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\u2192 Diagonale Awards<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n As part of the Diagonale, Austria\u2019s most highly endowed film awards totalling around \u20ac 128,500 will be awarded by international juries at the upcoming 2026 edition, thereby honouring the many achievements associated with the production of a film.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n JURY FEATURE FILM<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ulrike Mu\u0308ller <\/strong>(Casting Director, DE) Ivan Salati\u0107 <\/strong>(Director & Screenwriter, ME) Cyril Sch\u00e4ublin<\/strong> (Director <\/span>& Screenwriter, CH) *Cyril Sch\u00e4ublein has stepped in for Faraz Fesharaki (director & cinematographer, DE\/IR), who unfortunately cannot attend Diagonale due to the current situation in Iran.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n JURY DOCUMENTARY FILM<\/strong><\/p>\n Susanna Guggenberger <\/strong>(Producer & Festival Director, AT\/CH) Jan K\u00fcnemund <\/strong>(Cultural Journalist & Curator, DE) Carmen Trocker <\/strong>(Director & Curator, IT) <\/p>\n JURY INNOVATIVE FILM<\/strong><\/p>\n Josef Dabernig <\/strong>(Artist & Filmmaker, AT) Anna Jermolaewa <\/strong>(Artist, AT) Pieternel Vermoortel <\/strong>(Curator & Author, AT\/BE) <\/p>\n JURY SHORT FICTION FILM<\/strong><\/p>\n Isabella Brun\u00e4cker <\/strong>(Director & Screenwriter, AT) Laura Walde <\/strong>(Curator & Film Scholar, CH) Georg Weiss <\/strong>(Cinematographer, AT) <\/p>\n JURY SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM<\/strong><\/p>\n Ekkehard Kn\u00f6rer <\/strong>(Film Critic & Cultural Scholar, DE) Nina Kusturica <\/strong>(Director & Producer, AT) Lisa Polster <\/strong>(Director, AT) <\/p>\n JURY ACTING AWARDS<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nxxx<\/pre>\n
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\n<\/strong>Ulrike M\u00fcller 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.
\nShe works throughout Europe and is responsible for casting the following films, among others: Amour Fou<\/em> (Jessica Hausner), Gavagai<\/em> (Ulrich K\u00f6hler), Sehnsucht in Sangerhausen<\/em> (Julian Radlmaier), La mort viendra<\/em> and Bis ans Ende der Nacht<\/em> (Christoph Hochh\u00e4usler), Die Theorie von allem<\/em> (Timm Kr\u00f6ger).<\/p>\n
\nIvan Salati\u0107 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<\/em> and Wondrous is the Silence of My Master<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nCyril Sch\u00e4ublin grew up in Zurich as a descendant of a family of watchmakers from the Swiss Jura. After studying Chinese language and culture in Zurich and Beijing, he studied film directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). His debut feature film Dene wos guet geit (2017) premiered in Locarno and Rotterdam, won several awards, and was nominated for the 2018 European Film Award (European Discovery). His second feature film, Unruh (2022), premiered at the 2022 Berlinale, where it won the award for Best Director in the Encounters section, and went on to travel to Toronto, San Sebasti\u00e1n, the New York Film Festival, the Viennale, and many other venues, where it received numerous awards.*<\/p>\n![\"Dokumentarfilmjury_D26_Susanna](\"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Dokumentarfilmjury_D26_Susanna-Guggenberger_c_privat-368x368.png\")
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\nSusanna 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.<\/p>\n
\nFrom 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.<\/p>\n
\nCarmen 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<\/em>, premiered in 2024 at the IDFA in Amsterdam.<\/p>\n![\"Jury](\"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Jury-Innovativ_D26_Josef-Dabernig-368x368.png\")
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\nBorn 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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n
\nAnna 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.<\/p>\n
\nVienna-based curator, author and editor. Since 2023, she has been senior curator at steirischer herbst. As artistic director of Netwerk Aalst (2016\u20132022), 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\u2019s Moving from I to It<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n![\"Jury](\"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Jury-Innovativ_D26_Isabella-Brunaecker_c_Hannah-Schwaiger-368x368.png\")
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\nIsabella Brun\u00e4cker 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<\/em> won the Kodak Analogue Film Award at the Diagonale 2025 and received the Special Jury Prize at the Gij\u00f3n International Film Festival.<\/p>\n
\nLaura 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.<\/p>\n
\nOriginally 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<\/em> (Sebastian Schmidl), Fabiu<\/em> (Stefan Langthaler) and Sola<\/em> (Alexandra Makarov\u00e1). His feature film debut as a cinematographer, Zerschlag Mein Herz<\/em> (Alexandra Makarov\u00e1), was released in Austrian cinemas in 2019 and won the Romy Award for Best Production. Perla<\/em> (Alexandra Makarov\u00e1) 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<\/em> (Andrina Mra\u010dnikar), is currently in post-production.<\/p>\n![\"Jury](\"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Jury-Innovativ_D26_Ekkehard-Knoerer-368x368.png\")
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\nEkkehard Kn\u00f6rer 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.<\/p>\n
\nBorn in Mostar, raised in Sarajevo, she has lived in Vienna since 1992 and is a film and theatre director. Her feature films, including Ciao Ch\u00e9rie<\/em> (2017), Little Alien<\/em> (2009) and Auswege<\/em> (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.<\/p>\n
\nLisa Polster (*1996) arbeitet als Regisseurin und Autorin in Wien und Berlin. Sie studierte Drehbuch\/Dramaturgie an der Filmuniversit\u00e4t Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. W\u00e4hrend des Studiums schrieb sie Drehb\u00fccher f\u00fcr Kurzfilme, die auf zahlreichen internationalen Filmfestivals gezeigt wurden (u.a. Clermont-Ferrand, Max Oph\u00fcls Preis, interfilm Berlin). Ihr Kinodokumentarfilm B\u00fcrglkopf<\/em> gewann 2025 u.a. den Gro\u00dfen Diagonale-Preis f\u00fcr 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 \u00d6FI Talent LAB sowie Startstipendiatin f\u00fcr Filmkunst des BMWKMS.<\/p>\n![\"Schauspieljury_D24_Ute](\"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Schauspieljury_D24_Ute-Baumhackl_c_ZENO_768x768_web-368x368.jpg\")
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