17/03/2025 - This year’s Graz-based gathering does not shy away from tough, relevant topics and remains a seismograph for sociopolitical changes

“Back to the roots” is one of the many themes marking the 2025 edition of the Diagonale Festival of Austrian Film. The gathering returns to Graz’s Lend district with a short-film programme, showing titles in temporary cinema venues that were built for the first time back in 2013, positioned on the walls of buildings and in back gardens. These shorts are the work of both young Austrians and international filmmakers.

With regard to its regular programme, running from 27 March-1 April, the Diagonale once again boasts a wide range of fiction features, documentaries, short films and innovative titles, screened both in competition and in the special sections. The screenings encompass 163 films, 91 of which will be Austrian or world premieres. “Critical assessment, subversive comedy and a road movie in search of change” are the cornerstones of this year's programme, as identified by festival co-heads Dominik Kalmazadeh and Claudia Slana. Austrian film, with its broad spectrum of themes, “has its finger on the pulse of the times and remains a seismograph for sociopolitical changes”.

Opening the festival on 27 March is How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Florian Pochlatko
film profile] by Florian Pochlatko, which recently had its world premiere at the 75th Berlinale. “Sometimes, there are debut films whose untamed nature is simply stunning and which leave a lasting impression,” Kalmazadeh and Slana say about their choice. The 2025 Grand Diagonale Acting Award will go to Austrian thesp Inge Maux in recognition of her contributions to national film culture.

A total of 17 fiction features will be part of the competition. Austrian actress Pia Hierzegger makes her directorial debut with the road-trip movie Altweibersommer, as does Julia Windischbauer with her feature Callas, Darling. Marie Luise Lehner is screening her Berlinale-awarded debut, If You Are Afraid You Put Your Heart into Your Mouth and Smile [+see also:
film review
film profile]. Amongst the 19 documentary films getting an airing are Olga Kosanović’s Noch lange keine Lipizzaner, Bürglkopf by Lisa Polster and Markus Zizenbacher’s The Life of Sean DeLear, recently rewarded at Max Ophüls.

One of this year’s film-history specials looks at the gruesome but funny side of Austria. “Austria – A Satire” is the catchy name, and with it, the festival dedicates seven programmes to a search for traces of satirical work in Austrian film and television history from 1976-1989. The second film-history special is dubbed “The Toxic Legacy of Vienna Film”, examining the Nazi past of the titular film studio, which shot movies under the direct command of Joseph Goebbels.

This year’s retrospectives are dedicated to Austrian documentarian Ivette Löcker and Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari. Should one need a break from the screens and discussions, artist Susanna Flock has just opened her Unmatched Signals exhibition at the Kunsthalle Graz, and Simona Obholzer, the designer of the festival trailer, The Lawn Is the Most Pleasant Sight in the Scenery, will open her Diagonale exhibition Pleasant to the Eye and Soft to the Feet at Kunsthaus Graz during the festival – specifically, on 28 March.