| Extras |

Trailer Diagonale 2026 © Michael Guelzow

Das Tor zur Unwirklichkeit
Michael Gülzow

What if we could effortlessly move between news, science fiction, and fake worlds? In Michael Gülzow’s video installation, we travel with the protagonists through time and realities. The filmmaker examines the media construction of truth and blurs reality and fiction by mounting found footage and his own material. He humorously reveals the mechanisms of manipulation and deconstructs post-factual narratives. Curated by Martin Grabner.

Kunsthaus Graz
Midissage: Friday, March 12, 6 p.m.
Exhibition: Februar 20 to March 29
Festival opening hours: daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., free admission

In Cooperation with Kunsthaus Graz

Lisl Ponger © Elsa Okazaki

Book presentation
Lisl Ponger. Semiotische Geister / Semiotic Ghosts

Lisl Ponger is a visual artist working at the intersection of art, art history, and ethnology. Using photography, film, and installation, she has developed a “Ponger perspective” that deconstructs dominant visual regimes in art, society, and politics. This collection of essays, edited by Elisabeth Streit and Dietmar Schwarzler, is the first to examine Ponger’s entire artistic and socio-political engagement and her strategies against the iconographies of injustice.

Gatto im Museum
Thursday, March 19, 4.30 p.m., free admission

Claudia Larcher
Less is more, more, more

Claudia Larcher examines architecture as a powerful order: spaces shape perception, emotions, and approaches, reflecting political systems and social values. In her work, Larcher moves through interior and urban spaces where absence is palpable and objects appear as witnesses to lived history. Digital collages create spaces between reality and imagination, while sound, silence, and soundscapes amplify the uncanny and make places acoustically tangible.

Akademie Graz
Opening: March 6, 7 p.m.
Claudia Larcher in conversation with curator Eva Fischer:
Friday, March 20, 4 p.m., free admission

More at akademie-graz.at

Short Film Walk
Street Cinema Graz

After Street Cinema 2025 was held indoors due to weather conditions, we are making another attempt at a cinematic tour of Lend – the district where the Graz Short Film Walk was launched in 2013. Visitors are invited to join a special form of open-air cinema, drifting through the alleys of the neighborhood and discovering current short films in courtyards and on building walls when they become temporary projection screens.

Friday, March 20 | 7.30 p.m.
Meeting point in front of the Lendhotel, Grüne Gasse 2, 8020 Graz
In case of rain, the event will take place in the foyer of the Lendhotel.

Presented by Lendhotel

Hylnur Pálmason © Hildur Ýr Ómarsdóttir

Masterclass
Hlynur Pálmason

Hlynur Pálmason, to whom Diagonale is dedicating a comprehensive retrospective, talks to Patrick Wellinski (film critic, Deutschlandfunk Kultur) about his award-winning work in a master class. The Icelandic filmmaker provides insight into development and filming processes as well as the overlaps between visual art and film. With a curious and original eye, Pálmason creates cinematic worlds that testify to his vivid imagination and, at the same time, his deep connection to the cycles of nature.

Schubertkino 1
Saturday, March 21, 2.30 p.m., free admission but ticket required

Workshop discussion
Die Kunstkomplizen

What happens when art is created not in a studio, but in the midst of life? Ebba Sinzinger’s film Die Kunstkomplizen (The Art Accomplices) offers insights into the lives of Brigitte Prinzgau and Wolfgang Podgorschek, an artistic couple who, under the alias PRINZpod, cultivate a special complicity. Embedded in an interdisciplinary approach, a humorous and true-to-life story unfolds about partnership on many levels. Nathalie Pollauf talks to the filmmaker about artistic processes, artistic relationships, and the power of interconnection.

KULTUM. Center for Contemporary Art and Religion
Sunday, March 21 | 5 p.m., free admission

In Cooperation with Kultum

Cinema Next Breakfast Club
The Joke’s On – humorous storytelling in film

In the film The Breakfast Club, five teenagers have to serve detention—at Cinema Next Breakfast Club, it’s less strict: everyone is welcome to join in. Filmmakers, students, and film fans come together to share experiences, ask questions, and think ahead. Each edition begins with short inputs from guests from the industry, after which we open the floor for exchange and discussion.

Diagonale-Bar at Volksgarten Pavillon – hosted by Eule Bier
Sunday March 22, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., free admission

A Diagonale event in collaboration with Cinema Next – Young Film from Austria

Panel Und in der Mitte: Ein Wirtshaus
Between tradition, change, and uncertainty about the future

In the panel discussion following the film program, the questions raised in the films will be further explored: Who sits at the ominous regulars’ table? And who doesn’t? Who is actually in charge here—the guest or the landlady? And what kind of future do we actually want for the pub? We discuss generational conflicts, the preservation of village centers, where the pub stands between tradition and change, and whether it needs to be rethought with filmmakers and experts. With Gloria Gammer (director), Heidemarie Stuck (town center manager, Moosburg), and Thomas Heissenberger (mayor & cooperative founder of s’Hutwisch – Wirtshaus am Dach der Welt, Hochneukirchen-Gschaidt).

Filmzentrum im Rechbauerkino
Sunday March 22, 5.15 p.m., free admission