Media Response 2022

A new start in Linz with dual leadership (...) Perhaps the Crossing Europe Film Festival has never been more necessary than this year: there is a war going on in Europe - and European cinema knows a lot about coming to terms with trauma and understanding fractures. After the departure of longtime artistic director Christine Dollhofer to the Vienna Film Fund, Katharina Riedler and Sabine Gebetsroither, experienced team members for many years, have taken over the festival at its 19th edition.
Magdalena Miedl, Salzburger Nachrichten / 27.4.2022

Continuity, however, is the festival maxim under the new dual leadership of Sabine Gebetsroither and Katharina Riedler. In their first year, they have left the festival's proven program structures unchanged. That this does not have to be a disadvantage was shown, among other things, by a feature film section in which a young generation of European filmmakers stood out with original narrative approaches.
Dominik Kamalzadeh, Der Standard / 2.5.2022

Crossing Europe aims to bring the diversity of European film, or rather of European life experiences and situations, before the curtain, meanwhile for 19 years. And this year, despite being post-pandemic, it did so with an electrifyingly exciting program. [...] The best thing about Linz is that the films take the audience to the remotest corners of Europe.
Zsófia Buglya, Filmvilág / 1.7.22

Gebetsroither and Riedler have put together a film program that depicts the major issues facing Europe: Flight, migration, integration, nationalism & totalitarian regimes, minorities & empowerment. With films that go deep and get under your skin.
Creative Austria / 1.4.22

Crossing Europe's goal this year was to think Europe democratically, diversely, openly and in solidarity, even far beyond the EU borders. Also after the festival period, this should remain visible.
Österreichisches Volksblatt / 4.5.22

One thing became clear right away: the two successors to the previous director Christine Dollhofer, who had made the festival, which has taken place since 2004, a well-known and respected event beyond Austria's borders, will continue the festival's programmatic line as a showcase for diverse, contemporary European auteur film with a focus on socio-political issues. Especially in times of deep insecurity, war in Europe and pandemic as well as omnipresent climate change, the necessity of a political debate, also in film, is more compelling than ever.
Gabriela Seidel-Hollaender, ray filmmagazin / 1.5.22

As the name Crossing Europe suggests, crossing borders and the significance of spaces and regimented places for the lives of individuals played a role in quite a few films in this year's edition of the festival.
Bianca Jasmina Rauch, Filmlöwin / 5.5.22

Here, the socially engaged filmmaking of the European continent is showcased in all its diversity, without any aestheticist gloom or faux East-West divide in the program. This is where (mainly young) filmmakers from all European countries meet to make contacts, exchange experiences and celebrate together.
Andrey Arnold, Die Presse / 27.4.22

The attitude with which Linz's "Crossing Europe" approaches its 19th edition seems almost out of style. Today is the final day of the film festival. And the new artistic directors Sabine Gebetsroither and Katharina Riedler, who took over from Christine Dollhofer after 18 years, never wanted to destroy the old. The duo wants to revive what worked well and felt good before Corona, to create the "Crossing Europe vibe" which is based on cordiality and creativity that is taken seriously, to make that special mood between an engagement with cinema, inner-European exchange and an outdoor beer on OK Platz.
Nora Bruckmüller, OÖ Nachrichten / 2.5.2022
 
Please look directly into the sun! The Linz film festival Crossing Europe returns under new management with a first-class program - and demonstrates how much cinema can explain the present and the human condition to us.
Stefan Grissemann, profil / 1.5.2022

In the first year of their directorship, Sabine Gebetsroither and Katharina Riedler have upheld the tradition of the Crossing Europe Festival as a charmingly casual meeting place for audiences and filmmakers from all over Europe. It was noticeable during many screenings how popular audience discussions are and how good they are for exchange.
Maria Motter, FM4 / 1.5.2022

Europe. What is it, really? In Linz, cinematic answers to this question, which has been the subject of controversial discussion since the Russian war of aggression, have been presented since Wednesday. The program is the 19th edition of Crossing Europe, a film festival that has been showcasing socially engaged filmmaking from the European continent in all its diversity since 2004.
Marco Weise, Kurier / 28.4.2022

New perspectives on Europe. The Crossing Europe film festival opens today in Linz with new management and a lot of confidence. When the projector lights go on in Linz's downtown cinemas tonight, the Crossing Europe film festival will celebrate a return to normality.
Matthias Greuling, Wiener Zeitung / 27.4.22

Unique: the youth section (...) The festival's youth section is not only curated by young people from Linz; a youth jury also selects the prize.
Marian Wilhelm, Kleine Zeitung / 3.5.2022

An exciting alternative to the often socio-critical programming of these program sections is offered by the section "Night Sight" with five unusual European horror and fantasy films outside the mainstream. The Tribute to Fabrice du Welz, on the other hand, introduces the work of a still little-known 50-year-old Belgian director, while Local Artists offers an extensive program of insights into current Upper Austrian filmmaking. - Nothing should stand in the way of a diverse and inspiring festival week.
Walter Gasperi, film-netz.com / 26. April 2022

With the Tribute 2022 (...) it becomes clear how programmatic the recurring subject of fundamental insecurity and disturbance is also programmatic for the festival, which since its founding has always shown a fragile Europe - behind the flashy facade of ostensible freedom from conflict.
Magdalena Miedl, orf.at / 27.4.2022

One of the continent's liveliest mid-size festivals, the Crossing Europe in Linz started in the early 2000s and fused together is titular theme with increased national and supranational public funding for cultural activities that build bridges between different regions. Always in touch with social and political trends and changes that have been engulfing Europe in the 20-odd years, it has created several non-competitive strands to address these issues.
Vladan Petkovic, Modern Times Review / 6.5.2022

Local Artists and Cinema without Borders (...) Exactly half of the 148 feature films and documentaries that will be screened at Crossing Europe this year are Austrian premieres. Only a fraction of the films will be distributed in this country, which only underscores the importance of the festival in Linz .
Michael Omasta, Falter / 27.4.2022

Crossing Europe, that was and is: ambitious, European auteur cinema presented at easily accessible locations in the heart of a beautiful city; nice people, pleasant weather, an informal atmosphere and familiar flair. With its competently curated sections, which in addition to the feature and documentary film competition and panorama also include the thematic brackets "Working Worlds" and "Architecture and Society", Crossing Europe offers an ideal combination of manageability and quality. The recently added YAAAS! youth program, which with its peer-to-peer structure is aimed specifically at young audiences, is also extremely successful.
Alexandra Seitz, epd Film / 27.5.2022

A journey through Europe and its traumas as well as beautiful moments - that's what Crossing Europe offers again this year.
Tiziana Arico, ORF 2 – Oberösterreich Heute / 28.4.2022

New management, fewer COVID19 restrictions, yet familiar faces: the Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz is breaking new ground this year, but also continuing to tread familiar paths.
Christoph Leeb, subtext.at / 27.4.2022

Ambitious program (...) All in all, the program spans in the proven manner from highlights of the past festival season to selected examples of Upper Austrian filmmaking.
Eva Pakisch, Raiffeisen Zeitung / 14.4.2022
 
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