10/03/2005 - Diagonale, one of the most important film festivals in Austria will take place in Graz from the 14th to the 20th of March. Its rich program includes TV productions, short films, experimental works, documentaries, and full-length features

Diagonale, one of the most important film festivals in Austria will take place in Graz from the 14th to the 20th of March. Its rich program includes TV productions, short films, experimental works, documentaries, and full-length features

A special retrospective on Gustav Machaty will also be organised, thanks to Filmarchiv Austria ; screenings include his famous work, Ecstasy starring Hedy Kiesler, also known as Hedy Lamaar since Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah. Machaty started as an assistant for Griffith and von Stroheim, before making, in Prague, the film Erotikon (1929), followed by Ecstasy (1933) ; his works were so potent and audaciously erotic that they quickly earned him international success.

The existence of a younger generation of directors in Turkey will also be emphasized through the program Film Production in Turkey, organised with the participation of Medienturm Graz. A workshop on editing will also take place and include a conference speech by the Belgian editor Denise Vindevogel, who worked on Darwin’s Nightmare (which will also be screened). For the first time, the Austrian festival has worked with the Europeans partners Budapest, Göteborg, and Maribor, to present in Graz their national productions. This section of the festival, called Film-Caravan will then travel to Kapfenberg, Salzburg, and Wels.

Finally, the festival also offers a good view on recent Austrian films and productions. Amongst others, we find Hotel, the horror film presented in Un Certain Regard by Jessica Hausner, Antares, by Götz Spielmann (selected in Locarno and Toronto), as well as Robert A. Pejo’s Dallash Pshende and Wulfang Murnberger’s i>Silentium [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which were both presented in Berlin, in the Panorama section. The list also includes Clemens Schönborn’s first full-length fiction feature, Fräulein Phyllis, — his short films won many prizes. Pepe Danquart, another expert in short films (Oscar 1994 for the short film Black Rider), is trying full-length feature with C[r]ook. Jörg Kalt’s Crash, Test, Dummies [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was part of the Forum selection at the Berlinale, will be shown on the opening night (3/14).

(Translated from French)