Press Release #4/22

Opening Films & Closing Film 2022 | Sociopolitical Film Highlights | Film-Collection on filmfriend.at | YAAAS! Workshoprally, Close-Up & Youth Jury | Nightline | GOLDEN BAG Window Display Contest

 
29.03.2022 // In less than four weeks the nineteenth edition of CROSSING EUROPE Film Festival Linz will take place from 27 April to 2 May as an in-person event. In 2022 CROSSING EUROPE will once again open with multiple films that represent a cross section of this year’s festival program and show the great variety of contemporary European film.
With her competition contribution at the Berlinale, Nicolette Krebitz is scratching at societal taboos in A E I O U – DAS SCHNELLE ALPHABET DER LIEBE | A E I O U – A QUICK ALPHABET OF LOVE (DE/FR 2022), in which Sophie Rois delivers a brilliant performance as the female lead. The Portuguese documentary VIAGEM AO SOL | JOURNEY TO THE SUN (PT 2021) by Susana de Sousa Dias and Ansgar Schaefer shines a light on the traumatic impacts of war and displacement through the lens of the fate of the children that were “sent away” from bombed out post-war Vienna to Portugal. The Belgian Tribute guest Fabrice du Welz will present the Austrian premiere of his current thriller INEXORABLE (BE/FR 2021), with actor Benoît Poelvoorde as a neurotic author suffering from writer’s block, and the Night Sight program will open with the impressive and eerie debut film PAHANHAUTOJA | HATCHING (FI/SE 2022) by Finnish director Hanna Bergholm. The closing film is another contribution from the Berlinale, Annika Pinske’s debut film ALLE REDEN ÜBERS WETTER | TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER (DE 2022).

Many films that will celebrate their Austrian premieres at CROSSING EUROPE also deal with topics of sociopolitical relevance, such as displacement as a direct result of war, but also films that insist on a strengthening of a European community of solidarity. As a cross section for this, we would like to present the documentary NASIM (DE 2021), in which directors Ole Jacobs and Arne Büttner accompany Nasim, a woman from Afghanistan, and her family for eight months at the refugee camp Moria on the Greek island of Lesbos, Gábor Fabricius’ debut film ELTÖRÖLNI FRANKOT | ERASING FRANK (HU 2021), which tells the story of the charismatic singer of a forbidden Punk band, whom the totalitarian state is trying to silence and ŻEBY NIE BYŁO ŚLADÓW | LEAVE NO TRACES (PL/FR/CZ 2021) by Jan P. Matuszyński, that is based on a true story of the murder of a young student by the military police in Poland in the 1980ies, and the attempts to cover it up by the state.

Also, we can announce our first time cooperation with the Video-On-Demand platform for libraries and universities filmfriend and the city library of Linz, where a collection of seventeen films from past CROSSING EUROPE festival editions will be available online from 31 March onward, including for example the closing film of CROSSING EUROPE 2019 GOSPOD POSTOI, IMETO I‘ E PETRUNIJA | GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA (MK/BE/SI/HR/FR 2019) by Teona Strugar Mitevska.
 
Details on this year’s YAAAS! Close-Up, Workshop Rally and Youth Jury can be found HERE, and we are very happy to announce the comeback of the Nightline as part of the supporting program of the festival that will offer live acts and DJs, you can find details HERE. The GOLDEN BAG Window Display Contest will also enter into its next round, businesses from Linz can apply until 1 April.
We would also like to point out two upcoming dates: Friday 1 April is the deadline for accreditation and our program conference will take place on Wednesday 13 April in Moviemento and will be available as a live stream on our festival website.  

You can find the full press release on this page, pictures in high resolution can be found here, and our logo as well as the new festival motif on our website.
Comprehensive press release HERE: