Current issues
Report by Peter Paul Huth (closure)
There are some well-travelled cineastes and regular festival-goers who call Bologna their favourite festival. The atmosphere is relaxed and democratic, there is no VIP area, no stars who have to be shielded from the common people. The participants come from 70 countries, as is proudly noted. Final report by Peter Paul Huth.
INTERFILM member Sofja Sjö from Finland reports about a conference in Sárospatak (Hungary) on representations of the Eucharist in film and other forms of actual visual culture.
S. Brent Rodriguez Plate, President of the Ecumenicval Jury in Locarno 2021, reflects on the festival experience and comments on films which were discussed in the jury extensively.
At the festival World Cinema in Amsterdam, a jury of INTERFILM member Het Filmgesprek awarded a film for the second time.
On March 22nd, 2021, journalist and methodist minister James M. Wall passed away. He was a key figure for promoting the Protestant film and cinema commitment in North America. Philip Lee, General Secretary of WACC and editor of the journal "Media Development", appreciates the deceased.
"Radio Silence" highlights the essence of freedom of speech, human rights and democracy expressed by the courage of journalists in Mexico to fight against state corruption, drug crimes and injustice in this country.
Director Suvi West has been presented with the Church Media Foundation Award at the Tampere Film Festival 2021 for her film "Eatnameamet – Our Silent Struggle".
"Sweat" by Magnus von Horn wins the Church of Sweden Film Award "Angelos" at the Göteborg Film Festival 2021.
For more than forty years the film festival Max Ophüls Preis in the German city of Saarbrücken presents films produced by young talented filmmakers from German speaking countries. It wants to discover and to promote the “newest” films from this cultural area. There is more. The festival was founded in 1980 which means at a time when the German film industry received a new boost thanks to the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962.
Rolf Deen, board member of "Het Filmgesprek" in The Netherlands, comments on a selection of films screened at the 50th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021.
List of church film prizes 2020 by Ecumenical Juries, Interreligious Juries, INTERFILM Juries or National/Regional Church Film Juries
