Every year, the Diagonale condenses Austrian film to six concentrated festival days. Its offer is made without algorithms: homespun and thereby susceptible to error and also enthusiasm. The Diagonale’19 offers the stimuli for continuing discussion – emanating from individual films and cropping up between the different programs. From March 19 to 24, the 22nd edition of the Diagonale will take place in the Styrian capital. Sebastian Höglinger and Peter Schernhuber, the festival’s two directors, have presented the diverse program in Graz and Vienna.
This year’s competition at the Diagonale follows excavations – actual and personal – it follows huge, shoveling backhoes and repressed Austrian and intercultural family histories of emancipation. It shows manmade horror and far too human monsters: from the ghosts of a capitalism that has now become abstract to the ghosts of the past, which perhaps only the memory machine of the cinema is capable of accurately evoking. Dolce vita here, experiences at the border there. Subculture beauties here, art world pragmatism there. As the short films become longer, the genre borders appear increasingly porous. Where they erupt, poetry reigns. More here.
“The Diagonale’19 promises poetry on screen, high-speed pixel storms, and precisely accelerated observations, investigative documentaries, and confident short features, right-on comedies and motion picture dreams. Its films lead from the Californian gulf to Café Florida in Vienna’s Ottakring district, from an Upper Austrian farm estate to the heart of the cinematic apparatus. New voices and nuances, the familiar and misunderstood. Austrian cinema presents itself with an unperturbed confidence,” according to Sebastian Höglinger and Peter Schernhuber.
Facts
The current competition comprises 112 films and was compiled from more than 500 submissions from all genres and of all lengths. The Diagonale will show a total of 180 films in 143 screenings. 71 competition films will celebrate their premiere in Graz, 43 of them, their world premieres.
Opening
The starting note to the Diagonale’19 in Graz is the Austrian premiere of the daring and magnificently cast drama Der Boden unter den Füßen by the filmmaker Marie Kreutzer, born in Graz. Also at the opening, Birgit Minichmayr will be awarded the Grand Diagonale Acting Prize. More here.
Diagonale im Dialog
Emily Atef, Ute Baumhackl, Trautl Brandstaller, Stefan Grissemann, Henrika Kull, Gerda Lampalzer-Oppermann, Waltraud Langer, Christiana Perschon, Claus Philipp, Heide Pils, Hanno Pöschl, Peter Simonischek, Carolina Steinbrecher, Rüdiger Suchsland, Heinz Trenczak, Mirjam Unger, Ludwig Wüst, and others – the Diagonale im Dialog series has enabled encounters with key figures in (local) film creation since 2017. Talks about the films just screened opens the cinematic space for stimulating discussions with illustrious guests.
Historical special
Über-Bilder: Projected Feminity(ies)
The historical special – in conjunction with the Filmarchiv Austria, the Austrian Film Museum, and the ORF Archive – is devoted in 2019 to the representation and narration of femininity(ies) in Austrian film. Starting from an essay in which author Michelle Koch and film journalist Alexandra Zawia sketch out their thoughts on the status quo of the debates, the Diagonale has invited – along with the authors and the partner archives – more than ten personalities familiar with Austrian film, to react to the essay, each in a separate program slot. More here. To the press photos.
Spotlight on: Hanno Pöschl
Those who have had the pleasure of experiencing Hanno Pöschl on TV, in the movies, or on stage, will surely remember the charismatic man from Vienna. In its Spotlight on series, the Diagonale’19 is devoting a film program to one of the country’s most interesting and highly charismatic actors. And following along the biography of Hanno Pöschl also allows for reflection on the most recent history of Austrian cinema. More here. To the press photos.
In Reference
The screen as hub – the In Reference series seeks lines of connection and sets parentheses and footnotes in the festival program. Local film creation is interconnected with itself and with international positions:
——— Rose McGowan as guest in Graz
On the Saturday of the festival, the world-famous actress, activist, and author Rose McGowan will talk about her book “BRAVE,” about #MeToo, and about her ongoing fight against the abuse of power in the (US) film industry and beyond. Paul Poet’s eye-opening documentary My Talk with Florence (AT 2015) with live sound by Alec Empire will premiere as a bridge of sorts to the talk. Also presented on this occasion will be the DVD edition, soundtrack, and the media book for the film, which for its part, also contains texts by Rose McGowan et al.
