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The Diagonale is pleased to announce the winners of the Carl Mayer Screenplay Awards and the Thomas Pluch Screenplay Awards, which were presented today as part of the Festival of Austrian Film. Source: press release.
Vibrant, living stories
The Diagonale is pleased to announce the winners of the Carl Mayer Screenplay Awards and the Thomas Pluch Screenplay Awards, which were presented today as part of the Festival of Austrian Film at the Diagonale Forum in the Heimatsaal of the Volkskundemuseum am Paulustor, in the presence of City Councillor Barbara Gartner-Hofbauer, representing the Councillor for Culture Claudia Unger, and the Director of the Film Department at the Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport, Peter Schernhuber, during an official ceremony.
With a total prize fund of €44,500, the two screenplay awards are among Austria’s most prestigious film awards and are presented in collaboration with the City of Graz’s Department of Culture and the Austrian Screenwriters’ Association (on behalf of the award’s founder, the Federal Ministry for Housing, Art, Culture, Media and Sport).
“The Carl Mayer and Thomas Pluch Screenplay Awards are among the country’s most prestigious film awards. The fact that they are already part of the official programme of the Diagonale fills us with joy and pride, as they draw attention to one of the essential foundations of any good film: well-crafted screenplays and their writers.” , say the festival’s directors Dominik Kamalzadeh and Claudia Slanar.
Carl Mayer Screenplay Awards
| Topic 2026: TEMPO |
For a screenplay or documentary film, submitted anonymously, conceived, organised and funded by the City of Graz’s Department of Culture as part of the Diagonale festival.
The jury for the 2026 Carl Mayer Screenplay Award was composed of Felix von Boehm (producer, DE), Sebastian Höglinger (jury president, AT), Klemens Hufnagl (director of photography, screenwriter, previous year’s winner, AT), Alexandra Makarová (screenwriter, director, AT) and Françoise von Roy (playwright, DE).
MAIN AWARD worth €15,000:
| Hans –or–Don’t Buy Me in the Grave | Treatment by Peter Pflügler
Excerpt from the jury’s statement:
“The amateur photographer Hans took over 1,000 self-portraits before his death. When Peter stumbles upon this archive, a veritable time capsule opens up – a sort of analogue, tactile Instagram. But who was this great-uncle Hans, about whom no one in the family really knows anything, whom no one speaks of, and who is said to have been mocked for being ‘strange’? Peter wants to find out more and tries to break the family silence. What begins as a documentary investigation turns into a formal research experiment; dreams haunt the protagonist, and documentary and staging become blurred, which underscores the project’s relevance precisely against the backdrop of image production in the age of artificial intelligence.”
SUPPORT AWARD worth €7,500:
| Wurzel und Wind | Treatment by Reza Rasouli
Excerpt from the jury’s statement:
“Sixteen-year-old Leila is pregnant. Together with her boyfriend Konsti, she decides to have an abortion, but the 600 euros required seem like an insurmountable obstacle, and her parents must not find out. So they sell her beloved scooter, her drone, and even her own hair; the money is borrowed or taken from the mother’s wallet. When the mother realises the theft and confronts her son Konsti, a domino effect of seemingly well-intentioned actions and advice is triggered. A multi-perspective drama quickly unfolds, in which all the characters embody both light and shadow: every small gesture, every detail carries consequences even in this initial treatment.”
Thomas Pluch Screenplay Awards
Awarded by the Austrian Screenwriters’ Association on behalf of the prize’s founder, the Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport.
The international jury for the 2026 Thomas Pluch Screenplay Award consisted of Lorenz Dangel (film composer and musician, DE), Milan Dor (screenwriter and playwright, AT) and Kyra Scheurer (playwright and curator, DE).
MAIN AWARD, worth €12,000, for the best screenplay for a feature film or television film (at least 70 minutes):
| Rose | by Markus Schleinzer and Alexander Brom
Jury’s statement:
A detailed and truthful account of a con artist who, although born a woman, behaves like a man and has committed many reprehensible acts.
‘This text introduces the cinematic narrative, immediately setting the tone of the screenplay. The language, with its historical flavour, draws us straight into the small world of a village during the Thirty Years’ War. With a striking conciseness in the dialogue, the tensions between the characters are outlined in just one or two sentences; it is precisely what is left unsaid that creates a deafening silence. And a wonderfully original narrative voice guides us through the story with a blend of empathy and commentary. Even whilst reading, the precision of the details and the dramatic mastery of the storytelling bring the story into sharp relief in the mind’s eye.”
SPECIAL AWARD worth €7,000, for a screenplay that deals in an outstanding way with aspects relating to a feature film or a television film (over 70 minutes long):
| Teresa’s Body | by Magdalena Chmielewska
Jury’s statement:
‘With the Thomas Pluch Special Jury Award, we are honouring a screenplay that brings the consequences of patriarchal violence and its transgenerational effects into sharp relief, whilst still allowing the characters to retain their secrets. Here, the private is not merely political; rather, in its concrete linguistic execution, it constitutes a powerful artistic statement which, even as a text in its own right, exerts a strong pull without obscuring the hybrid-documentary elements. The successful integration of the sound design, combined with a strong visual concept, elevates the concreteness of a body, of a family, to an abstraction that operates at a socio-political level.”
Also nominated for the Main Award and the Special Jury Award were The Stories by Abu Bakr Shawky and White Snail by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter.
The national jury for the 2026 Thomas Pluch Screenplay Award comprised screenwriter and director Jacob Groll, screenwriter and director Marie Luise Lehner, and editor Joana Scrinzi. From a total of 22 entries, they shortlisted five screenplays for the main award and presented the Thomas Pluch Award for short or medium-length films.
The Thomas Pluch Award for short or medium-length films, worth €3,000, for the best screenplay of a film with a running time of between 15 and 70 minutes, was awarded to:
| Ein Unfall | by Angelika Spangel and Sophia Wiegele
Jury’s statement:
‘The screenplay highlights a serious danger that appears highly significant from a socio-political and ethical perspective: looking away. A lack of solidarity. Isolation. Powerlessness. We are introduced to an Austrian village. We watch children playing a prank, a father and son arguing. The authors shine a spotlight on the inhabitants and highlight the apparent banality without resorting to clichés. What is described is specific, as if taken from real life, and captivates us, the readers of this screenplay. Various characters appear in different narrative threads, linked by the finely woven plot and the theme of the stories. Angelika Spangel and Sophia Wiegele skilfully depict how empathy and a willingness to help – fundamental pillars of peaceful coexistence – come to be neglected. For here, the characters do not help one another; they assume that someone else will step in, and when they see a fire, they do not feel responsible, ‘because at that moment they do not have their mobile phone to hand’. In times of rising authoritarianism and a tangible political shift to the right, the focus on people who look away resonates particularly strongly. Who let things happen. A script about failure to render aid.”