Good old film festivals in Europe

Síðast uppfært Miðvikudagur, 21/10/2020

Sometimes the charming la-la-land may seem far away, but you don’t need to be in Hollywood to catch a glimpse of cinematic gems.

Some of the most important international film festivals are hosted yearly in Europe, most likely around the corner.

It was the 28th December 1895 at the Grand Café in Paris, two brothers of 33 and 31 years old, hosted the first public screening of 10 short films, lasting around 50 seconds each. Their surname was Lumière, and back then people witnessed the beginning of an era, the birth of cinema.

Over 120 years have passed and the cinematographic art, in all its shapes and shifts, occupies a central place in our daily life.

The icing on the cake, the perfect way to fully experience a movie, is by attending a proper film festival. No, there is no need to cross the ocean to do that, in the European Union, you can find la crème de la crème.

Whatever period you are planning a trip abroad, make it coincide with an international film festival. Seventh art lovers, here are 7 film festivals scattered around the continent you should not miss!

You’ll start the year on the right foot at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, occurring every January in The Netherlands. Its logo is a stylised tiger and it focuses on independent and innovative filmmaking styles.

The Berlin International Film Festival, aka Berlinale, takes place every February in the German capital since 1978. It is one of the three main international film festivals with Cannes and Venice and every edition counts around 400 movies in the competition, trying to conquer the coveted Golden Bear prize, symbol of the city.

A milder location (and period of the year) for the Cannes Festival, which has its roots in the 30s but properly started in 1947. The festival reached in 2019 its 72nd edition, awarding, with the Palme d’Or, the South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho for its groundbreaking film Parasite. A movie that later won the Oscar 2020 for Best Picture, as the first-ever non-English-language film.

As we all know, cinema is also cartoons and excellent motion techniques. A great location to explore this thematic is Annecy (France) in June, during the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Clay-motion, computer-generated imaginary and much more, all screened open-air.

This summery and artistic breeze continue with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in Czechia, founded in 1946. During the most prestigious film festival in Central and Eastern Europe, a Crystal Globe is given to a leading personality in the cinema world.

September always stands for resolution lists (if the New Year’s ones didn’t work out too well), new beginnings and a lot of cinema. The oldest film festival in Europe takes place between late August and early September in the Venetian lagoon (Italy) in the frame of the Venice Biennale, it’s the Venice Film Festival. The winning prize is nowadays the Golden Lion but during the fascist dictatorship, winners got the so-called Coppa Mussolini.

The San Sebastián International Film Festival is held in late September in the Basque Country, North of Spain. Created in the 50s, the festival originally aimed at promoting Spanish movies but then decided to open to the international and intergalactic market, in fact in 1977 it hosted the European premiere of Star Wars.

Sometimes, compulsively going to film festivals is not enough and you may want to establish a festival in your country, region or why not, tiny little village in the middle of nowhere. In this scenario, this Creative Europe’s initiative may be particularly appealing if looking for a grant.

And as you would hear just before the screening… thank you and good vision!