Morak's intervention in the directorship is thought to be an attempt to make a more commercially oriented readjustment of the festival as well as a politically motivated "act of retaliation" against the film scene and the festival management, because the Diagonale positioned itself as a forum for anti-government protests and video works a few weeks after the controversial formation of the coalition between FPÖ and ÖVP in 2000. In the course of the controversy at the time over a petition printed in the festival catalog by numerous well-known filmmakers demanding the resignation of the government, the then Styrian regional councilor Hirschmann (ÖVP) even temporarily withheld the promised prize money from the state of Styria. In the course of a restructuring by the supporting association "Forum österreichischer Film", the general assembly of the Diagonale appointed the three-person team Birgit Flos (artistic director), Robert Buchschwenter (production manager) and Georg Tillner (finance manager) as the new Diagonale management at the end of April 2004 on the suggestion of the Diagonale advisory board. After Buchschwenter and Tillner left, Oliver Testor took over the management of the festival in May 2005 until 2009. The Diagonale 2006 took place from March 21 to 26 in Graz under the directorship of Birgit Flos. The festival center was set up in the Kunsthaus Graz for the first time in 2006. The UCI Annenhofkino, Schubertkino, KIZ RoyalKino, and the Filmzentrum im Rechbauerkino were the festival cinemas. In cooperation with the Kunsthaus Graz, the Diagonale also organized a highlight of the festival: In a tribute to the artist Maria Lassnig, her complete cinematic oeuvre was shown in newly restored copies. In December 2006, Birgit Flos' contract was extended until the Diagonale 2008. Also since 2006, there have been two equally endowed Grand Diagonale Prizes, for the best feature film and for the best documentary film. Director Barbara Pichler (2009 to 2015) From 2009 to 2015, the festival was directed by curator, publicist, and film mediator Barbara Pichler, who established the festival as a mediation and discussion platform for Austrian cinema with a more streamlined programming and increased focus on international industry networking. Her original three-year contract was initially extended by the Diagonale's sponsoring association until 2014 and later, at Pichler's own request, for only one more year until 2015. The directorship of the Diagonale from the 2016 festival onwards was put out to tender again at the beginning of April