Since 2004, Linz has been one of the world’s top cities of cinema. Every spring that is, when Crossing Europe brings a varied selection of European films – particularly those made by young directors – to Upper Austria: fiction, documentary, avant-garde, it all has its place in the cinematic bouquet of Linz.
Andrey Arnold, Die Presse / 4.5.2024
The Crossing Europe festival is a place where you can sweat, shiver and laugh. Until 5 May, Austria’s third-largest film festival is dedicated to European filmmaking in all its manifestations.
Jakob Thaller, Der Standard / 30.4.2024
The stepping out of comfort zones, the experimentation with what stirs up artistically and mentally – that is what all serious film festivals are about. You can find an abundance of related impulses in Linz, where young European films have been competing with each other for more than 20 years. The program guides us through a wide array of European lifeworlds, thereby ensuring hard-hitting topics like the climate crisis, war, and social inadequacies. The fact that this selection – 141 feature, documentary, and short films this year – does not immediately turn over into a pure, abstract critique of society but instead keeps the focus on the cinematic is an achievement in itself. The fact that it is also well-visited – by more than 14,000 people this time – gives hope to the arthouse scene.
Zsófia Buglya, Filmverlág / July 2024
An entire continent, shown at the cinema. (...) Crossing Europe is the best place to get a picture of Europe: The film festival presents young, topical and courageous cinema. The entire continent opens up before us in the festival cinemas. The stories that pass through the projector light are astounding, utterly tremendous but also amusing and lovely.
Maria Motter, FM4 / 19.4.2024
The 21st edition of Crossing Europe provided the image of a festival in good shape, characterized by the usual generous participation of local viewers and by an excellent cinematic offer.
Massimo Lechi, Il Ragazzo Selvaggio / Juni 2024
144 feature, documentary and short films from 41 countries, including 87 premieres and 14 world premieres, four competition sections, an ample surrounding program featuring audience talks with local and international guests, a nightline with DJs, and a lot more: All of this requires planning and execution.
Claudia Stelzel-Pröll, Kurier / 21.4.2024
There exists a misconception regarding the film festival “Crossing Europe” in Linz: that it is subject to the weather philosophy of conventional cinema and that only rain and cold weather drive people inside, in front of the movie screens. That is not the case at “Crossing Europe”, due to its vibrant, unifying festival character – even during sunshine and heat, its guests are looking for the warmth of the cultural event.
Nora Bruckmüller, OÖ Nachrichten / 1.5.2024
Since its first edition in 2004, it has been the festival’s aspiration to survey and give an experience of the European continent also along its sociopolitical divisions.
Benno Feichtner, Ö1 Kulturjournal / 29.4.2024
Film festival Crossing Europe in Linz has started. (...) As regards the topics, the filmmakers have dealt in particular with the topics of war and migration, feminism and LGBTQ, coming-of-age, and climate activism. (...) The festival’s women’s quota is high: Around 47 per cent of the films have been made under female direction, 38 per cent by males and the rest were directed by mixed teams or non-binary persons.
Mariella Moshammer, Österreichisches Volksblatt / 25.4.2024
Snapshots of Europe: That is the motto of this year’s Crossing Europe Film Festival.
It provides a great number of cinematic insights into the hot spots of our time.
Tiziana Aricò, ORF ZIB 1 / 1.5.2024
But the strengths of Crossing Europe also always include the creation of good, diverse spaces where there can be discussions, where people can engage, that are also about life, fun, and celebrating together.
Gerhard Niederleuthner, PRIDE Magazine / April 2024
From 30 April to 5 May, Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz will once again make Linz the hot spot of current, courageous and artistically ambitious European cinema. The audience, filmmakers, and guests from Austria and abroad can look forward to a festival program that reflects the diversity of Europe in a wide variety of facets and that offers the chance to rediscover the continent.
red, Raiffeisen Zeitung / 25.4.2024
REALITIES AND UTOPIAS. Concerning the program itself, the focus is on continuity – at the venues Moviemento, City-Kino, and Central, European films dealing with relevant sociopolitical themes are screened in sections like Competition Fiction & Competition Documentary (for Austrian premieres) or European Panorama Fiction & European Panorama Documentary (for recent festival highlights). Crossing Europe’s very special appreciation for local Upper Austrian filmmaking has always been expressed by the program section “Local Artists”.
Oliver Stangl, Ray Filmmagazin / April 2024
The crossing of Europe has been accomplished. Fear is not the solution: The 21st Crossing Europe Film Festival has been a fascinating cinematic voyage through a hopeful Europe.
Gini Brenner, Salzburger Nachrichten / 6.5.2024
Bright sunshine and pouring rain. Hearty laughs and emotional tears. Old friends and new acquaintances. The past week had a lot to offer.
Fabian Schwarzinger, subtext.at / 9.5.2024
The program selection is dedicated to the broadness of European cinema and promises sophisticated productions as well as cinematic highlights from the great European film festivals’ most recent season. With the aim being to provide a screen to those films that are often denied one by cinemas due to economic reasons, and thereby to support a young generation of European filmmakers in particular.
The Gap / 11.4.2024
The early summer temperatures during the first half of the festival had a particularly positive effect on the festival atmosphere around the festival center (Ursulinenhof, OK Linz), while the ensuing rainy cinema weather resulted in very well-filled theaters in the venues Moviemento, City-Kino, and Central.
Karin Seyringer, Tips / 7.5.2024
The Crossing Europe festival presents manifold films from all over Europe and offers the opportunity to experience the continent in a new way.
uncut.at / 1.5.2024
