The Luxembourg Association of the Cinematographic Press (ALPC) has announced that it has joined the International Federation of the Cinematographic Press (FIPRESCI).
Launched in June 1930 in Brussels, now based in Munich and chaired by Frenchwoman Isabelle Danel, FIPRESCI brings together journalists from around fifty countries worldwide. Its purpose is: "the promotion and development of film culture and the safeguarding of professional interests" or, to be more precise:
- Safeguard the freedom and ethics of film criticism and film journalism and information.
- Promote and broaden the idea of cinema as a means of artistic expression and cultural education.
- Discuss, define and confirm the specific rights and obligations of film criticism and journalism.
- Encourage the exchange of ideas and experiences between film critics and film journalists from all countries and thus create, apart from all ideological and political distinctions, a new basis for permanent dialogue.
- Publish and distribute all documents in line with this vision.
Each year a FIPRESCI prize is awarded by a jury made up of members of the federation in around sixty of the main international film festivals (Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, Palm Springs, Hong Kong, Thessaloniki, etc.) and, since 1999, all members of the federation award the best film of the year the FIPRESCI Grand Prize awarded in the autumn on the occasion of the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain.
Since 2014, the ALPC has brought together film critics and journalists specialising in the cinematographic field from various Luxembourg media. It organises press juries at various national film festivals: LuxFilmFest, CinEast, British & Irish Film Festival Luxembourg, and participates in the jury of critics of the Italian Film Festival in Villerupt. Its members also vote for their "Film of the Year".
The affiliation of the ALPC to FIPRESCI is an international recognition of the seriousness of its approach and the quality of the work of the Luxembourg film press. This recognition goes hand in hand with that of the entire national cinematographic sector.
ALPC members will now be invited to participate in international film criticism juries on several continents. In the event of official participation in a foreign festival, their articles will be listed on the FIPRESCI website. Finally, members of the ALPC will now be able to vote for the FIPRESCI Grand Prix. The Luxembourg association itself now has one vote at meetings and events of the federation.
This affiliation of the ALPC to FIPRESCI heralds the return of Luxembourg to the sphere of international film criticism. The federation website (https://fipresci.org/about-us/history/) includes this excerpt: “At the start of the Second World War, FIPRESCI consisted of seven national sections: Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and Czechoslovakia”.
