FFC Program Tips

Have you already clicked through our program? In the program overview you will find the seasons of 219 films from 48 production countries.

A total of 22 films are celebrating their world premieres at this year's FFC, 10 are screening as international premieres and 68 films are celebrating their German premieres.

In the section overview you will find all films of the 32nd FFC, from the competitions, to the new section ECOEAST with films from Georgia on ecological topics, SPOTLIGHT: ROMANIA, with films from Romania and the SPECIALS, there among others the film series WHAT`S LEFT? with many Ukrainian film productions and the special WOMEN'S ROLES OM SOCIALISM AND BEYOUND. The popular sections KIDS IN THE CINEMA, HOME|DOMOWNJA|DOMIZNA, SPECTRUM and HITS are also back.

Here are some film tips and highlights of the festival week for you:

Monday, November 7

At the Lausitzer FilmSchau - Łužyska filmowa pśeglědka - Łužiska filmowa přehladka the first prizes of the festival week are traditionally awarded - this year for the 20th time! 18 films by filmmakers from Lower and Upper Lusatia can be seen at the Weltspiegel Film Theater. The ticket costs 5 euros. More information here.

Tuesday, November 8

On Tuesday, the FFC will be officially opened at the Staatstheater Cottbus. The opening film will be shown in parallel from 9pm at Filmtheater Weltspiegel. LUXEMBOURG LUXEMBOURG is a Ukrainian comedy by Antonio Lukich and is about two very different twin brothers in search of themselves, when suddenly a message appears about the fate of their missing father.

LUXEMBOURG, LUXEMBOURG (Antonio Lukich, UA, 2022)

Film Tip I
The series WHAT'S LEFT? is a cinematic journey through former and present hot spots and shows how Eastern Europe is coming to terms with the "turn of the times". What is left of the spirit of optimism after the fall of the Iron Curtain, in times of renewed war? In the documentary THE LONELY LONG-DISTANCE RUNNERS. FOUR MEDIA STORIES FROM THE BALKANS, investigative journalists from Southeastern Europe talk about their everyday lives under political pressure, in many places characterized by symbiotic relationships between business, politics and the media. Afterwards, there will be a SlowTalk at the Glad-House. Guests will include Alexandra Bogdani, investigative journalist from Albania, and Andon Balkanov, who as head of the Bulgarian National Broadcasting Corporation fought for more independence from politics (more info here).

Film Tip II
Spotlight Romania shows what Romanian cinema is dealing with today and convinces with the everyday closeness of its characters and a flair for telling relevant stories laconically - from R.M.N., the latest film by cult director Cristian Mungiu, to EAGLES OF ŢAGA about unbroken mentality of perhaps Romania's worst soccer team. SWAMP CITY features punk, electro and new wave - a look at the underground music scene in Timişoara in the late 1980s and 1990s. Here you can read all about Spotlight Romania, and for a taste of Romanian cinema, here is the short film program.

     
R.M.N.                                                                                                SWAMP CITY                                                                                EAGLES OF ŢAGA
(Cristian MungiuRO/FR/BE , 2022)                                 (Bogdan Puslenghea/Ovidiu Zimcea RO, 2021)       (Adina Popescu/ Iulian Manuel GharvasRO/SK , 2022)

Film Tip III
The International Festival Jury awards prizes for Best Film, Best Director and for an outstanding individual performance. All 12 films in the Feature Film Competition are worth seeing and this year describe above all the search for identity from young Polish pianists with a hip-hop look to a Serbian woman with three lives to a Romanian policeman on the verge of burnout - all are searching for their role in life. Three films explore the direct and indirect experiences of violence under dictatorship and war, from the former Czechoslovakia to present-day Belarus to an undefined country that won a war but whose physical and mental landscapes are completely scarred.

On Wednesday at 19:00, the first prize will be awarded: FOOLS, the new film by Tomasz Wasilewski and one of three Polish competition entries, will receive the "Cottbus-ins-Kino" award, endowed by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, for the distribution support of a film from the FFC program and will thus be released in German cinemas in 2023. FFC viewers can already see the fascinating cinematic work of art.

FOOLS (Tomasz Wasilewski PL/DE, 2022)

Talk-Tip
There will be a Slow Talk at the Glad-House on the film series "Women's Roles in Socialism and After." The talk will focus on DEFA film with its diverse portrayal of women's roles as well as female filmmaking in the GDR. What have we retained as a legacy of this to this day, what does the current film business look like for female filmmakers, and how are women portrayed in film before and after the "Wende"? The event will also include the presentation of the e-book "They. Women directors of DEFA and their films", edited by Cornelia Klauß and Ralf Schenk, will take place. Read more about the talk here.

