With the end of the cold war there has never been a better historical moment to ask Americans to consider how precious freedom is, and how easily it is taken or bargained away.

Central and Eastern European films won major international prizes even during the days of repression. But their directors didn't disappear after the fall of the Berlin wall. The triumph of democracy is much more than a good theme for a festival: it is the theme of the age, and its emergence at the end of this bloody century is such a large, defining event that many of even the most gifted screen artists are only now beginning to grapple with it. We know about the flaws at the heart of Europe's socialist dream, but for 50 years it affected the everyday lives of millions of people—the way they lived, worked, and loved.

The Freedom Film Festival reminds our filmmakers—especially the younger ones—that from time to time history will make profound and unexpected demands on their courage; that their audiences have a right to call on them for spiritual uplift; that they might be required to put their hard-won careers at risk in order to defend the civic life of their people.

The Freedom Film Festival is presented each year in Los Angeles and in selected other cities. The inaugural festival premiered in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center on December 2, 1997 and opened in Los Angeles at the Paramount Theater at Paramount Studios February 26.