The 15th anniversary edition of the Luxembourg Film Festival is a good occasion to take a walk through its brief history.
Launched in 2011, for the first three years the event was called the Discovery Zone Luxembourg City Film Festival and offered films with significant social content. Since 2012, the festival has been competitive, and in 2013, there has been a first jury. Afterwards, the organisers felt that this format no longer met the expectations of the audience and professionals. Like other festivals, the team settled on the idea of a panorama. The choice became natural, and it also coincided with the desire of the two main institutional partners, the Ministry of Culture and the City of Luxembourg, to expand the event to include image education and a programme for young audiences.
For all these 15 years, the artistic director of the festival has been the Frenchman Alexis Juncosa, who has lived in Luxembourg for 21 years.Who better than him could guide me through its secrets, changes and development?
The festival keeps pace, of course, with the evolution of society and time, but maintains its selections, for panorama fiction, documentary, national (co)productions, and visual education.
Luxembourg is home to communities of 170 nationalities, whose problems the festival seeks to address with quality films beyond generally accepted standards.
Here are a few examples from among the nine feature films in competition this year, which all focus on the problems of “strange” characters: Hanami by Denise Fernandes (Switzerland/Portugal/Cape Verde), The Village Next to Paradise by Mo Harawe (Austria/France/Germany/Somalia), Bound in Heaven by Huo Xin (China), and On Falling by Laura Carreira (UK/Portugal).
Artistic director Alexis Juncosa is proud that this B-category festival manages to avoid American films that flood other festivals. The issue is not just financial (directors come from overseas, stay for two or three days, which increases the budget); it is about protecting European and valuable cinema from other continents. The six-person selection team, which works year-round, has watched 1,040 films to choose nine titles for the main competition; two of them are Romanian.
Of course, in recent years Romanian cinema has conquered world festivals with its themes and means of expression. The flourishing of this cinema would have been impossible under the old, communist regime. The main jury of Luxfilmfest, without American jurors, was headed by the Iranian dissident director Mohammad Rasoulof, who now lives in Germany. The main jury and our FIPRESCI jury awarded their prize to The New Year that Never Came (Anul nou care n-a fost, Romania/Serbia) by debutant Bogdan Muresanu. Previously, at the Venice Film Festival in 2024, the film had already won the Orrizonti award for best film.
The documentary jury reviewed 6 competing works to award The Landscape and the Fury (Switzerland) by Nicole Vögele.
As we moved from one cinema to another, joyful and noisy children and students passed by us, hurrying to their screenings together with their parents and teachers. An important and pleasant feature of this festival is that it always pays great attention to adolescents, taking care of their cinematic and aesthetic education. Teenagers also award their prizes, choosing between short films, documentaries, and feature films. Children especially enjoy the workshops, in which they participate with pleasure.
The adults – guests, journalists, fans of the seventh art – enjoyed two master classes, by the Spanish-Chilean director Alejandro Amenábar and by British actor Tim Roth. The latter presented his latest film, Poison, the debut of the Luxembourgish filmmaker Désirée Nosbusch. His partner in the film is the Danish actress Trine Dyrholm, a member of the international jury. This is another proof of how the festival organisers are faithful to the tradition of showing co-productions between Luxembourg with the Netherlands and Germany, and to combine art with budget considerations and deliver pleasure, above all, to their loyal audience.
According to the data provided, the 15th Luxfilmfest, the most important annual festival of the country, was visited by over 21,000 spectators. Behind this figure stands, in addition to the dedicated work of the permanent team, the additional professional contribution of another 14 people. This team, according to the artistic director’s recognition, is cohesive and responsible. The FIPRESCI jury was convinced of its preparedness and courtesy. Invaluable helpers during our daily work were Agathe Sonneck, Chiara Lentz, as well as one of the many volunteers on whom the festival relies, Christophe Ommeganck.
There is no rest for the hosts of Luxfilmfest. They are already thinking about the next edition, the first without the cozy Cinémathèque, which will be undergoing renovation.
Sonya Aleksandrova
Edited by Birgit Beumers
© FIPRESCI 2025