The one-of-a-kind Austrian film festival Diagonale is a kind of laboratory for experimental film forms in Austria. Together with the festival team, we’ll take you on a trip through parties and love affairs, but also painful stories that lie hidden behind the images.

Sometimes it’s tough to navigate a foreign country’s national filmography. Fortunately, we have festivals like the Diagonale in Graz, Austria to help us out. In close cooperation with the festival, we’ve managed to select the must-see films from last year’s festival so that you can get to know the Austrian documentary works hidden between the lines. These are films that stand out from the shadows of feature-length films and often surprise with their acidic irony, powerful ideas, and their formal innovations. You can watch films from this special online screening beginning on June 8th (the same day as the start of the festival) and lasting until June 20th. We’ve decided to name this selection Longings, referring to our deepest and innermost desires to discover the secrets of our world, but also the unique stories and films of our time.

Festival programmers' note:

A program as a declaration of love to cinema and the eternal quest for happiness forever associated with it. While some cruise through town at night on a search for excess and meaning (LOLOLOL), others show what a family can achieve together (Jesus Aliens! I Think). Always at the back of our head: how do we want to live (Running on Empty)? And how have we lived (Notes from the Underworld / Jochen)? What had to happen, to break through the entrenched structures of a political system (DIE DOHNAL) and how political experience and history are passed on to future generations (Comrade Tito, I Inherit / Weiyena). Often cinema serves as an anchor here, on which to save oneself to not despair in sorrow (Soldier Ahmet). A journey through recent Austrian documentary filmmaking, celebrating its themes and formal ingenuities. Through the night, love, the parties, but also the painful stories that lie hidden behind the images.

"Do yourself a favor: become your own savior / And don’t let the sun go down on your grievances." (Daniel Johnston)