Event tip
Violin punk and a colorful mix of Slavic languages can be heard at the concert with the Cottbus-based Kollektiw Wakuum at Galerie Fango (more info).

Thursday, November 10

Film Tip I
New this year is the EcoEast section. Films on ecological topics and sustainability will be shown here. First up are films from Georgia, from the silent era to today. A TUNNEL will be shown at 5:30 p.m. in the Glad-House  and tells the story of a sleepy village where the "New Silk Road" between Europe and China is supposed to pass by, for which not only a tunnel has to be blasted into the rock. Afterwards there will be a SlowTalk on the topic. Filmmakers and experts will discuss the interactions between ecology and society, industrialization and protest culture, and the role of film as a medium in the sustainability debate.

A Tunnel (Nino Orjonikidze/ Vano Arsenishvili GE/DE , 2019)

Film Tip III
"Church, Cinema, Short Film" in the nave of the Upper Church of St. Nikolai, admission is free. The film NO BODY AND THE BLUE SKY is presented, the filmmaker is present, music rounds off this special event.

 
NO BODY AND THE BLUE SKY
(Magda Gvelesiani/ Leah PeirceDE/GE , 2021, 36 Min)

Film Tip IV
The Estonian medieval thriller trilogy MELCHIOR THE APOTHECARY. Wednesday to Sunday there's all three parts, each at 10 pm at the Obenkino. Or on Sunday from 6 pm all three episodes in a row from 6 pm in the chamber stage. Info and tickets here.

MELCHIOR THE APOTHECARY
(Elmo Nüganen EE, 2021)

Event Tip I
The music quiz at the festival club Scandale. Scandalously tricky questions starting at 7:30 p.m. with a focus on film gems and series classics. If you can't make it on time, no problem: the flexible round concept also leaves room for guests who join in later.

Event Tip II
NA PASSASCHOK, the return of the legendary FFC party. From this year on, vodka "kisses" samba and flamenco. Here you can meet filmmakers, the festival team or the festival-crazy neighbor! At the bar, on the dance floor or on the terrace. Long live the little Friday! Off to the Bellessa in the Eberthof.

Friday 11 November

A festival Friday all about Ukraine. On Ukrainian Day, a part of the 13 films from and three films about Ukraine, which will be shown in all sections of the FFC, will be presented. In two panel discussions at 10 a.m. in the New Town House and at 5 p.m. in the Slow in the Glad House, Ukrainian directors will report on the current situation for filmmakers in Ukraine and the contribution of their country's creative film scene to the democratization process. On this day, the FilmFestival Cottbus cordially invites all Ukrainian fellow citizens and grants them free admission to all films shown at the Ukrainian in the FFC venues upon presentation of their passports. All info about the films and more can be found here.

Film Tip I
There are eight films in this year's U18 Youth Film Competition. Whether in hot-blooded battles with an Afghanistan veteran as a surrogate dad or in groovy battle raps as a stuttering YouTube sensation, the films in this year's Youth Film Competition tell powerful stories of adolescents' wild search for identity in the face of a rapidly changing world. Throughout the week, the films can be seen at the Kammerbühne. On Friday, the Lithuanian-Polish co-production THE 9TH STEP celebrates its world premiere and tells the story of an unusual trio of father, daughter and their girlfriend, who swap roles without further ado, heralding the start of a stirring rollercoaster ride of emotions.

THE 9TH STEP
(Irma PužauskaitėLT/PL, 2022, 93 Min)

Film Tip II
Multidimensional intoxication in the dome is available at 5, 7 and 9 p.m. in the Juri Gagarin Space Planetarium. The FullDome Cinema offers the unique opportunity to completely immerse yourself in the world of film and be enchanted by the 360-degree projection. Here is all the info about the films and tickets.

 
FullDome

Film Tip III
Heimat| Domownja | Domizna musy serbski byś! A program full of references to Sorbian language and culture. The section also shows films from other regions where it is completely normal to speak not only one language. At 7 p.m. DER KRUG AN DER WIEDAU will be shown at the Glad-House, followed by a SlowTalk about the crime comedy from the German-Danish border region, shot in five languages (more info here).

DER KRUG AN DER WIEDAU
(Gary Funck, DE, 2022)

Event Tip I
Radio live is available from 5 p.m. in the festival center in the Stadthalle. rbbKultur broadcasts live for one hour, then radioeins with Knut Elstermann takes over for two hours from 6 p.m. on. Exciting film talks and top-class guests, make yourself comfortable with a drink in the lounge and enjoy radio to watch.

