| Diagonale | Jurys 2026 |

As part of the Diagonale, Austria’s most highly endowed film awards will be awarded by international juries at the upcoming 2026 edition, thereby honouring the many achievements associated with the production of a film. Here we will gradually introduce the jury members for the upcoming festival edition.

JURY FEATURE FILM

Faraz Fesharaki (Director & Cinematographer, DE/IR)
The Iranian-German filmmaker studied dramatic literature and film in Tehran, attended Abbas Kiarostami’s workshops and studied cinematography at the DFFB in Berlin. His graduation film What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? by Alexandre Koberidze premiered at the 2021 Berlinale, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize and the Best Cinematography Award at the Seville Film Festival. Since then, he has worked as a cinematographer on several successful feature films. His latest feature film, Phantoms of July by Julian Radlmaier, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival 2025. His directorial debut, What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov? premiered at the Berlinale Forum 2024.

Ulrike Müller (Casting Director, DE)
Ulrike Müller grew up in Bavaria with a Austrian mother from Graz. In the summer of 1989, she moved to Berlin, where she studied, worked in theatre and then became a freelance casting director.
She works throughout Europe and is responsible for casting the following films, among others: Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner), Gavagai (Ulrich Köhler), Sehnsucht in Sangerhausen (Julian Radlmaier), La mort viendra and Bis ans Ende der Nacht (Christoph Hochhäusler), Die Theorie von allem (Timm Kröger).

Ivan Salatić (Director & Screenwriter, ME)
Ivan Salatić is a Montenegrin director and screenwriter whose films have been screened at international festivals such as the Venice International Film Festival and Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR). He directed the feature films You Have the Night and Wondrous is the Silence of My Master.

JURY DOCUMENTARY FILM

Susanna Guggenberger (Producer & Festival Director, AT/CH)
Susanna Guggenberger grew up in Austria and has been working in the film industry for almost 30 years. Her focus is on producing documentaries for Mira Film (CH). Since 2021, she has been the artistic director of the Bildrausch Filmfest Basel. Her commitment to filmmaking is also reflected in her memberships in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and the Documentary Association Europe (DAE), as well as her board membership at Balimage Basel.

Jan Künemund (Film Critic & Screenwriter, DE)
Cultural journalist and curator. From 2006 to 2015, he worked for the film distributor Salzgeber and was editor of the film magazine Sissy. He then taught media studies at the University of Hildesheim for six years. He also wrote film reviews for Spiegel Online, taz, Tagesspiegel and Deutschlandfunk and curated festivals, including the Duisburg Film Week, the Dokfilmfest Kassel and the Berlinale Forum. He is currently a member of the selection committee for DOK Leipzig and Docs Barcelona. He lives in Berlin and has been head of public relations for the Gay Museum since 2023.

Carmen Trocker (Director & Curator, IT)
Carmen Trocker was born and raised in South Tyrol. She studied at the Zelig Film School in Bolzano and the DFFB in Berlin and has been living and working in Berlin ever since. She has worked as a freelance editor, organising international art projects between Italy and Berlin, and for several years she curated the documentary film programme of the KUKI short film festival in Berlin. Her latest film, Personale, premiered in 2024 at the IDFA in Amsterdam.

JURY INNOVATIVE FILM

Josef Dabernig (Artist & Filmmaker, AT)
Born in Lienz in 1956. Studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Dabernig’s films have been shown at exhibitions such as Manifesta 3, the 49th Venice Biennale, the 1st Bergen Assembly, the 6th Contour Biennale, Manifesta 10, steirischerherbst’20 and ’22, and the Baltic Triennial 15. His film Hypercrisis was nominated for the European Film Award in the short film category at the 68th Venice International Film Festival and won the Diagonale Prize for Innovative Cinema in 2012. Film screenings as part of Diagonale 2013 and the 62nd International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen.

Anna Jermolaewa (Artist, AT)
Anna Jermolaewa (*1970, Leningrad) lives and works in Vienna. She studied art history at the University of Vienna and new media at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her artistic practice encompasses conceptual and installation-based works using various media that address social and political issues as well as the poetics of everyday life. She is a professor of experimental design at the University of Art and Design Linz. Her works have been shown internationally at major institutions and biennials, including the Venice Biennale, the Berlin Biennale, the Gwangju Biennale and the Taipei Biennale.

Pieternel Vermoortel (Curator & Author, AT/BE)
Vienna-based curator, author and editor. Since 2023, she has been senior curator at steirischer herbst. As artistic director of Netwerk Aalst (2016–2022), she focused on the decentralisation of curatorial practices and how cultural production can be made public, experienced or discussed. At FormContent in London, which she co-founded in 2006, she worked on the nomadic project It’s Moving from I to It on art criticism, authorship and subject-object relationships. Vemoortel has published numerous publications and curated exhibitions in London, Cairo and Singapore, among other places. She has held permanent teaching positions at Goldsmiths College in London and KASK in Ghent.

JURY SHORT FICTION FILM

Isabella Brunäcker (Director & Screenwriter, AT)
Isabella Brunäcker is a director, producer and screenwriter. She was born in Salzburg in 1984 and studied English and American literature in Salzburg, film at the Friedl Kubelka School and fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. From 2005 to 2013, she lived and worked in London, and currently resides in Vienna. Her feature film debut Sugarland won the Kodak Analogue Film Award at the Diagonale 2025 and received the Special Jury Prize at the Gijón International Film Festival.

