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DIAGONALE 2021

The 24th edition of the Diagonale kicks off

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- The event celebrating Austrian film will supplement this year’s cinema screenings in Graz with a digital offering

The 24th edition of the Diagonale kicks off
Fox in a Hole by Arman T Riahi

The Diagonale, Austria’s annual national film festival, is once again ready to organise public festival screenings in Graz after a gap of more than two years. Unfolding from 8-13 June, the 2021 Diagonale will show a rich selection of films that encompasses a total of 108 fiction features, documentaries and short films.

“Beat and anarcho authors, clowns, enfants terribles and Jedermann’s mistress (Buhlschaft). From underground music to Berlin-based artists’ dives into the underworld of Vienna’s outskirts, and from there to the streets of the motor city Detroit. This year’s competition is an invitation to take an on-screen border-crossing journey through countries and biographies. To view together, look at one another and watch,” said Sebastian Höglinger and Peter Schernhuber, the directors of the festival, about the selection.

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In order to respect all of the official safety regulations, the festival will organise screenings and other events at new sites and additional venues, such as the Helmut List Halle, which can accommodate roughly 600 viewers and will host the festival’s opening ceremony and gala premieres. The opening slot has been entrusted to Arman T Riahi’s Fox in a Hole [+see also:
film review
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interview: Arman T Riahi
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]
, a drama inspired by Wolfgang Riebniger’s experiences as a special-needs teacher at the Vienna-Josefstadt prison. The awarding of the Grand Diagonale Acting Prize 2021 to Christine Ostermayer will also take place as part of the celebratory opening on 8 June.

The festival will supplement this year’s cinema screenings in Graz with a digital offering dubbed “Canale Diagonale”, which will include curated collections, online premieres and occasional live streams of the industry and audience discussions. For the first time, the awards ceremony on 13 June will take the shape of a show produced on site (directed by Sebastian Brauneis) and will be livestreamed on several Austrian websites before being broadcast on television.

This edition’s historical special, entitled “Sehnsucht 20/21 – City and Desire”, will show 21 fiction features, documentaries and experimental films that were planned for the Diagonale 2020 historical special. In parallel with this section, the “Displaced Persons – Keine Heimat, nirgendwo!” programme aims to recall historical migration movements via films that focus on so-called displaced persons’ lives in the camps, and movies made by emigrant filmmakers.

Diagonale 2021 will also include a spotlight on Jessica Hausner, which consists of a retrospective of her films and talks with the director. As for the festival’s “In Reference” section, which interconnects local film creation with itself and with the international scene, this year, as curated by Alexander Horwath, it will include a screening of Hat Wolff von Amerongen Konkursdelikte begangen? by Gerhard Friedl and the Austrian premiere of Give Me Liberty by Kirill Mikhanovsky, followed by a virtual workshop with Mikhanovsky.

Furthermore, this edition of the Diagonale will present a two-part mini-special that honours Elfriede Jelinek, who will turn 75 this year, as well as a premiere of Ulrike Ottinger’s Paris Calligrammes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ulrike Ottinger
film profile
]
.

Lastly, the gathering will continue its “Diagonale im Dialog” series, which consists of talks about the films set to be shown. These take place either before or after the screenings, and since their introduction in 2017, they have made it possible for the audience to enjoy encounters with key figures in local filmmaking.

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