Event Tip II
After all that sitting and watching, it's time to shake your hips to the acoustic-pop-punk sound of Acht Eimer Hühnerherzen and the melodic punk rock of Vizediktator at Festivalclub Scandale! Afterwards the DJ*s let the night become film(rip)ripe (more info).

Samstag 12. November

Film Tip I
The last chance to see some competition films again - in Room 2 of the Weltspiegel, the one-take political thriller shows a night in Belarus between protest and police violence. Anna Jadowska, who won no less than five awards at the FFC in 2017, portrays an over-60-year-old who finally wants to become herself in her latest film THE WOMAN ON THE ROOF. Arsen Oremović's contemplative, gripping feature debut THE HEAD OF THE BIG FISH reflects on the relationship between two brothers in a soul landscape still struggling with the traumas of the Yugoslav war.

        
WOMAN ON THE ROOF                                                             THE HEAD OF A BIG FISH
(Anna Jadowska, PL/FR/SE , 2022)                                         (Arsen Oremović, HR, 2022)                                                  

Film Tip II
DIE LANGE NACHT DER KURZEN LAUSITZER shows short films from Lusatia in two parts at 7 and 9 pm.

Film Tip III
See Kasem Hoxha, member of the International Festival Jury, in ONE OF US, at 4 p.m. in Weltspiegel. Balkan neo-noir from Albania with an actor you've probably seen in a crime thriller on German TV .

Talk Tip
Talk with silhouette filmmaker Jörg Herrmann about his career as a filmmaker with a special focus, his leading role in the DEFA animated film studio, as well as background information on the two films DER SIEBENTE RABE and AUS DEM LEBEN EINES RUMGEHERS, which are shown in Sorbian language version (with German subtitles) in the FFC program.

    
DER SIEBENTE RABE                                                                AUS DEM LEBEN EINES RUMGEHERS
(Jörg Herrmann DE, 2011)                                                     (Jörg Herrmann DE, 2001 - 2013)

Event tip
After the festival's award winners have been crowned, Scandale's aftershow party will showcase the full range of the role nightlife can project on the soul. AGENT TWIST gets behind the turntables. As a resident of the Dresden party location "Glory" he has already gained a lot of experience. Now he tests how well we can party in the Scandale and puts a brisk set on the floor. GRAZYNA BIEDRON is known for infecting her audience with a fat portion of good mood. At their last visit they almost tore down the hut. Oil up your engines, because for the crowning finale we're going full throttle. The notorious duo HEINE MIEZ GÄRTNER also gives a few bars to the customer - that grooves, that fetzt, heidewitzka! A great mixture of music is waiting to turn your head. Sharpen your ears!

Sunday 13 November

Film Tip I
Fairy tale film and children's festival. On the Sunday of the festival, the Forster animated film DIE BADEMÄUSEL UND DIE GOLDENE SPINDEL will celebrate its world premiere as a supporting film, followed by the fairy tale film ZITTERINCHEN. Afterwards, a photo booth and a handicraft street will turn the Stadthalle into a children's playground. Here you will find all information about the FFC's children's program.

Film tip II
In 2019, the flash mob-like performance of the Bürgerchor Hoyerswerda at the screening of "Gundermann. Revier" made for a lasting experience. Now the civic choir returns, again at 12 noon in the Stadthalle, for the screening of WIE KLINGT HEIMAT.

WIE KLINGT HEIMAT?
(Markus Weinberg, DE 2022)

Film Tip III
Homosexual and Catholic: Daniel, artist and activist, feels comfortable in his village. Until he is hostile to everyone after a tragic incident. The drama ALL OUR FEARS with cult actor Dawid Ogrodnik in a leading role is shown in the special "Polskie Horyzonty", which deals with images from the province under the heading "Landlust vs. Provinzfrust". At 4 p.m. on Weltspiegel.

ALL OUR FEARS
(Łukasz Ronduda, Łukasz Gutt,PL, 2021)

Film Tip IVAxel Ranisch is one of the most interesting German filmmakers with his quirky and charming works. He is a regular in Cottbus, now with his latest film ORPHEA IN LOVE - an opera musical between daydream and everyday life, mini-job and artist's bubble. 6 p.m. at the Stadthalle.

ORPHEA IN LOVE
(Axel Ranisch, DE, 2022)

Of course, this was only a small selection of the complete program, you can find everything here.

Secure your coveted tickets - see you in Cottbus!