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The Diagonale is pleased to present Austria’s most prestigious film prizes again in 2023. A total of 19 film prizes were awarded during the award ceremony at the Orpheum in Graz. Source: press release.
New gems of Austrian cinema
The Diagonale is pleased to present Austria’s most prestigious film prizes again in 2023: first and foremost, the Diagonale Grand Prizes of the Province of Styria for Best Feature Film and Best Documentary Film of the festival, each endowed with €21,000, as well as the Diagonale Prize for Innovative Film of the City of Graz. A total of 19 film prizes were awarded during the award ceremony that took place at the Orpheum in Graz.
In addition to the main prizes, international juries also awarded prizes donated by the VdFS – Verwertungsgesellschaft der Filmschaffenden for outstanding achievements in the fields of acting, set design, editing, production, costumes and sound. This year, for the first time, the Austrian Composers Association awarded the prize for the best soundtrack.
The outstanding achievements in the field of production are awarded by the VAM – Verwertungsgesellschaft für Audiovisuelle Medien. On Wednesday evening, the Kodak Analog Film prize was also awarded for the fourth time. The audience award from the Kleine Zeitung was presented on Sunday afternoon at the Schubertkino.
The Diagonale’23 award for best Austrian feature film goes to Vera by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel (AT 2022), with which the award-winning duo once again dedicates their cinema to humanity, as also observed by the Diagonale’23 jury consisting of Bettina Böhler (editor, director, DE), Jessica Kiang (film critic, IE) and Ronny Trocker (director, screenwriter, IT): “It is a melancholic, yet vibrant and lively portrait of an imperfect character who somehow manages to find in her wounded heart the strength to treat those around her with the lucid decency and compassion that she is often denied. This story of resilience and evolution sees her grow over the course of the film, almost as much as we at her side, forced to reconsider our own preconceptions and judgements and realise what a rare and beautiful gift she has: to be able to give love in a world that does not always reciprocate it.”
After 2006 (Babooska, AT/IT 2005, Grand Diagonale Prize Documentary Film ex aequo with Arash T. Riahi’s Exile Family Movie ), 2010 (La Pivellina, AT/IT 2009, Grand Diagonale Feature Film Prize), 2013 (The Shine of Day, AT 2012, Grand Diagonale Feature Film Prize) and 2021 (Notes from the Underworld, AT 2020, Grand Diagonale Documentary Prize), this is already the fifth award for Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel in a Diagonale main category. Last year, the duo was dedicated the Zur Person section, which included a comprehensive photo exhibition at Camera Austria. Rainer Frimmel’s film Emile – Erinnerungen eines Vertriebenen (AT 2023) also premiered at the Diagonale’23.
The Diagonale Prize for Documentary Film was awarded to Chris Krikellis’ powerful, sensitive and merciless documentary Souls of a River (DE/GR/AT 2022), set on the Evros River on the Greek-Turkish border: “Chris Krikellis shows us empty spaces and takes us to places we would like to eliminate from our consciousness. His personal gaze evokes what is not shown in this film: the almost daily images of desperate people in boats, drowning people and life jackets piled up on the beaches of the Mediterranean. The art of this film is to take us into a landscape of souls and to keep before our eyes the fragile concept of identity’. , said the documentary jury consisting of Claudia Müller (director, DE), Serpil Turhan (director, DE) and Chris Wright (editor, director, GB), emphasising the qualities of the documentary film, which also received the award for best art editing.
The Diagonal Prize for Innovative Film of the City of Graz goes to the joyfully combative social utopia C-TV (Wenn ich Dir sage, ich habe Dich gern…) by Eva Egermann and Cordula Thym (AT 2023), in which a luxury talk show host receives people with disabilities who talk about their daily lives and their artistic and political work: “[…] a playful and accomplished experimentation with form and structure that flows directly from foregrounding the infrastructure of representational justice in filmmaking and vision. In this film, we found space and joy in imagining a world in which we and the world could be changed through critical engagement with disability justice issues through filmmaking, and we look forward to seeing what the future holds for this filmmaking team.” With these words, the jury consisting of Jemma Desai (author, researcher, programmer, UK), Lisl Ponger (visual artist, filmmaker, AT) and Maja Osojnik (composer, musician, sound artist, label operator, AT/SI) justified their decision.
The Diagonale Acting Awards for outstanding performance in a film in competition from Diagonale’23 in cooperation with VdFS go to Pia Hierzegger for Family Dinner (Peter Hengl, AT 2022) and Gerhard Liebmann for Eismayer (David Wagner, AT 2022).
The prize for the best short film of the festival goes to Cornetto im Gras by David Lapuch (AT 2023). Land der Berge by Olga Kosanović (AT/DE 2023) receives the prize for best debut film from the Province of Styria Youth Jury. The KULTUM. Diagonale prize for short documentary film goes to Wankostättn by Karin Berger (AT 2023).
