29/03/2023 - Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s film has scooped the top prize for a fiction feature, while Souls of a River by Chris Krikellis was awarded in the documentary category

Vera directors Rainer Frimmel and Tizza Covi at the 2023 Diagonale (© Diagonale/Anna Stöcher)

It has been quite a festival run for Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s Vera [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
film profile], which originally premiered at the 79^th Venice International Film Festival, where it won two awards, for Best Directing and Best Actress. Now, at the closing awards ceremony of the 2023 Diagonale, which took place on 26 March, the movie also won the Grand Diagonale Prize for Best Fiction Film, worth €21,000. The jury called it “a film that delighted and engaged us, and never stopped surprising us”. The movie follows the semi-fictional day-to-day life of Vera Gemma, the daughter of famous Italian actor Giuliano Gemma, and shows how society exploits her for this family connection and her money. The jury further called it a “tale of resilience and evolution” that demonstrates how, despite her lot in life, Vera is “able to give love out into a world that doesn’t always love her back”. This also makes it the fifth award for directorial duo Covi and Frimmel in one of the Diagonale’s main categories.

The Grand Diagonale Prize for Best Documentary Film, also endowed with €21,000, went to Souls of a River by Chris Krikellis. The essay film about the River Evros, on the Greek-Turkish border, shows a forensic doctor travelling along the border region, identifying the corpses of refugees on the river banks. The jury called it a film that poses questions “that are more urgent today than ever before. [...] Questions of belonging, home, borders, empathy, humanity, political failure and repression.” The movie also won the Diagonale Prize for Editing in the documentary-film category, for the work of Lisa Zoe Geretschläger. The corresponding winner in the fiction-film category was Felix Leitner, for Menuett.

The Diagonale Prize for Innovative Cinema, to the tune of €8,500, for the best innovative, experimental or animated film, went to C-TV (Wenn ich Dir sage, ich habe Dich gern …) by Eva Egermann and Cordula Thym. A well-off talk show host talks to people with disabilities, who give insight into their daily lives. The jury found it to be “a playful and accomplished experimentation with form and structure, which flows directly from the foregrounding of the infrastructure of representational justice”.

Further awards that were handed out were the Diagonale Acting Prizes for Pia Hierzegger in Family Dinner [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Gerhard Liebmann in Eismayer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: David Wagner
film profile]. The Diagonale Prize for Short Fiction Film went to Cornetto im Gras by David Lapuch, whereas the Diagonale Prize for Short Documentary Film went to Wankostättn by Karin Berger. The Diagonale Prize from the Youth Jury for Best Young Talent Film was awarded to Land der Berge by Olga Kosanović. 2023 also marked the first time that the Diagonale Award for Best Original Score was handed out: it went to Karwan Marouf for Sterne unter der Stadt in the fiction-film category and Gil Chéri for Wo ist Ida in the documentary one.

All in all, 19 awards, making up a total of €195,000, were presented to filmmakers throughout the evening. Furthermore, all of the winners received artwork created by artist Anna Paul.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Grand Diagonale Prize of the Province of Styria - Best Fiction Film
Vera [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel
film profile] - Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel (Austria)

Grand Diagonale Prize of the Province of Styria - Best Documentary Film
Souls of a River - Chris Krikellis (Greece/Austria/Germany)

Diagonale Prize for Innovative Cinema by the City of Graz - Best Innovative, Experimental or Animation Film
C-TV (Wenn ich Dir sage, ich habe Dich gern …) - Eva Egermann, Cordula Thym (Austria)

Diagonale Prize for Short Fiction Film
Cornetto im Gras - David Lapuch (Austria)

Diagonale Prize for Short Documentary Film from the KULTUM - Best Short Documentary
Wankostättn - Karin Berger (Austria)

Diagonale Prize from the Youth Jury of the Province of Styria - Best Young Talent Film
Land der Berge - Olga Kosanović (Austria/Germany)

Diagonale Prizes for Editing from the Verband Filmschnitt aea

Best Artistic Editing in a Fiction Film
Felix Leitner – Menuett (Austria/Germany)

Best Artistic Editing in a Documentary Film
Lisa Zoe Geretschläger - Souls of a River

Diagonale Cinematography Prizes from the Verband Österreichischer Kameraleute AAC

Best Cinematography in a Fiction Film
Judith Kaufmann – Corsage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marie Kreutzer
interview: Marie Kreutzer
film profile] (Austria/Luxembourg/Germany/France)

Best Cinematography in a Documentary Film
Klemens Koscher - 27 Storeys (Austria/Germany)

Diagonale Prizes for Sound Design from the Berufsvereinigung der Filmtonschaffenden Österreichs – Filmton Austria

Best Sound Design in a Fiction Film
Lenja Gathmann - Family Dinner [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Austria)

Best Sound Design in a Documentary Film
Clemens Endreß - Jedermann und ich – Ein Porträt in 3 Kapiteln (Germany/Austria)

Diagonale Prizes for Production Design and Costume Design from the Verband Österreichischer Filmausstatter*innen VÖF

Best Production Design
Martin Reiter - Corsage

Best Costume Design
Claire Dubien - The Beast in the Jungle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Patric Chiha
film profile] (Austria/France/Belgium)

Diagonale Acting Prizes in cooperation with the VdFS – Verwertungsgesellschaft der Filmschaffenden
Pia Hierzegger - Family Dinner
Gerhard Liebmann – Eismayer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: David Wagner
film profile] (Austria)

VAM Prize for Outstanding Production Services (ex aequo)
Samsara Filmproduktion and Graf Filmproduktion - Rubikon [+see also:
film review
interview: Leni Lauritsch
film profile] (producers Loredana Rehekampff, Andreas Schmied, Klaus Graf)
Aichholzer Filmproduktion - Snotty Boy [+see also:
trailer
interview: Marcus H Rosenmüller and Sa…
film profile] (producers Josef Aichholzer, Ernst Geyer)
Film AG - Corsage (producers Alexander Glehr, Johanna Scherz)

Diagonale Award for Film Composition of the Austrian Composers Association

Best Original Score in a Fiction Film
Karwan Marouf - Sterne unter der Stadt (Austria)

Best Original Score in a Documentary Film
Gil Chéri - Wo ist Ida (Austria/Greece/Israel/Portugal)

Kodak Analog Film Prize
Ludwig Wüst, Klemens Koscher – I Am Here! [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Austria)

Diagonale Audience Prize of the Kleine Zeitung
Feminism WTF - Katharina Mückstein (Austria)