War in Europe: Russia is waging a war against Ukraine in violation of international law. Thousands of people die in this war without any justification. The Russian aggressor denies the Ukrainian people their right to exist, Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian identity are direct targets of war.
Our full solidarity in this situation is with the Ukrainian people in their defensive struggle against the Russian aggressor and the maintenance of public life in Ukraine. It is our endeavor as the Brunswick International Film Festival to make an active contribution to the protection and strengthening of Ukrainian film culture.
We offer the Kyiv International Short Film Festival and the Odesa International Film Festival a platform to show Ukrainian films in Braunschweig. Thereby we would like to offer a forum to this threatened society and its film culture.
As Braunschweig International Film Festival we stand for a European culture of peaceful coexistence, mutual exchange and mutual support. We live the formation of a European identity. Therefore, the Braunschweig International Film Festival has always shown no propagandistic or group-disparaging films, no matter which country they come from. For us, it also does not matter whether they were state-sponsored or not. We remain true to this attitude now as well. We see ourselves as a place of cultural exchange; a blanket exclusion of films from certain countries would run counter to a free discussion. We are looking forward to our collaborations with the Kyiv International Short Film Festival and the Odesa International Film Festival, which will give us the opportunity to present their perspectives to the BIFF audience.