Film
Nora Einwaller – Asche [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la película] (Austria)

Best Cinematography in a Documentary Film
Julia Gutweniger – Vista Mare [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la película] (Austria/Italy)

Diagonale Prizes for Sound Design from the Berufsvereinigung der Filmtonschaffenden Österreichs – Filmton Austria

Best Sound Design in a Fiction Film
Matz Müller, Tobias Fleig – The Devil’s Bath [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Veronika Franz y Severin F…
ficha de la película] (Austria/Germany)

Best Sound Design in a Documentary Film
Florian Kofler – Vista Mare

Diagonale Prizes for Production Design and Costume Design from the Verband Österreichischer Filmausstatter*innen VÖF

Best Production Design
Martin Reiter – Sleeping with a Tiger [+lee también:
crítica
entrevista: Anja Salomonowitz
ficha de la película] (Austria)

Best Costume Design
Tanja Hausner – Club Zero [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Jessica Hausner
ficha de la película] (Austria/UK)

Diagonale Acting Prizes in cooperation with the VdFS – Verwertungsgesellschaft der Filmschaffenden
Birgit Minichmayr – Sleeping with a Tiger
Voodoo Jürgens – Rickerl – Musik is höchstens a Hobby [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la película] (Austria/Germany)

VAM Prize for Outstanding Production Services (ex aequo)
coop99 filmproduktion – Sleeping with a Tiger (producer Antonin Svoboda)
2010 Entertainment - Rickerl – Musik is höchstens a Hobby (producers Martin Pfeil, David Stöllinger, Peter Wildling, Adrian Goiginger)

Diagonale Award for Film Composition of the Austrian Composers Association

Best Original Score in a Fiction Film
Markus Binder – Club Zero

Best Original Score in a Documentary Film
Anna Ljungberg – Night of the Coyotes (Austria/Germany)