| Thomas Pluch Screenwriting Award | 2026 |

of the drehbuchVERBAND Austria in co-operation with the Diagonale

Main prize for the best screenplay for a feature-length cinema or television film | endowed with € 12,000
| Rose | by Markus Schleinzer |

Jury Statement:
“The detailed and truthful account
of a swindler of land and people,
who, though born a woman,
nevertheless behaved as a man,
and committed many wicked deeds.

This text panel opens the cinematic narrative and immediately sets the tone of the screenplay. The historical-sounding language draws us immediately into the small world of a village during the Thirty Years’ War. With an impressive economy of dialogue, tensions between characters are established in just one or two sentences; it is precisely what is left unsaid that creates a deafening silence. And a wonderfully original narrative voice guides us through the story with a blend of empathy and commentary.
Even whilst reading, the precision of detail and the dramatic mastery of the storytelling allow the story to emerge with complete clarity in the mind’s eye.”

Special jury prize for the best screenplay of a feature-length cinema or television film with particularly outstandingly treated aspects | endowed with € 7,000
| Teresas Körper | by Magdalena Chmielewska |

Jury Statement:
“With the Thomas Pluch Special Jury Prize, we are honouring a screenplay that brings the consequences of patriarchal violence and its transgenerational effects to life with great clarity, whilst also allowing the characters to retain their secrets. Here, the private sphere is not merely political; in its concrete linguistic form, it constitutes a powerful artistic statement that, even as a text in its own right, exerts a compelling pull without obscuring the hybrid documentary elements. The skilful integration of the audio layer, combined with a strong visual concept, elevates the concreteness of a single body, of a single family, into an abstraction that takes on socio-political significance.
Congratulations to Magdalena Chmielewska on winning the Thomas Pluch Special Jury Prize for Teresas Körper.”

Award for the best screenplay for a short or medium-length feature film | endowed with € 3,000
| Ein Unfall | by Angelika Spangel & Sophia Wiegel |

Jury statement:
“The screenplay for the best short film, which we are honouring today, highlights a major danger that appears to be of great socio-political and ethical significance: turning a blind eye. A lack of solidarity. Isolation. Powerlessness.
We are introduced to an Austrian village. We watch children playing a prank, a father and a son arguing with one another. The writers hold a magnifying glass to the inhabitants and shed light on the seemingly mundane without resorting to clichés. What is described is specific, as if taken from real life, and captivates us as the readers of this screenplay. Different characters appear in various narrative strands, linked by the finely woven plot and the theme of the stories.
Angelika Spangel and Sophia Wiegele skilfully depict how empathy and a willingness to help – these cornerstones of peaceful coexistence – come to be neglected. For here, the characters do not help one another; they assume that someone else will intervene and, the moment they see a fire, do not feel responsible, ‘because they haven’t put their mobile away just yet’. In times of rising autocracies and a palpable shift to the political right, the focus on people who look away resonates. People who let things happen. A script about failure to render assistance.
We would like to congratulate Angelika Spangel and Sophia Wiegele on their film Ein Unfall for their insightful analysis and for winning this year’s Thomas Pluch Screenplay Award for Best Short Film.”

NOMINEES 2026:
Landkrimi Acht by Marie Kreutzer
Rose by Markus Schleinzer, Alexander Brom
The Stories by Abu Bakr Shawky
Teresas Körper by Magdalena Chmielewska
White Snail by Elsa Kremser, Levin Peter

International Jury 2026:
Lorenz Dangel (film composer & musician, Germany)
Milan Dor (screenwriter & dramaturg, Austria)
Kyra Scheurer (dramaturg & curator, Germany)
→ Awards for main & special prize

National Jury 2026:
Jacob Groll (screenwriter & director)
Marie Luise Lehner (screenwriter, writer & director)
Joana Scrinzi (editor)
→ Award for short or medium-length feature films and nomination of screenplays for the main and special prizes