Press Release #7/24
Festival Résumé 2024
06.05.2024 // After six successful festival days (4/30 – 5/5) with 144 feature, documentary and short films from 41 countries, the 21st Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz closed its doors on 5 May. The early summer temperatures throughout 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 movie weather resulted in well-packed theaters in the venues Moviemento, City-Kino, and Central.
Referring to this year’s festival motto “Snapshots of Europe”, festival directors Sabine Gebetsroither and Katharina Riedler stressed at the opening on 30 April that the selected films were snapshots of a constantly transforming continent. They were an invitation to see the world through the eyes of their filmmakers or their protagonists and to thereby gain new perspectives.
During this year’s awards ceremony, cash and material prizes totaling € 28,500 were given out by the international juries, as well as the MIOB New Vision Award (€ 3,000) of the European festival network Moving Images – Open Borders. A list of the award winners can be found HERE.
With 14,500 visitors, the previous year's level was almost maintained, which can still be considered a great success in view of a somewhat reduced supporting program and summer temperatures at the start of the festival. The number of visitors to the cinema remained almost stable. The audience and around 550 accredited professional guests used the opportunity for low-threshold engagement with around 100 film guests from Austria and abroad.
With Crossing Europe @home, Crossing Europe elements will once again be available at home after the festival, including videos of talks, works from the Local Artists Competition of previous festival editions on the local streaming platform KINO VOD CLUB or the Crossing Europe collection on filmfriend.at, the streaming platform for libraries. Crossing Europe goes also offers the opportunity to experience selected festival titles again on the big screen after the festival in Vienna, Dornbirn, Ebensee, Innsbruck, Salzburg and Linz.
Though 2024 may have posed some great challenges for Crossing Europe in 2024, especially with regard to its financing, the 21st festival edition has been yet more proof of the unwavering enthusiasm for European film and the social space that is cinema. A great number of filmmakers expressed their joy over the active interest of the audience and the resulting conversations.
There is a very good understanding in principle with the long-term funding bodies, which is also illustrated in part by the (moderate) increase of subsidies this year. Unfortunately, however, there have also been cuts and financial losses that could not be easily compensated, as for instance, it has become a near-impossible task to attract new partners as money sponsors in the field of culture. It has to be pointed out here that without a continued value adjustment of the amount of subsidies, further festival work on the present level and in the current scope will no longer be possible in the future. Not only the hard-to-foretell development of general inflation is a cause of concern, but also the handling of future challenges (in particular in the context of “Fair Pay” and “green festival work”). Apart from that, every year brings increasing costs for all organizational units. It is therefore without question – should the outlined trend continue – that Crossing Europe will have to tighten its belt considerably in 2025 in order to do justice to the standards set for a cultural event of this size as regards service in return both with respect to its project partners and the audience, and in order to be able to retain the quality of the program and the festival organization.
The full press release can be found on this page, the logo, festival motif and press photos are available as usual on our website.
Referring to this year’s festival motto “Snapshots of Europe”, festival directors Sabine Gebetsroither and Katharina Riedler stressed at the opening on 30 April that the selected films were snapshots of a constantly transforming continent. They were an invitation to see the world through the eyes of their filmmakers or their protagonists and to thereby gain new perspectives.
During this year’s awards ceremony, cash and material prizes totaling € 28,500 were given out by the international juries, as well as the MIOB New Vision Award (€ 3,000) of the European festival network Moving Images – Open Borders. A list of the award winners can be found HERE.
With 14,500 visitors, the previous year's level was almost maintained, which can still be considered a great success in view of a somewhat reduced supporting program and summer temperatures at the start of the festival. The number of visitors to the cinema remained almost stable. The audience and around 550 accredited professional guests used the opportunity for low-threshold engagement with around 100 film guests from Austria and abroad.
With Crossing Europe @home, Crossing Europe elements will once again be available at home after the festival, including videos of talks, works from the Local Artists Competition of previous festival editions on the local streaming platform KINO VOD CLUB or the Crossing Europe collection on filmfriend.at, the streaming platform for libraries. Crossing Europe goes also offers the opportunity to experience selected festival titles again on the big screen after the festival in Vienna, Dornbirn, Ebensee, Innsbruck, Salzburg and Linz.
Though 2024 may have posed some great challenges for Crossing Europe in 2024, especially with regard to its financing, the 21st festival edition has been yet more proof of the unwavering enthusiasm for European film and the social space that is cinema. A great number of filmmakers expressed their joy over the active interest of the audience and the resulting conversations.
There is a very good understanding in principle with the long-term funding bodies, which is also illustrated in part by the (moderate) increase of subsidies this year. Unfortunately, however, there have also been cuts and financial losses that could not be easily compensated, as for instance, it has become a near-impossible task to attract new partners as money sponsors in the field of culture. It has to be pointed out here that without a continued value adjustment of the amount of subsidies, further festival work on the present level and in the current scope will no longer be possible in the future. Not only the hard-to-foretell development of general inflation is a cause of concern, but also the handling of future challenges (in particular in the context of “Fair Pay” and “green festival work”). Apart from that, every year brings increasing costs for all organizational units. It is therefore without question – should the outlined trend continue – that Crossing Europe will have to tighten its belt considerably in 2025 in order to do justice to the standards set for a cultural event of this size as regards service in return both with respect to its project partners and the audience, and in order to be able to retain the quality of the program and the festival organization.
The full press release can be found on this page, the logo, festival motif and press photos are available as usual on our website.
Comprehensive press release HERE: