12/04/2022 - Ulrich Seidl's film was awarded as the best feature, Sabine Derflinger's film as the best documentary, while Sebastian Meise's Great Freedom scooped the most prizes

The winners of Diagonale were announced at the awards ceremony that took place on the last day of the festival, Sunday 10 April. Ulrich Seidl's Berlinale-premiered title Rimini [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ulrich Seidl
film profile] was crowned the best feature film by the jury consisting of Leena Koppe (cinematographer), Heike Perplais (editor) and Barbara Wurm (literature and film scholar) and awarded €19,000 by the Province of Styria. In their statement, the jury members praised Rimini for being a “sovereign interplay of all crafts, each in and of itself, laudably perfect”. Seidl’s film also got one more prize – Tanja Hausner was awarded for her costume design.

In the documentary competition, the top prize together with the check on €19,000 also provided by the Province of Styria went to Sabine Derflinger’s newest documentary Alice Schwarzer. The jury members Pierre-Emmanuel Finzi (filmmaker and distributor), Selina Hangartner (film critic) and Esther van Messel (producer) praised Derflinger's film for “the courage to play it straight with controversial material, for not being engrossed by prejudices, for the telling of a complex story driven equally by empathy and curiosity, for the artful compiling of scenes and sequences that are neither chronologically nor thematically arranged and yet follow a clear inner logic, for the great wealth of interviews and archives from all around the world creatively woven together, and for the chance to re-experience and re-comprehend history – and thereby tread lightheartedly into the future.”

The audience prize complete with the check on €3,000 given by the Kleine Zeitung went to another documentary title, Andrina Mračnikar’s Disappearing [+see also:
film review
film profile], while Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sebastian Meise
film profile] continued its triumphant festival tour, adding five more awards to its tally. Joana Scrinzi got the award for editing, Crystel Fournier for cinematography, and Sebastian Meise and Thomas Reider for the best screenplay. Georg Friedrich was deemed the best actor, while the company Freibeuter Films was commended for its outstanding production services.

CEREAL / Soy Claudia, soy Esther y soy Teresa. Soy Ingrid, soy Fabiola y soy Valeria., directed by Anna Spanlang, was deemed the best film in the Innovative Cinema category that covers innovative, experimental and animated cinema, and got the €8,500 prize from the City of Graz. Valentin Stejskal’s 5pm Seaside was awarded as the best short fiction film, while Valérie Pelet’s Augusts Orte got the award in the short documentary competition.

Full list of the winners below.

Grand Diagonale Prize of the Province of Styria

Best Feature Film
Rimini [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ulrich Seidl
film profile] – Ulrich Seidl (Austria/Germany/France)

Best Documentary Film
Alice Schwarzer – Sabine Derflinger (Austria/Germany)

Diagonale Prize Innovative Cinema by the City of Graz

Best Innovative, Experimental, or Animation Film
CEREAL / Soy Claudia, soy Esther y soy Teresa. Soy Ingrid, soy Fabiola y soy Valeria. – Anna Spanlang (Austria)

Diagonale Prize Shorts

Best Short Fiction Film
5pm Seaside – Valentin Stejskal (Austria/Greece)

Best Short Documentary
Augusts Orte – Valérie Pelet (Austria)

Diagonale Prize from the Youth Jury of the Province of Styria

Best Young Talent Film
Alles ist hin – Jan Prazak (Austria/Germany)

Diagonale Prizes for Editing

Best Artistic Editing Feature Film
Joana Scrinzi – Great Freedom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sebastian Meise
film profile] (Austria/Germany)

Best Artistic Editing Documentary Film
Dieter Pichler – For the Many – The Vienna Chamber of Labour [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Austria)

Diagonale Cinematography Prizes

Best Cinematography Feature Film
Crystel Fournier – Great Freedom

Best Cinematography Documentary Film
Judith Benedikt, Thomas Fürhapter, Klemens Koscher – Living Together [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Austria)

Diagonale Prizes for Sound Design

Best Sound Design Feature Film
Manuel Grandpierre – Luzifer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Peter Brunner
film profile] (Austria)

Best Sound Design Documentary Film
Andreas Hamza – For the Many – The Vienna Chamber of Labour

Diagonale Prizes for Production Design and Costume Design

Best Production Design
Oleg Prodeus, Andreas Sobotka, and Martin Reiter – Hinterland [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefan Ruzowitzky
film profile] (Austria/Luxembourg)

Best Costume Design
Tanja Hausner – Rimini

Diagonale Acting Prizes

Best Actress
Julia Windischbauer – Para:dies (Austria)

Best Actor
Georg Friedrich – Great Freedom

VAM Prize for Outstanding Production Services (ex aequo)
Freibeuter Film – Hinterland and Great Freedom (producers Sabine Moser and Oliver Neumann)
WILDart FILM – WOOD – Der geraubte Wald (producers Ebba Sinzinger and Vincent Lucassen)

Kodak Analog Film Prize
Beatrix [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Lilith Kraxner and Milena Czernovsky (Austria)

Diagonale Audience Prize of the Kleine Zeitung
Disappearing [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Andrina Mračnikar (Austria/Slovenia)

Franz Grabner Prize

Best Documentary
Weiyena – The Long March Home – Judith Benedikt, Weina Zhao (Austria)

Best TV Documentary
Erich Fried – Dichter im Porzellanladen – Danielle Proskar (Austria)

Thomas Pluch Screenplay Award

Grand Prix
Thomas Reider, Sebastian Meise – Great Freedom

Special Jury Prize
Kurdwin Ayub – Sonne [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kurdwin Ayub
film profile] (Austria)

Best Screenplay for Mid-length Feature Film
Fatih Gürsoy – Neverinland (Austria)

Carl Mayer Screenplay Development Award

Grand Prix
Manuel Wetschner (shared with co-writer Bernhard Jarosch) – Eklipse

Promotion Prize
Maximilian Fürst – Die Familie Hasanović