EUROPE, WE NEED TO TALK - Crossing Europe celebrates European cinema for the 20th time
„The twentieth edition - a memorable milestone for any cultural event – ( ) was in fact the second of the duo of artistic directors Sabine Gebetsroither and Katharina Riedler, who after the excellent work done last year have confirmed all their managerial skills by presenting a high-level program to the city and to the professionals who flocked from all over the continent.“ – Massimo Lechi, Il Ragazzo Selvaggio
At the 20th Crossing Europe Film Festival the vibrant festival atmosphere of the anniversary year could be felt in fully booked theaters as well as the entire city center of Linz. From April 26 to May 1, Austria’s third-largest film festival enabled the audience to take a cinematic journey from Greenland to the Black Sea in 139 feature, documentary and short films from 45 countries. It was a presentation of unconventional, sociocritical and artistically ambitious perspectives from a young generation of European filmmakers that included 18 world premieres and 77 Austrian premieres.
In their second year as festival directors, Sabine Gebetsroither and Katharina Riedler pointed out during the opening that the goal to take a look at Europe’s condition and to also look where it hurts has now been pursued by Crossing Europe for twenty editions. The fact that the ongoing war on European soil was only about 600 km away from the festival events, was reflected both in the film program and in numerous talks and Q&As with the festival guests. In addition, particular emphasis on the efforts to provide room for discussion and dialog was placed with the festival motto “Europe, we need to talk!”
An audience of almost 16,000 festival visitors in 153 film screenings and 18 events within the supporting program amounted to an increase of 1,000 on the previous year, which was noticeable most of all in the theaters, part of which were filled to capacity. But there was also great interest in the supporting program with its talks and numerous other highlights, with the festival motto, dedicated to dialog, proving extremely successful. The audience and around 600 accredited guests were given a low-threshold opportunity of engaging with almost 120 film guests from Austria and abroad, who included the Tribute guest 2023, the Greek actor and theater director Angeliki Papoulia, and the Ukrainian-born and Lithuania-based documentary film director Vitaly Mansky, who not only provided one of the opening films, SHIDNIY FRONT | EASTERN FRONT (LV/UA/CZ/US 2023, co-directed by Yevhen Titarenko), but was also part of the Competition Documentary jury.
As in previous years, the film selection process focused on diversity and balanced gender programming, with around 53% of the films in the overall program being (co-)directed by women. In 2023, the Working Worlds progra section was entitled Art Is but a Job and focused on the everyday working lives of artists, while the Architecture & Society series examined a concept of beauty that is difficult to pin down under the title Pretty Ugly.
Before the start of the festival, in order to mark the anniversary, the very first opening film, ABOUT A STREET (AT 2004, d: Edith Stauber, Michaela Mair), was once again shown on the big screen as an open-air film event at Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz on April 21. The great number of Linzers attending gave particular reason to be joyful, as the planned open-air screening back in 2004 that, unfortunately, had to be canceled for weather reasons could be carried through 19 years later.
At this year’s awards ceremony, cash and material prizes with a combined value of around € 26,500 were presented by the international high-profile juries, and so was the MIOB New Vision Award (€ 3,000) of the European festival network Moving Images – Open Borders. The award winners list can be found here.
An essential component of the festival was once again the systematic promotion of young film talent, with the attractive and extensive offer for youths in the context of the YAAAS! youth section (approx. 1100 participants), on the one hand, and Cinema Next Europe Club, on the other, which for the fourth time offered a multi-day film campus to a group of young filmmakers from Austria and abroad.
The close international collaboration with our partner festivals in the European festival network "Moving Images Open Borders (MIOB)" was also successfully continued. Efforts to promote sustainable and climate-friendly festival work were also driven forward, with Crossing Europe once again bearing the KlimaKultur-GreenEvent OÖ label in 2023.
CROSSING EUROPE @ HOME also offered an appealing package of festival elements for home viewing in 2023, including live streams of talks and the award ceremony during the festival, five films from the 2023 festival program on the domestic streaming platform KINO VOD CLUB and collections of films from previous Crossing Europe editions as part of the collaborations with filmfriend.at and the Linz City Library as well as the streaming platform flimmit.at (discontinued in November 2023). In the weeks and months following the festival, CROSSING EUROPE GOES also provided numerous opportunities to experience selected films from the 2023 festival program in cinemas throughout Austria, including at Spielboden Dornbirn, the Austrian Film Museum, SLASH ½, the International Film Festival Innsbruck and the festival Der Neue Heimatfilm in Freistadt.
Conclusion: Despite the general feeling of uncertainty with regard to the continent’s future, the 20th Crossing Europe will be remembered most of all for the audience’s unbroken and revitalized joy of European cinema.
