20th Crossing Europe: Positive Résumé of the Festival Anniversary
02.05.2023 // The 20th Crossing Europe Film Festival can be considered a complete success. 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.
At this year’s awards ceremony, cash and material prizes with a combined value of around € 26,500 were presented by the 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.
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. 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 amounts 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.
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. After three years of complicated conditions due to the pandemic, the positive atmosphere in the often-packed theaters of the festival cinemas Moviemento, City-Kino and Central and in the traditional festival quarters around OK Linz and Ursulinenhof indicated the return for good of the desired festival feeling.
Five selected films from the 2023 festival program are available on the domestic streaming platform Kino VOD Club until May 31.
At this year’s awards ceremony, cash and material prizes with a combined value of around € 26,500 were presented by the 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.
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. 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 amounts 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.
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. After three years of complicated conditions due to the pandemic, the positive atmosphere in the often-packed theaters of the festival cinemas Moviemento, City-Kino and Central and in the traditional festival quarters around OK Linz and Ursulinenhof indicated the return for good of the desired festival feeling.
Five selected films from the 2023 festival program are available on the domestic streaming platform Kino VOD Club until May 31.
