The article by Dunja Jelenkovic, recently published in the NECSUS Journal – an international, double blind peer-reviewed journal of media studies- , focuses on film festivals as ‘sites of memory’ and examines the year 2025 as the point of departure to compare how the leading European film festivals – Berlin, Cannes, and Venice – have responded to the conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine. [1] Since the establishment of the world’s first film festival in Venice in 1932, film festivals have operated in a reciprocal relationship with wars, exerting influence on them while simultaneously being shaped by them. When Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice film festivals expressed their solidarity in a prompt, loud, and unambiguous manner. This was most visible through Ukrainian president Zelenskyy’s online addresses at the opening ceremonies of each of these festivals (2022-2023).
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