Looking back on the 013CIFF's Development

Now that the 74th Berlinale is over, the work begins in earnest for the upcoming 6th edition of the 013 Cinecitta International Film Festival, scheduled for October 22 – 27, 2024, at Cinecitta Tilburg. It is worth looking back to our 4th and 5th editions in October 2022 and 2023, respectively – the only editions other than the first not tainted by the COVID pandemic – to take stock of the Festival’s progress. In 2022, we welcomed four guests: the co-screenwriter of Belgium’s Close, Angelo Tijssens, for our Opening Night presentation, which went on to win the Audience Award for Most Popular Film; the director and co-screenwriter of Iran’s Until Tomorrow, Ali Asgari; one of the lead actors from Romania’s Miracle, Ioana Bugarin, who graciously gave a talk to the visiting students from IESA Paris university after the Dutch Premiere of her work; and the co-writer and director of Greece’s Magnetic Fields, Yorgos Goussis, for the Closing Night presentation and Dutch Premiere of his film. It was extremely gratifying to see that the audience numbers almost doubled from 2021 to 2022.

In 2023, we were very happy to see the audience numbers increase by about 30% on the 2022 total. Our 5th anniversary edition last October again welcomed four guests: the writer-director of Japan’s Boneless Lantern, Nadeshiko Koba, who paid her own way to the Festival for the European Premiere of her film; the writer-director of Lithuania’s Remember to Blink, Austėja Urbaitė, for the Dutch Premiere of her work; the writer-director of Portugal’s Drifter, Simão Cayatte, in attendance for the Benelux Premiere of his first feature; and the co-writer-director of Poland’s Fucking Bornholm, Anna Kazejak, who was present for the Closing Night presentation of her film. Last year’s edition was the first to include a documentary feature – the Germany/Iran co-production Seven Winters in Tehran – and it was a pleasant surprise to see it capture the Audience Award for Most Popular Film.

The next edition of the Festival promises more of the same – cutting-edge international cinema with guest directors on hand to enliven the Festival experience. See you at Cinecitta October 22 – 27 for the 6th edition of the 013 CIFF!