Festival Anniversary 2023: 19 Successful Years in Figures

 
16.12.2022 // 2,948 films, 321,080 visitors, and 10,675 professional guests from all over Europe: These are some of the impressive figures that account for the success of 19 editions of CROSSING EUROPE Film Festival Linz. It was in September 2003 that long-time festival director Christine Dollhofer presented her vision of a European film festival in the Upper Austrian provincial capital together with Wolfgang Steininger, festival initiator and former Moviemento/City-Kino manager. In autumn 2021, after 18 successful years, Dollhofer handed over the reins to Sabine Gebetsroither and Katharina Riedler, who at that time were already experienced essential contributors to the festival.

CROSSING EUROPE will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2023 as the second-biggest international film festival in Austria (behind Viennale). Over the years, it has become a fixture in the European festival circuit, establishing itself with both filmmakers and the specialized press at home and abroad as a hot spot of European cinema because of its quality and atmosphere. The constantly growing number of regular guests from all over Europe can be seen as evidence of this. Over the past 19 years, CROSSING EUROPE repeatedly succeeded in bringing to Linz “new” voices of European auteur cinema at the start of their careers who now rank among the “big names” of European cinema (Ursula Meier, Teona S. Mitevska, Ruben Östlund, Matteo Garrone, Nicoals Winding Refn, and Andrea Arnold, among others). The Tribute section, in addition, has hosted numerous relevant directors resp. filmmakers and a representative cross-section of their oeuvres (Sergei Loznitsa, Joanna Hogg, Helena Třeštíková, Nanouk Leopold, and Jaime Rosales, among others).

Since 2004, a total of 421,000 € in prize money has been awarded in the context of the film competitions, thus giving direct support to the young generation of European filmmakers. More than 11,000 nights booked at hotels are further proof of the contribution to the presentation of Linz as a city of culture and tourism that the festival has made since its inception.