Budapest Architecture Films Festival 2022

Text: Mária Tatai

The well-know „think global, act local” slogan could be made more compelling, and this gesture attracts attention which is fully justified. This year’s Budapest Architecture Films Festival makes us rethink and revise with its brief motto. It is true that we can do the most for our environment locally, but some of our actions may have impacts farther on in this globalized world and bring about changes elsewhere, which in turn means that changes taking place in other sites of the world will exert more influence on us. The pandemic and – more recently – the Ukrainian war have changed conditions and we are making our decisions on a daily basis under the pressure of overwhelming and yet insufficient information. Topics of this festival follow the burning issues of the year concerned, such as the changes of our environment, tendencies of the shaping of villages and towns, as well as trends in architecture, works and characters of influential architects. This year’s four-day festival shows a total of 13 films, each of which cannot be viewed because of simultaneous performances, but there is a booklet on the programmes and also film reviews on the internet available, which provide useful information. The sophisticated graphic design of the booklet with single-line outlines of firewalls is a direct reference Budapest. On-site viewings of the films have enriched the experience by all means, and the creators of the films also uttered their views occasionally live or in live streaming. This year’s selection contained several films focussing on the transformations of our environment, but also on the contemporary issues concerning towns and cities – such as Lisbon, Marseille and Vienna –, and their topics ranged from social housing, design and portraits of artists as well.