Diagonale honours the old and the new
The Diagonale festival, which ended in Graz on March 26, crowned Michael Haneke and the film that has been the flag-bearer for Austrian cinema for over a year in competitions worldwide, from Cannes (FIPRESCI award) to the European Film Awards: Hidden [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Margaret Menegoz
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile] (see Focus) won the Diagonale Grand Prix for Best Austrian film of 2005/2006.
Along with this award for the accomplished director, the international jury moreover rewarded the dynamism of Viennese production company Coop 99, which is also behind the recent You Bet Your Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Antonin Svoboda, Benjamin Heisenberg’s Sleeper and Grbavica [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Barbara Albert
interview: Jasmila Zbanic
film profile] by Jasmila Zbanic (Silver Bear winner at the 2006 Berlin Festival), all worthy successors to Hans Weingartner’s The Edukators and Hubert Sauper’s Darwin’s Nightmare.
The new Best Documentary Award went ex aequo to Babooska, by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel (screened in the Berlin Panorama), and Exile Family Movie by Arash.
Other winners include Stadtutopien oder die Legende von Synia by Anna Martinetz (Young Jury Prize), and Martin Gschlacht and Wolfgand Thaler for their photograhy on You Bet Your Life and Working Man's Death. Best Editing went to Nina Kusturica and Bernhard Schmid (Kotsch) and Dieter Pichler in the documentary category for No Name City and Exile Family Movie.
The Most Innovative Producer Award went, ex aequo, to Allegro Film (Helmut Grasser’s company) for We Feed The World and Lotus Film (Erich Lackner’s company) for Working Man's Death, whose director, Michael Glawogger, was awarded Best Screenplay for Slumming [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which screened in competition at Berlin.
This important event in Austrian cinema highlights the emergence of young, fresh and audacious auteurs whose ideas separate them from veteran directors and whose films have persuaded the Cultural Minister to announce the creation of "more substantial funds for Austrian cinema ".
(Translated from French)
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