| Media Coverage 2025 | Selection |

“Present, awake, very young – traditionally broad-based in the midst of the new abnormal: This is how Diagonale 2025, the festival of Austrian film in Graz, presents itself, with outstanding documentaries on show.”
taz, Silvia Hallensleben

“The Diagonale puts Styria back at the centre of the film world. The festival is both a place of retrospection and one of the future.”
der Grazer, Victoria Weitenthaler,

“After last year’s seamless transition of directors, Dominik Kamalzadeh and Claudia Slanar, in collaboration with their curators, have put together a very young, female and political programme this year. From psychiatry to the lunacy of Austrian naturalisation requirements to the Albanian beach, an exciting journey of discovery leads through the diversity of Austrian filmmaking.”
ray Filmmagazin, Günter Pscheider

“Highlighters at hand, here are the first highlights from the festival of festivals of Austrian film, from these days and nights in Graz, when this second largest city in the country is so lively and enthusiastic.”
Radio FM4, Maria Motter

“With the Diagonale, southern Austria becomes the centre of Austrian film every spring.”
Kleine Zeitung, Julia Schafferhofer

“The Diagonale in Graz consolidates its reputation as the most important platform for Austrian filmmaking.”
Blickpunkt Film, Dunja Bialas

“In Graz, the Diagonale film festival presents a multifaceted selection of current Austrian films – let yourself be inspired!”
weekend Magazin

“For six days, the focus is on young and established Austro cinema – along with all the audience favourites and stars.”
Neue Vorarlberger Tageszeitung

“What’s going on in Austrian film? The Diagonale, the festival of Austrian film in Graz, provides the answers. This year, starting with the opening, there are more debut feature films on the programme than ever before.”
FALTER, Michael Omasta

“Graz is once again becoming a magnet in the Austrian cinema landscape.”
Mein Bezirk

“If proof is needed of the diversity of genres and styles in this country’s cinema, then the festival will provide it. (…) It will also look deep into Austria’s cinema history and pay tribute to a famous Greek director: Athina Rachel Tsangari will honour Graz with her presence and her (almost) entire cinema oeuvre.”
profil, Stefan Grissemann

“For six days, Graz will once again be dominated by Austrian film; for six days, very young and long-established filmmakers will populate the streets of the city, breathe in the spring air and discuss their work and the associated conditions, from the necessity of intimacy coordination to questions of distributive justice, the work of the assault reporting centre #We_do! and many other things – the reality in front of and behind the camera, on and off the screen.”
orf.at (topos), Magdalena

“Film festivals like the Diagonale, cinema in general, as well as theatre, painting, literature and art in general, enable us to gain insights on deeper levels of our consciousness. We may not be able to formulate them immediately in print, but it enables us to understand them in a multi-layered way that involves the senses.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Nava Ebrahimi

“This year’s Graz Diagonale celebrates strong female film positions. ”
Kronen Zeitung, Jasmin Gaderer

“In the coming festival days, the Diagonale offers a unique opportunity to discover the broad spectrum of Austrian filmmaking in all its facets.”
The Spot Media & Film, Barbara Schuster

“The programe captivates with dynamic, human cinema that creatively addresses exclusions without reproducing them.”
Der Standard, Valerie Dirk

“The second Diagonale edition by Claudia Slanar and Dominik Kamalzadeh focuses on subversive comedy, looking across borders and surveying the country.”
Kleine Zeitung, Julia Schafferhofer

“The 28th Diagonale will be a place of exchange and orientation towards new horizons.”
80 Kulturzeitung

“When Graz becomes a cinematic playground, one thing is clear: the Diagonale is just around the corner and will once again transform the Styrian capital into the pulsating centre of Austrian film. Florian Pochlatko’s feature film debut celebrates its Austrian premiere at the opening in the Helmut List Halle. (…) Just the right start for a festival that continues to explore the boundaries of Austrian cinema.”
Die Furche, Matthias Greuling

“Austrian filmmaking is highly diverse, sometimes even neurodiverse: ever since the mentally troubled main character Pia in Florian Pochlatko’s exploding feature film debut How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World wandered through Vienna and several film genres in search of herself, opening the Diagonale, the festival of Austrian film has been buzzing at full speed. The cinemas are full to bursting, crowds are massing at the box offices.”
Kurier, Alexandra Seibl

“When the Diagonale calls, Graz experiences a week fit for a film. The opening was spectacular and featured a highly prominent cast.”
Spirit of Styria

“An indispensable meeting place for film enthusiasts from Austria and abroad.”
Steirer Krone

“Graz is currently the centre of the Austrian film industry. It meets at the renowned Diagonale festival.”
ORF Zeit im Bild

“Fans of Austrian film can’t avoid Graz these days: it’s Diagonale time again, and the city’s cinemas and other venues are packed day and night with festival programmes.”
Die Presse

