01/06/2021 - Taking place both in cinemas and online, the Austrian gathering will present 123 titles and award a total of €30,000 in financial prizes across five competitive sections

The Crossing Europe Film Festival in Linz kicks off its 18th edition today, and it will take place both in cinemas and online until 6 June. Traditionally focusing on first and second films by European directors, the festival has five competitive strands, and its backbone, the Fiction Competition, includes ten films: the Toronto hit Beginning [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dea Kulumbegashvili
film profile] by Georgia's Dea Kulumbegashvili; the Venice International Film Critics’ Week Grand Prize winner Ghosts [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Turkey's Azra Deniz Okyay; Spanish director Guillermo Benet's Seville entry Los inocentes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillermo Benet
film profile]; Janis Rafa's Dutch-Greek co-production Kala Azar [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Janis Rafa
film profile], which world-premiered at Rotterdam; Christos Nikou's Venice Orizzonti hit Apples [+see also:
film review
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interview: Christos Nikou
film profile]; Serbian helmer Ivan Ikić's Giornate degli Autori prizewinner Oasis [+see also:
film review
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interview: Ivan Ikic
film profile]; the Dutch-Spanish co-production Last Days of Spring [+see also:
film review
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interview: Isabel Lamberti
film profile], which earned Isabel Lamberti the New Directors Award at San Sebastián; Magnus von Horn's Cannes label title Sweat [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile]; and two Berlinale Panorama titles – Siamak Etemadi's Pari [+see also:
film review
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interview: Siamak Etemadi
film profile] from 2020 and Louda Ben Salah-Cazanas' The World After Us [+see also:
film review
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interview: Louda Ben Salah-Cazanas
film profile] from 2021. The ten films will be competing for jury and audience awards, each worth €5,000.

The 12 titles in the Documentary Competition will be vying for the €5,000 Social Awareness Award, and these include Alina Gorlova's IDFA prizewinner This Rain Will Never Stop [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alina Gorlova
film profile], Salomé Jashi's Sundance hit Taming the Garden [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Salomé Jashi
film profile], Volkan Üce's CPH:DOX crowdpleaser All-In [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and Asia Dér and Sári Haragonics' Hot Docs pick Her Mothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Asia Dér, Sári Haragonics
film profile], as well as the Berlinale entries Garage People [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Natalija Yefimkina and Courage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aliaksei Paluyan and Jörn M…
film profile] by Aliaksei Paluyan. For the full list, please click here.

The YAAAS! Competition, which is part of a wider, youth-orientated educational programme aiming to produce films by internationally mixed teams, includes six pictures ranging from Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh's Gagarin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Tr…
film profile] to Ronnie Sandahl's Tigers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ronnie Sandahl
film profile], which will be jousting for the €3,000 YAAAS! Youth Jury Award. The full list of films can be found here.

Crossing Europe continues to lend its support to filmmakers from Upper Austria through the Local Artists Competition, in which 52 short films and video works will vie for three prizes worth €9,000 in total. The list of titles is here.

The €3,000 MIOB New Vision Award, given out by members of the Moving Images Open Borders festival network to an innovative European feature-length film, has already been announced, and the winner is Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lili Horvat
interview: Natasa Stork
film profile] by Hungary's Lili Horvát. This film will be shown in the European Panorama Fiction section along with 12 other titles, listed here. Other non-competitive sidebars include European Panorama Documentary, Working Worlds, Architecture and Society, and Night Sight.

Finally, this year's tribute is dedicated to Slovak filmmaker Ivan Ostrochovský and will present seven films that he has directed and/or produced, including Servants [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský
film profile] and Velvet Terrorists [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].