04/04/2017 - Lukas Valenta Rinner’s second feature following Parabellum wins the Grand Prix for Best Austrian Feature, while Ivette Löcker’s family portrait takes Best Austrian Documentary

Directors Ivette Löcker and Lukas Valenta Rinner during the awards ceremony (© Diagonale/Miriam Raneburger)

Eight months after its world premiere in competition at the 22nd Sarajevo Film Festival, Lukas Valenta Rinner’s A Decent Woman [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lukas Valenta Rinner
film profile] landed the Grand Diagonale Prize of the State of Styria in Graz, at the 20th Diagonale Festival of Austrian Film. An Austrian-Korean-Argentine co-production, the film depicts the sexual emancipation – and eventual mental breakdown – of a housemaid who discovers a nudist colony next door to the gated community she works in, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. International sales are handled by FiGa Films.

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The Diagonale, a fine showcase of the broad cinematic landscape in contemporary Austria, endowed 17 films with a total of €195,000 in prize money. In addition to A Decent Woman’s success, Ivette Löcker’s Ties That Bind [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] took the Best Documentary Award. The film, which premiered here in Graz (and which was produced by Mischief Films), is an amusing and affectionate look at the director’s own parents, who have lived together for 39 years but who have been separated for 18 years.

Elsewhere, the festival’s Innovatives Kino Competition, dedicated each year to the best in Austrian experimental and animation works, was won by Pferdebusen, Katrina Daschner’s nine-minute short – produced by Lady Chutney Productions, with sales handled by sixpackfilm – which explores the interplay between sexual desire and repression, in an associative tapestry between horse flesh and the human gaze.

Here is the complete list of winners:

Best Feature Film
A Decent Woman [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lukas Valenta Rinner
film profile] – Lukas Valenta Rinner (Austria/South Korea/Argentina)

Best Documentary
Ties That Bind [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Ivette Löcker (Austria)

Best Innovative Cinema (Experimental/Animated)
Pferdebusen – Katrina Daschner (Austria) 

Best Short Fiction
Mathias – Clara Stern (Austria) 

Best Short Documentary
Spielfeld – Kristina Schranz (Germany)

Best Young Talent
Santiago Rodríguez Durán – Revolución Solar (Argentina/Austria)

Best Actress
Verena Altenberger – The Best of All Worlds (Germany/Austria)

Best Actor
Philipp Hochmair – Tomcat [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Austria)

Best Cinematography (Feature)
Wolfgang Thaler, Sebastian Thaler – Ugly [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juri Rechinsky
film profile] (Ukraine/Austria)

Best Cinematography (Documentary)
Attila Boa – Untitled [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Austria) 

Best Editing (Feature)
Ulrike Kofler, Monika Willi, Christoph Brunner – Wild Mouse [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Josef Hader
interview: Josef Hader
film profile] (Austria/Germany)

Best Editing (Documentary)
Christin Veith, Cordula Thym – Relatively Independent (Austria)

Best Sound Design (Feature)
Nahuel Palenque – A Decent Woman

Best Sound Design (Documentary)
Peter Kutin, Florian Kindlinger – Homo Sapiens [+see also:
trailer
interview: Nikolaus Geyrhalter
film profile] (Austria)

Best Production Design
Veronika Merlin – The Best of All Worlds 

Best Costume Design
Monika Buttinger – The Migrumpies (Austria)

Prize for Innovative Production Services
Allegro Film – Bauer unser (Austria)
Vento Film – Mister Universo [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Italy/Austria)
Wega Film – Wild Mouse