In March 2020, the Grand Duchy’s main annual film event, the renowned Luxembourg City Film Festival, was one of the last European festivals to unfold in person before the first lockdown was declared. Two years later, and now at its 12th edition, the event is staging its grand return and reverting to full capacity, placing "cinemas and cinemas alone" centre stage. As Minister for Culture Sam Tanson stressed in his welcoming address: "We’re getting off the sofa and returning to cinemas – one hundred percent!". With this in mind, the festival is welcoming an impressive selection of prestigious guests, including British talent Terry Gilliam.

In reaction to the unbearable situation in the Ukraine, the Luxembourg City Film Festival has just withdrawn four Russian films from its programme: Gerda by Natalya Kudryashova, and three children’s films: Blanket by Marina Moshkova, Le Roi et La Poire by Nastia Voronina, and La Princesse aux grandes jambes by Anastasia Zhakulina. It’s a gesture in line with the Cannes Film Festival, whose organisers have confirmed they won’t be accepting any Russian delegations this year. This last-minute adjustment aside, the Luxembourg festival can boast an especially bountiful line-up, opened by Spanish comedy Official Competition [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], starring Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas and directed by Argentines Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat. Artistic Director Alexis Juncosa was also thrilled to point out that the film will be presented to a large delegation composed of representatives from leading export companies (members of the Europa International network) and festival directors (of the Europa Film Festivals network), who will find their day to day lives depicted on screen to comedic effect. The closing slot is entrusted to French director Quentin Dupieux and his latest offering Incredible But True [+lee también:
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entrevista: Quentin Dupieux
ficha de la película], which sees the first ever coupling of Alain Chabat and Léa Drucker.

The festival is hosting an international jury led by Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman and further composed of British director and actress Ana Lily Amirpour, Quebecker actress Suzanne Clément, French-Luxembourg composer André Dziezuk, French director of photography Jeanne Lapoirie and French-Argentine actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart. The seven feature films in competition all appear to be imbued with "the great vitality of the South-American scene and an increasing tendency to blur the lines between fiction and documentary". These include Atlantide [+lee también:
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entrevista: Yuri Ancarani
entrevista: Yuri Ancarani y Marco Alessi
ficha de la película] by Yuri Ancarani, Jack’s Ride [+lee también:
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entrevista: Susana Nobre
ficha de la película] by Susana Nobre, Silent Land [+lee también:
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entrevista: Aga Woszczyńska
ficha de la película] by Aga Woszczyńska, Reflection [+lee también:
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entrevista: Valentyn Vasyanovych
ficha de la película] by Valentyn Vasyanovych, Prayers for the Stolen [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Tatiana Huezo, The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Francisca Alegría and Hit the Road (Iran) by Panah Panahi.

On the documentary side of things, the festival has once again invited festival director and programmer friends to join its jury, namely Elise Jalladeau (Thessaloniki Film Festival), Fabienne Moris (FID Marseille), Clément Schneider (Cannes’ ACID section), Alex Moussa Sawadogo (Fespaco) and Christophe Mercier (Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight). The feature films 1970 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tomasz Wolski
ficha de la película] by Tomasz Wolski, Cow [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Andrea Arnold, Dreaming Walls [+lee también:
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entrevista: Amélie van Elmbt y Maya Du…
ficha de la película] by Maya Duverdier and Amélie Van Elmbt, Lost Flowers [+lee también:
entrevista: Fabrizio Maltese
ficha de la película] by Fabrizio Maltese, Ascension (USA) by Jessica Kingdon and What Will Summer Bring (Argentina) by Ignacio Ceroi will all compete for the Best Documentary trophy, while the Official Selection will be populated by this year’s must-see films, along the lines of Animals [+lee también:
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entrevista: Nabil Ben Yadir
ficha de la película] by Belgium’s Nabil Ben Yadir, and Bouli Lanners latest opus, the intriguing Nobody Has to Know [+lee también:
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entrevista: Bouli Lanners
ficha de la película].

The festival remains the major event for Luxembourg co-production (this year’s Made in/with Luxembourg section includes no less than 12 feature films and 9 shorts), but it’s also introducing a brand-new prize: the 2030 Award by Luxembourg Aid & Development, which the Luxembourg Cooperation will bestow upon a work which shows itself to be committed to the fight against poverty, the elimination of hunger around the world, access to healthcare and education, equality between the sexes and access to clean water worldwide. The new Label Outside the Box initiative, meanwhile, is kicking off reflection upon content legibility.