Biography
In her practice Eszter Katalin explores the medium of experimental essay film, weaving together documentary and fictional elements in it. Frequently, her works take their starting point from a personal experience, feeling or thought, to work with the territorial contexts she is moving in. Whether her films touch activist spaces or dedicate themselves to critical anti-discriminatory approaches, she perceives a work with representation from an LGBTQ+ position as a way of being in a constant crisis in and with images as well as with the spaces and people affected and wounded by them.
Her films have been shown internationally in exhibitions and at numerous festivals such as Diagonale – Festival of Austrian Film, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin, Berlin Revolution Film Festival, etc. In 2019 she was awarded a residency at Tabakalera – International Centre for Contemporary Culture and in 2020 at BilbaoArte Foundation. During the latter residency she created the visual essay “Azkorri árnyéka alatt”, which won the Sunset Kino Award of the Salzburger Kunstverein for filmmakers under 35. In 2023 she developed with the help of the feminist association Histeria the documentary QUEER (UN)BELONGINGS with LGBTQ+ migrant artists living in the Basque Country and received the same year the start-stipend for media-art, awarded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport. In 2024 together with Camil Téllez she won a scholarship from the municipality of Irun to explore the possibilities of ecological development of Super 8 film with the help of local plants growing in Gipuzkoa, Basque Country. Her latest film “The Many Ways to Avert One’s Eyes” is distributed by sixpackfilm. She is based in Vienna.
Screenings and Exhibits
2025 Diagonale – Festival of Austrian Film, Graz, Austria, with The Many Ways to Avert One’s Eyes (World Premiere)
2025 MATCA artspace, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, with Transición primaveral (together wiith Camil Téllez)
2024 Light Matter Film Festival, Buenos Aires, Argentina, with Arder en deseo (together with Camil Téllez)
2024 Barvinsky Art Gallery: Fragmented Worlds-Common Grounds – QMA artist collective, Vienna
2024 Minuszwei, Vienna, Austria, with Transición primaveral (together with Camil Téllez)
2024 3rd Colloquium on Latin America, Bayreuth, Germany, with QUEER (UN)BELONGINGS, part 1
2024 21st Zinegoak. Bilbao International LGTBIQ+ Film and Performing Arts Festival, Bilbao, Basque Country with QUEER (UN)BELONGINGS, part 1&2
2024 Sarean, Bilbao, Basque Country, screening of QUEER (UN)BELONGINGS, part 2
2023 VBKÖ, Vereinigung bildender Künstler*innen Österreichs, Vienna, Austria, screening of Transición primaveral, together with Camil Téllez
2023 20th Zinegoak. Bilbao International LGTBIQ+ Film and Performing Arts Festival, Bilbao, Basque Country, with QUEER (UN)BELONGINGS, part 1
2022 FLUC+ FLUC_Wanne, Vienna, Austria, Degrees of Fabrication curated by Mika Maruyama, with Transición primaveral. A mini-series about a vampire’s transitioning (together with Camil Téllez)
2022 XPOSED Special Screening Ostkino, Berlin, Germany, with Azkorri árnyéka alatt (Under the Shadow of Azkorri)
2022 XPOSED Queer Film Festival, Berlin, Germany, with Azkorri árnyéka alatt (Under the Shadow of Azkorri)
2022 Berlin Revolution Film Festival, Berlin, Germany, with Azkorri árnyéka alatt (Under the Shadow of Azkorri)
2022 Centro Huarte – Aperitifak, Huarte, Spain, Screening of Spring Transition. A mini-series about a vampire’s transitioning, project by Camil Téllez in collaboration with Eszter Katalin
2022 Likovni salon Gallery, Celje, Slovenia, with Spring Transition. A mini-series about a vampire’s transitioning, project by Camil Téllez in collaboration with Eszter Katalin
2021 38. Kasseler Dokumentarfilm- und Videofest, Kassel, Germany, with Azkorri árnyéka alatt (Under the Shadow of Azkorri)
2021 Sunset Kino, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria, as a recipient of the Sunset Kino Award for filmmakers under 35 for excellence in the field of contemporary experimental film and video for Azkorri árnyéka alatt (Under the Shadow of Azkorri), (Jury: Omer Fast, Aziza Harmel, Bernardo José de Souza)
2021 67. Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany, with Azkorri árnyéka alatt (Under thee Shadow of Azkorri)
2021 Azkuna Zentroa Alhóndiga Bilbao, Bilbao, Basque Country, screening of the series Transición primaveral (Camil Téllez, in collaboration with Eszter Katalin) in the framework of Un deseo de forma, curated by Aimar Arriola
2021 Tabakalera – International Centre for Contemporary Culture, Donostia-San Sebastián, Basque Country, group show Estudiotik at. Five years of Creation with I Hold You and You Hold Me
2021 Solar, Tenerife, Spain, online-exhibition in the framework of the project, Solo licencia de RECONOCIMIENTO. ¿Por qué islas?, with the work SOL TAN LEJOS (with Camil Téllez), organised by the association Solar, curated by Ángela Bonadies
2021 Fundación BilbaoArte Fundazioa, Bilbao, Basque Country, solo-exhibition
2020 Likovni salon Gallery, Celje, Slovenia, solo-exhibition I HOLD YOU AND YOU HOLD ME
2020 HARRIAK, Markina-Xemein, Basque Country, group-exhibition Cuerpos extraños cerca with Mária Vörösben/Mary in Red
2019 Diagonale. Festival des österreichischen Films, Graz, Austria, with Mária Vörösben/Mary in Red
2019 17th Filmmor International Women’s Film Festival on Wheels, Istanbul, Turkey, with Mária Vörösben/Mary in Red
2019 Rencontres Internationales 2018/19 (video library), Paris/Berlin, France/Germany with Mária Vörösben/Mary in Red
2018 Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Final Thesis Exhibition2017/2018, Austria with Mária Vörösben/Mary in Red
Grants
2025 Culture Moves Europe, mobility grant to Bilbao, Goethe-Institut, Germany, for the project Musgo
2024 Artistic production grant of the municipality of Irun, Basque Country, (together with Camil Téllez) for “Landare-Filma. Película Planta”
2024 Selected artist of Question Me & Answer – Collective, Vienna, Austria
2023/24 Media-Art-Stipend for emergings artists granted by the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport Austria
Residencies
2023 DAS. Artists in Refuge-program, Grisslehamn, Sweden, visiting artist
2021 Tabakalera – International Centre for Contemporary Culture, Donostia-San Sebastián, Basque Country, artist-in-residenc in collaboration with Camil Téllez in their project Transición primaveral (Part II: Vampyring)
2020 Fundación BilbaoArte, Bilbao, Basque Country, artist-in-residence with the project Azkorri árnyéka alatt
2019 Tabakalera – International Centre for Contemporary Culture, Donostia-San Sebastián, Basque Country, artist-in-residence with the project I Hold You and You Hold Me
Awards
2021 Sunset Kino Award for filmmakers under 35 for excellence in the field of contemporary experimental film and video for Azkorri árnyéka alatt (Under the Shadow of Azkorri) (Jury: Omer Fast, Aziza Harmel, Bernardo José de Souza)
Eszter Katalin 