From November 4th to 9th, 2025, the 35th FilmFestival Cottbus (FFC) will once again welcome filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from all over the world to Lusatia. In this anniversary year, the traditional Close-Up Estonia section will take centre stage.
Under the title "Close-Up: Estonia. Between History and the Present," the festival will present feature films, documentaries and short films that showcase the diversity and self-confidence of Estonian cinema today: from mythical fishing village tales to powerful youth dramas and intimate family portraits to darkly humorous animations and meditative landscape images.
The focus will be on key questions: How does Estonian cinema remember the past? What debates shape the present? And what moves domestic audiences? The result is a panorama that is as modern and digital as the country itself.
With Estonia, the FFC is launching a three-year Baltic series that will also focus on Lithuania and Latvia in the coming years. The section's partner is the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
More Estonia in the festival programme
The Close-Up film series will be accompanied by panel discussions with film guests. Estonian productions will also feature in other programme sections, including the U18 Youth Film Competition, the Short Film Competition and the new series ‘Don't Call Me Vintage’, which rediscovers cult films from Central and Eastern Europe.
Outlook for the entire programme
In addition to Close-Up, visitors can expect around 140 films from 30 countries in the Feature Film, U18 Youth Film and Short Film competitions, as well as in seven other sections – from arthouse to genre cinema, from regional productions to international premieres.