Dear fans of the silver screen,
I am really pleased that I can once again welcome you to the festival that will carry us to the Europe of film. During its 17-year existence, the Days of European Film has become a renowned festival, enriching the spring offering of cultural events in our town. It is appealing to see that more and
more film fans are heading for dark cinemas in Brno year after year to allow themselves to be fascinated by the phenomenon called European film. Film generally ranks high among the media of communication with its wide scope and influence, giving the creators and viewers an opportunity to convey and share feelings, stances and opinions. A good European film should reflect the values shared by all nations on the European continent, but at the same time express the plurality and variety of life in Europe. I do not doubt that the Days of European Film will bring us precisely such films, since the festival has been traditionally trying to present the very best that has been created by European filmmakers.
We must remember and appreciate that the festival organisers have also associated themselves with the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion 2010 and that they have devoted a special section of feature and documentary films to this issue.
European cinematography has achieved a worldwide dimension in the past few years. It is no longer just an exhausting competition with Hollywood productions, but also an effort to cooperate with America and influence one another. Moreover, the European Union supports projects aimed at the distribution of European films in Third World countries and vice versa. Let the Days of European Film 2010 be beneficial in this respect as well.
Bc. Roman Onderka, MBA
Mayor of the Statutory Town of Brno