In a packed Cinémathèque hall, the Luxembourg City Film Festival team unveiled the programme for this fifteenth edition, to be held from 6 to 16 March. It’s proof that year after year, this film festival is growing, attracting more and more people and gaining in stature. “It’s also the last year that we’ll be able to meet in this venue before it is closed for renovations for four years,” introduced the mayor of the City of Luxembourg, (DP). The , and some of its programming will be moved to the Théâtre des Capucins from 5 September during the works.

15 years and 313,000 visitors

The presentation of this new edition was also an opportunity for the festival’s president, Georges Santer, to highlight a few figures. More than 313,000 visitors have attended the festival, 3,200 national and international guests have been welcomed, 1,237 film screenings have been organised, seven prizes are awarded every year and 80 volunteers help with the organisation each year.

But this 15th edition also saw 1,000 films screened as part of the pre-selection process to put together the programme. The selection process is no longer carried out by an artistic committee made up of highly committed volunteers, as has been the case until now, but by professional selectors, thus contributing to the gradual and ongoing professionalisation of the festival.

Films for the celebrations

The opening of the festival will be celebrated by the screening of Hot Milk (6 March) by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, which has assembled a top-notch cast including the ever-popular Vicky Krieps, Emma Mackey and Fiona Shaw... The story tells of filial love that has to deal with an unexpected relationship. The film premiered at the Berlinale just a few days before its screening in Luxembourg.

The Awards Ceremony (15 March) will be an opportunity to discover Lionel Baier’s La Cache, another film snatched from the Berlin competition, co-produced with Red Lion. This is Michel Blanc’s final on-screen performance, in a touching family story set against the backdrop of the events of May 1968.

Dylan Southern’s The Thing With Feathers has been chosen for the closing ceremony. Prior to its presentation in Luxembourg, the film had only been seen by lucky spectators at the Sundance and Berlin festivals. It is an adaptation of Max Porter’s bestseller, in which a father (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and his two sons try to cope with the sudden loss of their wife and mother.

Official competition with two Luxembourg co-productions

Nine films are competing for the grand prize this year:

- Bound In Heaven by Huo Xin is a story of love and domestic violence set in contemporary China, between urban spaces and rural landscapes.

- Denise Fernandes’ Hanami takes us on a journey to the islands, where dreams and social realities come together. A coming-of-age nestled in the heart of Cape Verde.

- Tato Kotetishvili’s Holy Electricity is a comical epic of burlesque and resourcefulness. “An offbeat film that illustrates the joyful nature of the festival,” says Alexis Juncosa, the festival’s artistic director.

- Kontinental ‘25 by Radu Jude (Golden Bear in 2023). Co-financed by the Luxembourg company PTD, this film shot in 11 days tells the story of the introspections of a woman usher dealing with a dramatic event in Cluj, Transylvania.

- The New Year That Never Came by Bogdan Mureşanu is what we call a festival hit. A choral film revolving around the Romanian revolution and dealing with intra-European migration.

- On Falling by Laura Carreira dissects the daily life of a precarious Portuguese worker, lost in Scottish reality, between loneliness and alienation.

- Reflet dans un diamant mort by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani is certainly the most unclassifiable film in the selection. Supported by the Luxembourg company Les Films Fauves, this film, which also features in the Berlin competition, also showcases Luxembourg talent, including Céline Camara.

- Mo Harawe’s The Village Next To Paradise is the first film of this scale to be shot in Somalia.

- Vittoria by Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman is a work somewhere between documentary and fiction, as it tells the story of a very real Italian family who are asked to imagine a desire that will turn their daily lives upside down.

To decide between the films, an international jury has been assembled. This year it is made up of director Mohammad Rasoulof (Les Manuscrits ne brûlent pas, The Seed of the Sacred Fig), who will chair the jury, actress Trine Dyrholm (The Girl with The Needle, The Celebration, The Commune, Poison), screenwriter Paul Laverty (Sorry We Missed You, The Angel’s Share, I, Daniel Blake, The Wind that Shakes the Barley...), actress Valerie Pachner (Egon Schiele, A Hidden Life, Der Boden unter den Füßen...), director Albert Serra (Pacifiction, The Death of Louis XIV, Liberté...) and Jeff Desom, from Luxembourg, who is pursuing his career in Los Angeles as a director, screenwriter and VFX artist.

And many other films and meetings

Amongst the other films that are sure to stand out this year is Désirée Nosbusch’s first feature film, Poison, starring Tim Roth, who will also be giving a master class at the festival.

Uberto Pasolini’s The Return continues to attract attention for its reinterpretation of the Odyssey, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.

Mike Leigh will be back at the festival with Hard Truths, a touching modern interpretation of sororal love put to the test.

And Zhanna Ozirna’s Honeymoon is a model of cinematic engineering. By magnifying the off-screen, the director takes us through the daily life of a Ukrainian couple caught up in the Russian invasion.

In addition to the films in the documentary competition, there are all the films in the official selection out of competition (Late Night Bizarre, artistic collaborations), as well as the films Made in/with Luxembourg, a record number of which have been selected this year. A new feature is the Series Showcase, a one-night opportunity to discover series co-produced by Luxembourg.

The full programme of events, masterclasses and other networking opportunities, as well as programming for young audiences, is available . Ticket sales open on 14 February.

This article was originally published in .