Festivalblog: Wednesday [Updated]

After the grand opening at the Staatstheater, the festival team is in full working mode. Today, many guests are expected again at the festival center for accreditation and the film program is just getting started (you can find the whole program here). For example, the Romanian spy film OCCASIONAL SPIES will be screened in Weltspiegel Room 2 at 1 p.m. Afterwards, director Oana Giurgiu will be our guest for a Q&A. Get your tickets now!

OCCASIONAL SPIES (Oana Giurgiu RO, 2021)

Another highlight is the documentary film THE LONELY LONG-DISTANCE RUNNERS at 2 pm in the Gladhouse. The film accompanies investigative journalists from Southeastern Europe who report on the increasingly difficult conditions in the Southeastern European media landscape ("Journalism under Pressure"). The film will be followed by a discussion with exciting guests. (>Info and tickets to the film) (>Info to the talk) [the talk will be in english]

THE LONELY LONG-DISTANCE RUNNERS - Four stories of journalists from the Balkans
(Boris Missirkov/ Georgi Bogdanov BG, 2022)

At 7 p.m. you can be present live at an award ceremony in the Stadthalle: FOOLS (Tomasz Wasilewski PL/DE, 2022), a multilayered unconventional as well as uncompromising family drama, will be awarded the "Cottbus ins Kino" prize (10 000€ donated by Medienboard). Film information and tickets are available here.

FOOLS (Tomasz Wasilewski PL/DE, 2022)

If you've already had enough content input, head over to Scandale (Bunter Bahnhof) instead. Starting at 9 p.m. you can play table tennis to the beats of Leon Haller, dance and just have a good evening!

Scandele, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 20, 03046 Cottbus

Highlight of the day today at 19.00 was the first big award ceremony of the 32nd FFC:

The exsystent Filmverleih gets the "Cottbus into Cinema" - Award for FOOLS (Tomasz Wasilewski PL/DE, 2022). The prize is endowed with 10,000 euros and donated by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. The prize will make it easier to bring the film to the cinema. Jakob Kijas from exsystent Filmverleih: "It takes money to bring a film to the cinema, this prize makes it easier for us, we can for example finance the marketing. Thank you very much that the medienboard and the FilmFestival Cottbus have chosen us as an award winner."

Present at the award ceremony in the Stadthalle were (from left to right): Program Director Bernd Buder, Jakob Kijas (exsystent Filmverleih) and Andreas Stein (Managing Director FFC).

Sibille Lehnert, dispatcher exsystent Filmverleih, was also present:

FOOLS will be released in all German art house cinemas in spring 2023. You can see the film TOMORROW at 10.00 in Weltspiegel Saal 2, with English subtitles and without German simultaneous translation.

This article will be updated throughout the day.