Laura Walde (Curator & Film Scholar, CH)
Laura Walde has been curating for the International Short Film Festival Winterthur since 2013, and in 2022 she received her doctorate from the University of Zurich on brevity in film. She was co-director of the Swiss Youth Film Festival, advised BA students at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts on festival strategies, and was managing director of Pro Short, the Swiss short film association. In addition to her work as project manager for education and communication at the Foundation for Art, Culture and History (SKKG), she is a freelance film curator and strategy consultant for cinemas, festivals and funding institutions.

Georg Weiss (Cinematographer, AT)
Originally coming from a musical background, Georg Weiss first studied art history before completing his studies in cinematography and image design at the Film College Vienna. There he realised, among other things, the short films Liebling (Sebastian Schmidl), Fabiu (Stefan Langthaler) and Sola (Alexandra Makarová). His feature film debut as a cinematographer, Zerschlag Mein Herz (Alexandra Makarová), was released in Austrian cinemas in 2019 and won the Romy Award for Best Production. Perla (Alexandra Makarová) premiered in Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2025 and won the Vienna Film Prize, the Diagonale Audience Award and the Romy for Best Feature Film. His latest project, Mila/Marija (Andrina Mračnikar), is currently in post-production.

JURY SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM

Ekkehard Knörer (Film Critic & Cultural Scholar, DE)
Ekkehard Knörer is a cultural scientist, critic, editor, author, co-founder and co-editor of the magazine Cargo. Film/Medien/Kultur, and author and co-editor of the magazine Merkur. He writes about film, literature and theatre and is a freelance author for taz, critic.de, Theater heute and others. He lives in Berlin.

Nina Kusturica (Director & Producer, AT)
Born in Mostar, raised in Sarajevo, she has lived in Vienna since 1992 and is a film and theatre director. Her feature films, including Ciao Chérie (2017), Little Alien (2009) and Auswege (2003), as well as other documentaries and short films, have been shown and awarded at numerous international film festivals. She has directed theatre productions at Dschungel Wien, Werk X and Kosmos Theater, among others. She is currently working on a new feature-length documentary film. She teaches film and film acting at universities, gives workshops, works as a dramaturgical consultant and repeatedly serves on juries and advisory boards for funding institutions and festivals.

Lisa Polster (Director, AT)
Lisa Polster (*1996) arbeitet als Regisseurin und Autorin in Wien und Berlin. Sie studierte Drehbuch/Dramaturgie an der Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. Während des Studiums schrieb sie Drehbücher für Kurzfilme, die auf zahlreichen internationalen Filmfestivals gezeigt wurden (u.a. Clermont-Ferrand, Max Ophüls Preis, interfilm Berlin). Ihr Kinodokumentarfilm Bürglkopf gewann 2025 u.a. den Großen Diagonale-Preis für den Besten Dokumentarfilm sowie den Diagonale Preis der Jugendjury, weiters den Best Central and East European Documentary Film Award des Ji.hlava IDFF. Derzeit ist sie Teilnehmerin des ÖFI Talent LAB sowie Startstipendiatin für Filmkunst des BMWKMS.

JURY ACTING AWARDS

Ute Baumhackl (Chief Reporter Culture and Society, Kleine Zeitung, AT)
Born in Graz in 1968, grew up in southern Styria. Studied various foreign languages (Arabic, English, Russian). Editor at the Kleine Zeitung since 2005, 2013 – 2023 Head of Culture & Media, since 2024 Chief Reporter Culture & Society.

Roland Koch (Actor & Director, AT/CH)
Born in Uezwil (Switzerland), Roland Koch studied psychology, philosophy and ethnology, graduated from the Zurich Drama School and performed at major theatres in Germany. Since 1999, he has been a member of the ensemble at the Burgtheater in Vienna, with guest performances in Basel and Munich. He has often worked with director Andreas Kriegenburg, has been nominated several times for the Nestroy Prize and won the theatre award for ‘Best Supporting Role’ in 2015. In addition to his theatre engagements, he has appeared in film and television, given guest lectures and taught acting, including at the Max Reinhardt Seminar.

Christian Konrad (Head of Film Department, ORF, AT)
Studied classical guitar at the Academy of Music in Vienna.After completing his studies, he started at ORF as a holiday trainee in the ‘Kunststücke’ programme, later switched to culture and finally ended up in the film department.He has been the head of the film department at ORF since October 2010.

Sona MacDonald (Actress & Singer, AT)
Sona MacDonald has worked with directors such as Peter Zadek, Peter Stein, Steven Berkoff and Matthias Hartmann and has performed at venues including the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Volksoper and the Kammerspiele der Josefstadt. At the same time, she developed an international singing career with leading roles in musicals, concerts and CD recordings. She has been awarded the O. E. Hasse Prize, the Kurt Meisel Prize and the Nestroy Prize, among others, for her achievements. In 2014, Sona MacDonald was awarded the professional title of Kammerschauspielerin (chamber actress) by the Federal Chancellery.

Alexandra Makarová (Director, AT)
Born in Košice, Slovakia, in 1985, Alexandra Makarová moved to Vienna after the fall of the Iron Curtain and studied screenwriting and directing at film college. With Zerschlag mein Herz (2018), a drama about Slovakian Roma begging in Vienna, she directed her first feature film. Her second feature film, Perla, won the Audience Award at Diagonale ’25 as well as the Diagonale Awards for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.