The best fiction short film was selected by Leni Gruber (director, AT), Florian Pochlatko (director, AT) and Pia Reiser (film journalist FM4, AT). In the short documentary section, the jurors were Lisa Heuschober (curator and cultural worker, AT), Valérie Pelet (filmmaker, AT) and Hans-Walter Ruckenbauer (practical philosopher, University of Graz, curator of ZEITKUNST at UZT, AT).
In total, Diagonale awarded prizes worth around 195,000 euros to the filmmakers. All winners will also receive an artwork designed and created by artist Anna Paul.
Grand Diagonale Prize of the Province of Styria (€ 21,000)
Best Feature Film
– Vera by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
Grand Diagonale Prize of the Province of Styria (€ 21,000)
Best Documentary Film
– Souls of a River by Chris Krikellis
Diagonale Prize Innovative Cinema by the City of Graz (€ 8,500)
Best Innovative, Experimental, or Animation Film
– C-TV (Wenn ich Dir sage, ich habe Dich gern…) by Eva Egermann and Cordula Thym
Diagonale Prize Short Feature (€ 6.000)
Best Short Feature Film
– Cornetto im Gras by David Lapuch
Diagonale Prize Short Documentary Film from the KULTUM (€ 6,000)
Best Short Documentary Film
– Wankostättn by Karin Berger
Diagonale Prize from the Youth Jury of the Province of Styria (€ 5,500)
Best Young Talent Film
– Land der Berge by Olga Kosanović
Diagonale Prizes for Editing from the Verband Filmschnitt aea
(€ 3,000 each, sponsored by the VdFS – Verwertungsgesellschaft der Filmschaffenden)
Best Artistic Editing Feature Film
– Felix Leitner for Menuett
Best Artistic Editing Documentary Film
– Lisa Zoe Geretschläger for Souls of a River
Diagonale Cinematography Prizes from the Verband Österreichischer Kameraleute aac
(€ 3,000 each, sponsored by the VdFS – Verwertungsgesellschaft der Filmschaffenden)
Best Cinematography Feature Film
– Judith Kaufmann for Corsage
Best Artistic Cinematography Documentary Film
– Klemens Koscher for 27 Storeys
Diagonale Prizes for Sound Design from the Berufsvereinigung der Filmtonschaffenden Österreichs – Filmton Austria
(€ 3,000 each, sponsored by the VdFS – Verwertungsgesellschaft der Filmschaffenden)
Best Sound Design Feature Film
– Lenja Gathmann for Family Dinner
Best Sound Design Documentary Film
– Clemens Endreß for Jedermann und Ich – Ein Porträt in 3 Kapiteln
Diagonale Prizes for Production Design and Costume Design from the Verband Österreichischer Filmausstatter*innen VÖF
(€ 3,000 each, sponsored by the VdFS – Verwertungsgesellschaft der Filmschaffenden)
Best Production Design
– Martin Reiter for Corsage
Best Costume Design
– Claire Dubien for The Beast in the Jungle
Diagonale Acting Prizes in cooperation with the VdFS – Verwertungsgesellschaft der Filmschaffenden
(€ 3,000 each, sponsored by the VdFS – Verwertungsgesellschaft der Filmschaffenden)
for a remarkable performance by an Austrian actress as well as an Austrian actor in a Diagonale’23 competition film
– Pia Hierzegger for Family Dinner
– Gerhard Liebmann for Eismayer
VAM Prize for Outstanding Production Services (€ 21,000)
endowed and awarded by the VAM – Verwertungsgesellschaft für Audiovisuelle Medien
The prize has been awarded jointly and goes ex aequo (7,000 euro each) to:
– Samsara Filmproduktion and Graf Filmproduktion for Rubikon (producers Loredana Rehekampff, Andreas Schmied and Klaus Graf)
– Aichholzer Filmproduktion for Snotty Boy (producers Josef Aichholzer and Ernst Geyer)
– Film AG for Corsage (producers Alexander Glehr and Johanna Scherz)
Diagonale Best Soundtrack Award of the Austrian Composers Association (EUR 1,500 each)
endowed and awarded by the Austrian Composers Association
Best Soundtrack Feature Film
– Karwan Marouf for First Snow of Summer
Best Soundtrack Documentary
– Gil Chéri for Wo ist Ida
Kodak Analog Film Prize (EUR 1.800)
Awarded in the context of the Diagonale’23
– I am here! by Ludwig Wüst
Diagonale Audience Prize of the Kleine Zeitung (€ 3,000)
Favourite Film of the Diagonale’23
– Feminism WTF by Katharina Mückstein
Cinema Austriaco sincerely congratulates all the winners!