| Carl Mayer Screenplay Award | 2025 |

Theme 2025: GRANT

For an anonymously submitted fictional or documentary treatment suitable for cinema.

Prize money: € 15,000 (main prize) and € 7,500 (sponsorship prize), initiated, organised and donated by the City of Graz Department of Culture as part of the Diagonale.

Main Prize endowed with € 15,000
| Wenn Fische Robben fressen | Treatment by Klemens Hufnagl

Jury Statement:
„Ivan was once at the top. As a key player on the 1992 Lithuanian Olympic team, he was about to make the leap to the NBA, the most important basketball league in the world. But everything turned out differently. Today Ivan lives in St. Pölten, manipulates professional league games for the international betting mafia and finds himself in a constant downward spiral. His dreams are shattered, his career and his relationship(s) are shattered. With sophisticated temporal interweaving and the integration of different, sometimes beguiling types of images, Wenn Fische Robben fressen takes us into the abyss: under water, where bags of money are attached to anchor buoys; into virtual worlds, where Ivan makes contact with manipulable players; and first and foremost into the past, which is woven into the story in the form of recurring camcorder footage like a cinematic message in a bottle from better times. Little by little, they reveal the chain of coincidences and wrong decisions. The book is characterised by a truly tangible cinematic vision that alternates between gangster plot and family history and creates an idea of how sport can be credibly staged in an Austrian production. In doing so, the author strikes a very unique tone that never tips over into sensationalism and is captivating precisely because of this. All the supporting characters – no matter how small – have agency in this treatment. Ivan’s daughter and his 5-year-old granddaughter Karolina in particular draw Ivan out of his shell and his retreat into alcoholism and solitude. We really want to see this story made into a film.”

Sponsorhip Prize endowed with € 7,500
| Schorsch | Treatment by Stefan Soder

Jury Statement:
„A posh ski resort with two faces: here the traditional farming community, there the flourishing tourism, the ‘better’ society, the chic crowd. It soon becomes clear that life is no bed of roses for the local Schorsch: no country for poor men. So, in adapted Robin Hood style, he takes his cue from those who do their black-money business here. Just a little at a time, just don’t get cocky. Schorsch’s lucky streak comes to an end when he robs a Dutch temporary crook. Suddenly, many people are looking for him: Johanna, who has an undefined romantic relationship with Schorsch, in which he is never quite tangible, and who, as a policewoman, follows his robberies; the crooks from Rotterdam, who want to get their money back from Schorsch. What sounds like a banal crime plot in a nutshell is in fact a multiple and multi-layered story of liberation from innate class relations, village confinement and entrenched relationship dynamics. The book impressively illuminates several biographies and fates at the same time, revealing a feel for and knowledge of the milieu and environment. The portrayal of Johanna is particularly captivating in its depth. Despite the drastic nature of the subject matter, which intensifies page by page, Schorsch is also a humorous text – a superficially deeply Austrian story with its own genre twist.”

Jury 2025:
Sebastian Höglinger (Jury Chairman, AT)
Vivian Bausch (Director, AT)
Felix von Boehm (Producer, DE)
Fabian Rausch (Director, AT)
Françoise von Roy (Dramaturge, DE)