32nd Gala Grand Prix CIFFT 

When in 1989, the year of great changes in Europe and in the world, Alexander V. Kammel and his father Rudolf Kammel created CIFFT to select every year the best tourist film on our Globe, they did not expect, that it come the time that the famous Gala of Grand Prix CIFFT will not be able to host great winners from all over the world.

The 32nd Gala Grand Prix CIFFT was hosted for the first time on-line by Alexander V. Kammel in December 2020, in the setting of the beautiful baroque palace, the famous Belvedere Palace in Vienna. It has been watched by millions of tourist cinema enthusiasts around the world, and the icon of this palace, Gustav Klimt’s famous and popular painting “The Kiss”, a sign of love and closeness, will go down in history as a symbol of the world waiting for the end of the isolation caused by the pandemic.

Gustaf Klimt’s “The Kiss” and impressive Belvedere Palace

At the beginning of the Gala, Alexander V. Kammel introduced the guests from all over the world, who took part in the event virtually, to the gates of the historic Belvedere Palace, a baroque masterpiece, great pride of Austria. This palace was built outside the walls of the then city in 1721-22 by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt as the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy. At the beginning of the existence of the Painting Gallery located in the palace, the former “Austrian Gallery”, Viennese secession, and thus Gustav Klimt, dominated. We can find here the largest collection of works by Gustav Klimt, as well as masterpieces by Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. There are also important works of French Impressionism, the most important Biedermeier collection, as well as valuable works from the Baroque and Medieval collections. Today, special exhibitions are held in the Lower Belvedere and its Orangerie; you can also see the admirable representative rooms. The museum itself has been moved to the Upper Belvedere at the other end of the magnificent garden and has become an important meeting place for Klimt fans around the world with the work of this great artist.

It is worth emphasizing that when Klimt for the first time presented the painting “The Kiss” in 1908 to the audience at the exhibition, it was immediately purchased by the Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna and is in this collection to this day. This painting is the focal point of the largest collection of Gustaf Klimt in the world and this art work makes a huge impression on everyone, this famous couple on the work hugging in a meadow full of flowers, cannot be disliked. 

The “Golden Period” in which the work was created, is the period of Klimt’s painting fascination  with the gold. Many artist’s paintings created during this period have rich decorations made with gold petals. Great popularity of “The Kiss” also results from the use of this technique. On the one hand, gold in art, above all, evokes mystical and religious associations, on the other, it has real value equated with the high price. During this period, Klimt created work on an international scale and was promoted to the elite of Europe’s most expensive portrait painters.

Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” was to become the most well-known and most frequently reproduced artwork in the world alongside Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. 

The World’s Best Tourism Films 2020
3500 films from 130 countries in the most famous World Competition

Alexander V. Kammel, the creator and director of CIFFT, presented the Best Tourist Films of the World in 2020 during the CIFFT Grand Prix Online Gala.  Austria, France, and Spain were the countries with the most awards, 3 for each, followed by Chile and Japan with 2 winners and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Lithuania, Myanmar and Portugal with one award. Throughout the year, more than 3500 videos from more than 130 countries, competed in the most important festivals around the world that make up the circuit 2020. 

The great international competition was held in the six thematic categories of the CIFFT Ranking List: 
Tourism Destination Country Promotion, 
Tourism Destinations Region Promotion, 
Tourism Destination City Promotion, 
Tourism Services, Tourism Products, 
and Independent Travel Videos. 

The films that reached the top three positions in each thematic category received the prestigious awards and the coveted title of World’s Best Tourism Film 2020.

The World’s Best Tourism Film in the category Tourism Destination Countries is “Seek less, find more” (Austria); The 2nd place goes to “Seeing Differently” (Japan); And in the 3rd place is “Austria strengthens ties” (Austria). 

In the category Tourism Destinations Regions, the World’s Best Tourism Film is “Nothing much, but much more” (Bosnia and Herzegovina); In the 2nd place is “The Secret of Tanintharyi” (Myanmar); And the 3rd place goes to “Magic Cordoba” (Spain).

In Tourism Destination Cities, the World’s Best Tourism Film goes to “Staycation” (France); The 2nd place goes to “Help” (Spain); And in the 3rd place is “You Have Reached Your Destination!” (Lithuania). 

As the World’s Best Tourism Film in Tourism Services  is “You only love once” (Portugal); The 2nd place goes to “The inspiration behind an old manor house hotel renovation” (Japan); And in the 3rd place we have “Datai Langkawi – Forever After” (Chile). 

In the category focused in promoting the Tourism Products, the World’s Best Tourism Film is “Hunger for experiences” (Spain); The 2nd place goes to “Alps at their very best” (Austria); And the 3d place “Discover Parque Futangue” (Chile).

In the Independent Travel Videos category the World’s Best Tourism Film produced by an independent filmmaker goes to “And yet it all seems limitless” (France); The 2nd place goes to “Avannaq – A Journey Through Greenland” (France); And in the 3rd place we have “White Angels of Camargue – Europe’s Last Cowboys” (Germany). 

Full rank list and all the winners you can see on the CIFFT website www.cifft.com

Great emotions accompanied World’s Best Tourism Video on CIFFT “People’s Choice” Award 2020. For people from all over the World the best was film “The Captain” of Conil de la Frontera.

Alexander V. Kammel, hoping for a good, healthy year for all of us 2021, invited to participate in CIFFT Festivals.

It should be emphasized that participation in all Festivals associated with CIFFT gives the chance to win the title of the best tourist film in the world in one of six categories. 

I present the CIFFT Festivals in alphabetical order:
Amorgos Tourism Film Festival – Amorgos, Greece
ART&TUR – International Tourism Film Festival – Aveiro, Portugal
Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards – Cannes, France
FILMAT Poland – Warsaw, Poland
International Tourism Film Festival – Capadoccia, Turkey
Internationale Wirtschaftsfilmtage – Vienna, Austria
Japan World’s Tourism Film Festival – Kyoto, Japan
New York Festivals – New York, USA 
Silafest – Veliko Gradiste, Serbia
terres Travel Festival – Films & Creativity – Tortosa, Spain
The Golden City Gate (ITB) – Berlin (ITB), Germany
Tourfilm Riga – Riga, Latvia
Zagreb TourFilm Festival – Zagreb, Croatia

and candidate festival in cooperation with:
International Tourism Film Festival Africa – ITFFA- South Africa

author: Ewa Kotus
translation: Wojciech Jaworek