The Diagonale, the festival of Austrian film, takes place for the first time in Salzburg in 1993.
“Austria has a new national film festival. The first DIAGONALE will be held this year from 1st to 8th December 1993 in Salzburg.
The aim of DIAGONALE is to give a representative overview of all forms of creative filmmaking in Austria, exposing trends and offering visitors the opportunity to spend eight days in December getting to know the best of Austrian films produced during the preceding twelve months.
The topical programme will be accompanied by tributes, retrospectives and special events, creating a diverse portrait of contemporary film production and of historical developments in Austrian cinematography.
A director and five executives working in the areas of feature film, short film, documentary film, the avant-garde and new media, will be responsible for selecting films and compiling the festival programme.
In order to ensure that the event retains its dynamic profile over the long term, DIAGONALE will be structured in such a way that there is a change of festival programme selectors every two years.
DIAGONALE will be organised and run by the Austrian Film Commission.”
From the press release 1993