——— In Reference to the historical special
The short film program “Points of View … In Dialogue” on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Medienwerkstatt Wien turns to the question of representation, staging, and depiction of femininity(ies). Videos from the 1980s enter into dialogue with productions by the Golden Pixel Cooperative, kindred in terms of working methods and political views. Also two further cinematic positions with Austrian roots that tell of modern cinema’s pictures of femininity meet: Otto Preminger’s American Technicolor classic Bonjour Tristesse (US/GB 1958) and Hurra für Frau E. by Günter Peter Straschek (BRD 1966). The screenings will be supplemented by an essay specially commissioned from the author Magnus Klaue. A double feature on the myths and staging of the actress Romy Schneider will be presented by the films Romy – Portrait eines Gesichts (D: Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, BRD 1967) and 3 Tage in Quiberon (D: Emily Atef, DE/AT/FR 2018) with Marie Bäumer and Birgit Minichmayr.
——— In Reference to the festival trailer by Johann Lurf
Johann Lurf, the trailer artist for Diagonale’19, presents a short film program that he has curated, “Agitation-Ästhetik-Politik.” And what’s more, from now on, every Diagonale will show in the night slot, the latest version of Lurf’s steadily growing ★ (AT 2019) – a grandiose star atlas of film history. For the Diagonale, the Kunsthaus Graz will show works by Johann Lurf and Laura Wagner.
——— Heinz Trenczak’s 75th birthday
And last but not least, the In Reference series will show Greek Diary (AT 2018) by Heinz Trenczak, chronicler of and companion to public life in Graz.
More on the In Reference series here. To the press photos.
Theater, Cinema, Wood
Tribute to Ludwig Wüst – A cooperation of the Diagonale with Schauspielhaus Graz
He’s a carpenter, theater- and filmmaker, and a driven man in the positive sense, a “maverick of Austrian cinema” (Alexander Horwath): Ludwig Wüst is among the most unusual figures in the local auteur film branch. In a first-time cooperation with the Schauspielhaus Graz, the Diagonale’19 will trace the diverse oeuvre of this veritable exceptional phenomenon. Tickets for the Wüst staging of Fräulein Julie at Schauspielhaus Graz here. More on the three-part tribute with film program and wood lecture here. To the press photos.
The Diagonale’19 will take place from March 19 to 24 in Graz.
On March 21, in the framework of the Diagonale, the Franz Grabner Prize will be awarded for the third time in the categories film and television documentary. The awarding of the Carl Mayer and the Thomas Pluch Screenwritng Prizes on March 22, as well as the Diagonale Awards Ceremony on March 23, are further highlights of the festival week. In the framework of the Diagonale’19, expert juries will award Austria’s most highly endowed film prizes, first and foremost, the Grand Diagonale Prize of the Province of Styria, as well as the Diagonale Prize for Innovative Cinema of the City of Graz.
General Diagonale press photos and images for the film programs are available for download here.
We would be glad to answer any further questions you may have.
We look forward to welcoming you to Graz and thank you for your coverage of the event!
Your Diagonale Press team
Matthias K. Heschl
Dewi K. Kostial
Samira Saad
Ece Isil Sahin
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Diagonale
Festival des
österreichischen Films
Festival of
Austrian Film
Graz, 19.—24.
März 2019
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Büro Wien
Rechnungsadresse
Billing Address
Forum österreichischer Film
Rauhensteingasse 5/5
1010 Wien, Austria
T +43 (0) 1 595 45 56
F +43 (0) 1 595 45 56-10
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Büro Graz
c/o Hotel Weitzer
Grieskai 12–16
8020 Graz, Austria
T +43 (0) 316 82 28 18
F +43 (0) 316 82 28 18-10
office@diagonale.at
www.diagonale.at
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