“The Diagonale brings the audience and the industry together directly and in real life.”
Radio FM4, Maria Motter

“A festival like the Diagonale is not only a showcase for Austrian film, but also a place where its future is negotiated. How does art change in times of change? What role does cinema play as a place of reflection and social interaction? The festival shows: the future remains uncertain, but it can be shaped. Cinema cannot provide answers, but it can raise questions, provide impulses and open up spaces for thought. Perhaps this is its greatest potential – not to prophesise the future.”
Raiffeisen Zeitung, Michael Forster

“This year’s Diagonale festival programme, which opened on Thursday evening with political appeals and a creative explosion, takes a convincing direction in this respect.”
Der Standard, Valerie Dirk

“In their second year as directors, Claudia Slanar and Dominik Kamalzadeh can rightly be pleased about a certain spirit of optimism and a strong sign of life from the new generation.”
FALTER, Michael Omasta

“Last week, the Diagonale was opened by Dominik Kamalzadeh and Claudia Slanar in the Helmut List Halle with a moving speech. At a time when culture in Styria is being re-evaluated and the provincial government has decided that there is no more room for open, critical, innovative and diverse culture, a festival is taking place here that stands up for exactly that. It was therefore only logical that the two artistic directors took up this issue and also directly addressed the lack of willingness to compromise on the part of politicians. They posed the question: do you have to subordinate yourself when everything goes wrong?”
subtext.at, Lisa Leeb

“For Slanar and Kamalzadeh, securing the breadth and openness of the Diagonale programme will be important in the future. (…) Solidarity for their high-calibre and multi-layered programme is assured.”
artechock.de

“As every year, the Diagonale cast its spell and transformed Graz into a place of exchange for Austrian film culture. This is how film can be celebrated.”
Annenpost

“The Diagonale is not only a meeting place for the veteran film industry, but also a stage for people who are just about to gain a foothold in it.”
The Gap

“The diversity and quality of Austrian film was once again on display at the 28th edition of the Diagonale, which ended on Monday. At a time when cultural funding is being thinned out, this is a nice observation on the one hand, but also a testimony to the willingness of the country’s creative artists to exploit themselves time and again: High quality at a low price only comes at the expense of human
substance.”
Salzburger Nachrichten, Gini Brenner

“The audience was also present, alert and pleasantly young, having travelled here out of enthusiasm for film and a desire to network.”
taz, Silvia Hallensleben

“Dominik Kamalzadeh and Claudia Slanar also describe the festival as a place of artistic and political practice. It therefore comes as no surprise that the programme for this year’s edition was bold and critical, provocative, stimulated dialogue and dismantled Austria as a uniform construct.”
maximumcinema.ch, Sara Bucher

“In the second year of their directorship, they proved with the international industry that the Diagonale remains the most important platform for Austrian filmmaking. Producers and filmmakers discussed the changes and ideas at the multi-day Diagonale Film Meeting in the Heimatsaal above the tranquil historic centre of Graz. In line with the credo of the new dual leadership, the meeting also focussed on topics that currently reflect the zeitgeist in film production: Intimacy coordination, job sharing, inclusive production and incentive models are virulent on both sides of the Alps.”
Blickpunkt Film, Dunja Bialas

“The Graz Diagonale film festival set aesthetic class and political rebuttals against the Styrian right-wing pressure. (…) In a year of darkening cultural politics, in the face of looming budget cuts in Styria’s blue-black government, films that testify to humanism, diversity and fighting spirit are very much needed.”
profil, Stefan Grissemann

„Diagonale delievered another excellent edition. I‘ll always look forward to returning to this wonderful film festival.“
@cinematologist_

“It’s impressive what brilliant films are being made in this country with minimal budgets. The latest Austrian cinema is leaving behind the smoothly polished rules of the international film industry, according to which the design should distract as little as possible from the plot, in a revolutionary way. It is once again aware of the political component of editing techniques and has little fear of the audience leaving the theatre if the so-called theme is not crystal clear in the first few minutes. On the contrary, the audience takes home a new pair of eyes from the cinema visit.”
tagebuch.at, Andrea Grill

“At its 28th edition, the Diagonale in Graz, the annual showcase of Austrian film, recalled earlier attempts to put a political stamp on the festival with a view to current developments. The special programme Austria – A Satire showed a creative approach to grievances and political attacks, with works that proved to be intelligent and highly topical. But contemporary Austrian cinema was also able to shine with original feature and documentary films.”
filmdienst.de, Carolin Weidner

“Austria’s diverse contemporary cinema also sees itself as highly political, as the Diagonale 2025, which ends today, demonstrated. At last night’s charmingly improvised award ceremony at the Annenhof cinema in Graz, which was cancelled at short notice, a series of works were honoured that confront the social darkening we are experiencing worldwide with sometimes glaring spotlights that look the monsters of war and hatred of humanity straight in the eye.”
profil, Stefan Grissemann