Audience number: 16.000
Films: 139
World premieres: 18
Countries of origin: 45
Film guests: 120
Award winners 2023: HERE
Jury 2023: HERE
Film archive 2023: HERE
Tribute 2023: HERE
„The twentieth edition - a memorable milestone for any cultural event – ( ) was in fact the second of the duo of artistic directors Sabine Gebetsroither and Katharina Riedler, who after the excellent work done last year have confirmed all their managerial skills by presenting a high-level program to the city and to the professionals who flocked from all over the continent.“ – Massimo Lechi, Il Ragazzo Selvaggio
At the 20th Crossing Europe Film Festival the vibrant festival atmosphere of the anniversary year could be felt in fully booked theaters as well as the entire city center of Linz. From April 26 to May 1, Austria’s third-largest film festival enabled the audience to take a cinematic journey from Greenland to the Black Sea in 139 feature, documentary and short films from 45 countries. It was a presentation of unconventional, sociocritical and artistically ambitious perspectives from a young generation of European filmmakers that included 18 world premieres and 77 Austrian premieres.
In their second year as festival directors, Sabine Gebetsroither and Katharina Riedler pointed out during the opening that the goal to take a look at Europe’s condition and to also look where it hurts has now been pursued by Crossing Europe for twenty editions. The fact that the ongoing war on European soil was only about 600 km away from the festival events, was reflected both in the film program and in numerous talks and Q&As with the festival guests. In addition, particular emphasis on the efforts to provide room for discussion and dialog was placed with the festival motto “Europe, we need to talk!”
An audience of almost 16,000 festival visitors in 153 film screenings and 18 events within the supporting program amounted to an increase of 1,000 on the previous year, which was noticeable most of all in the theaters, part of which were filled to capacity. But there was also great interest in the supporting program with its talks and numerous other highlights, with the festival motto, dedicated to dialog, proving extremely successful. The audience and around 600 accredited guests were given a low-threshold opportunity of engaging with almost 120 film guests from Austria and abroad, who included the Tribute guest 2023, the Greek actor and theater director Angeliki Papoulia, and the Ukrainian-born and Lithuania-based documentary film director Vitaly Mansky, who not only provided one of the opening films, SHIDNIY FRONT | EASTERN FRONT (LV/UA/CZ/US 2023, co-directed by Yevhen Titarenko), but was also part of the Competition Documentary jury.
As in previous years, the film selection process focused on diversity and balanced gender programming, with around 53% of the films in the overall program being (co-)directed by women. In 2023, the Working Worlds progra section was entitled Art Is but a Job and focused on the everyday working lives of artists, while the Architecture & Society series examined a concept of beauty that is difficult to pin down under the title Pretty Ugly.
Before the start of the festival, in order to mark the anniversary, the very first opening film, ABOUT A STREET (AT 2004, d: Edith Stauber, Michaela Mair), was once again shown on the big screen as an open-air film event at Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz on April 21. The great number of Linzers attending gave particular reason to be joyful, as the planned open-air screening back in 2004 that, unfortunately, had to be canceled for weather reasons could be carried through 19 years later.
At this year’s awards ceremony, cash and material prizes with a combined value of around € 26,500 were presented by the international high-profile juries, and so was the MIOB New Vision Award (€ 3,000) of the European festival network Moving Images – Open Borders. The award winners list can be found here.
An essential component of the festival was once again the systematic promotion of young film talent, with the attractive and extensive offer for youths in the context of the YAAAS! youth section (approx. 1100 participants), on the one hand, and Cinema Next Europe Club, on the other, which for the fourth time offered a multi-day film campus to a group of young filmmakers from Austria and abroad.
The close international collaboration with our partner festivals in the European festival network "Moving Images Open Borders (MIOB)" was also successfully continued. Efforts to promote sustainable and climate-friendly festival work were also driven forward, with Crossing Europe once again bearing the KlimaKultur-GreenEvent OÖ label in 2023.
CROSSING EUROPE @ HOME also offered an appealing package of festival elements for home viewing in 2023, including live streams of talks and the award ceremony during the festival, five films from the 2023 festival program on the domestic streaming platform KINO VOD CLUB and collections of films from previous Crossing Europe editions as part of the collaborations with filmfriend.at and the Linz City Library as well as the streaming platform flimmit.at (discontinued in November 2023). In the weeks and months following the festival, CROSSING EUROPE GOES also provided numerous opportunities to experience selected films from the 2023 festival program in cinemas throughout Austria, including at Spielboden Dornbirn, the Austrian Film Museum, SLASH ½, the International Film Festival Innsbruck and the festival Der Neue Heimatfilm in Freistadt.
Conclusion: Despite the general feeling of uncertainty with regard to the continent’s future, the 20th Crossing Europe will be remembered most of all for the audience’s unbroken and revitalized joy of European cinema.
Audience number: 16.000
Films: 139
World premieres: 18
Countries of origin: 45
Film guests: 120
Award winners 2023: HERE
Jury 2023: HERE
Film archive 2023: HERE
Tribute 2023: HERE
