Baba, Ne Yapmayı Düşünüyorsun? / Baba, What's Your Plan?

March 19 and 20, 2026 Annenhofkino and Schubertkino, Graz

Congratulations to Tolga Karaaslan, Time-Based and Interactive Media Art: His thesis project won the documentary film competition and was honored as the best inclusive film. The film premiered on March 19, 2026, at the Annenhofkino.

Tolga Karaaslan from the University of Art and Design Linz won the documentary film competition at Diagonale—and the 31-year-old artist from the Department of Time-Based and Interactive Media Art also received the 2026 Mabacher Award for Best Inclusive Film at Diagonale for “Baba, What’s Your Plan?” In it, he explores the life of his ailing father, who has applied for disability benefits. The film will have its Upper Austrian premiere at the Crossing Europe competition, which takes place from April 28 to May 3.

The jury’s statement for the Mabacher Award: The film (...) took us on a journey: footage from rural Turkey, family photos, and conversations between son and father— which take place at various locations in the area between Wels and Linz — are just a few of the stops along the way in this intimate and sincere portrait that director Tolga Karaaslan creates of, through, and with his father. Despite its closeness and intimacy, the film rejects any form of voyeurism and creates a cross-generational exploration of the family’s history between father and son, with the father’s voice remaining the central voice of expression in respectful devotion. The cinematic portrait tells of (chronic) illness, migration, hope, and of losing the latter only to find it anew time and again—even under the most challenging circumstances. With his film, Tolga Karaaslan is able to offer hope to others as well, especially since it emphasizes the multifaceted nature of being human, while also making clear how much one can learn through sincere dialogue with and from one another.

Information about the movie:

Baba, Ne Yapmayı Düşünüyorsun? / Baba, What's Your Plan?
Documentary, AT/TR 2026, 89 min 
Director: Tolga Karaaslan

Celal Karaaslan, a Turkish migrant from Austria, asks his son what he should do in life. Usually, it was Celal who had the answers. Shaped by both physically demanding work and cancer, he is no longer able to work. However, his question initiates a journey together to find a purpose in life.

“Baba, What's Your Plan? (Orig. Baba, Ne Yapmayı Düşünüyorsun?) unfolds as an intimate documentary engagment by a son with his father’s life, and at the same time as a quiet portrait of a migrant biography. As Celal Karaaslan narrates and reminisces, with a handheld camera Tolga Karaaslan accompanies his father on his journey through the past: through the landscapes and villages of Turkey where he grew up, and through the significant places of his life in Austria. However, the return to these earlier places does not reveal rediscovery as much as alienation: abandoned houses, a dilapidated school building, a parcel of land that has been sold. Almost everything now appears only as a trace of a past life.” (Written by Hayrunnisa Özçelik, for sixpackfilm)

“The film thus becomes a quiet narrative about the desire for belonging and continuity, about a life that long revolved around work and whose meaning is shaken by illness. As the father talks about his inability to work and the long wait for his disability pension, questions of identity, responsibility, and familial role models come to the fore. In the dialogue between Celal’s question to his son about what he should do with his life now and the film title’s mirroring question posed by his son, Baba, What's Your Plan? there arises the impetus for a shared search, leading them both on a journey. The attempt at intergenerational understanding is made visible: memories are shared, life stories recorded, and yet it becomes apparent that a part of the past always slips away. Places change, meanings shift, and any record can only approximate the life that has been lived. A brief moment of shared arrival, when several generations sit at the table, suggests the way in which memory remains fleeting before it once again becomes the past.” (Hayrunnisa Özçelik, Translation: John Wojtowicz)

“When someone in the family becomes chronically ill, the whole family falls ill,” explains Celal Karaaslan. After decades of heavy physical labor, he is waiting for his invalidity pension. For him and his son Tolga, the waiting period becomes a search for a possible future—one that confronts both with existential questions: How does life inscribe itself into the body? What ideas of belonging, security, family, and male role models arise when reflecting on the paths already taken in life? (Written by Lisa Heuschober, for Diagonale)

www.diagonale.at/filme
www.diagonale.at/marbacher-award-26
sixpackfilm.com 
tolgakaraaslan.com/baba

CREDITS

with - Celal Karaaslan 
Screenplay, production, direction, camera, set, editing - Tolga Karaaslan

Interview and production assistant - Egemen Karaaslan 
Music - Bilge Kaan Kuş 
Sound editing - Lukas Benedicic 
Sound design - Tolga Karaaslan 
Sound mixing - Eli Frauscher 
Color grading - Michael Seidl, Tolga Karaaslan 
Title design - Tolga Karaaslan

Production consulting - Anouk Shad, Weina Zhao 
Dramaturgy, consulting - Caroline Bobek, Joachim Smetschka, Weina Zhao

Film sales and distribution - sixpackfilm 
Financial support - Upper Austrian Newcomer Film Funding, ÖH project funding of the University of Art and Design Linz