The T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival in Wrocław (3rd – 13th August), is among the most important Polish film festivals. Since its founding 17 years ago, the festival has succeeded in building a large audience for arthouse cinema. This year, it will take place for the first time under the artistic direction of Marcin Pieńkowski. With the LAST FAMILY (Poland 2016) and ALL THE CITIES OF THE NORTH (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, France 2016), two that ran in the competition of the FilmFestival Cottbus (FFC) last year, are shown. Bernd Buder, programme director of the FFC, will be attending the "Polish Days", the film industry meeting of the festival, where numerous new Polish feature films and feature film projects will be presented, from the 8th to 10th  August.

Further information: https://www.nowehoryzonty.pl

The third film and theater festival in Zielona Góra ended on 15th July with the solemn award ceremony at "Palace Wiechlice". The festival, which took place in Cottbus' partner city Zielona Góra, as well as in the towns of Żary and Szprotawa, screened 31 feature films. Ten current Polish films were in competition. Committed to the work of the festivals name patron, the actor Maciej Kozłowski, the competition focussed on action and crime films. The prize for the best film went to KONWÓJ by Maciej Żak, an ambiguous police thriller, whose protagonists settle different bills during the transfer of a “category A” criminal. A Special Mention was given to Agnieszka Mandat, leading actress in Agnieszka Holland's SPOOR. The prize for the Best Supporting Actor went to the Ukrainian actor Roman Skorovskij for his role in Wojciech Smarzowskis WOŁYŃ / HATRED. The film, which will also be screened at the upcoming FilmFestival Cottbus, deals with the pogrom-like riots of Ukrainians against Poles during the Second World War, when tens of thousands were murdered. Smarzowski emphasizes that he wants to open a dialogue with the Ukrainian neighbors on the breakpoints of the common history. In the Ukraine, this part of the history obviously is been treated in a different way: so far, the film has not been shown here, and the Ukrainian actors who are involved in the film have not received any roles since then.

Information about the "Kozzi Cybulski Wilhelmi" film and theater festival at: https://www.festiwal.zgora.pl/

The Odesa International Film Festival which takes place from 14th to 222nd July ths year, is one of the most influential film festivals in Eastern Europe. This year's 7th edition is again hosting a number of international stars, among them the German actress Sibel Kekilli and the director Christian Petzold who are part of the international jury for feature films. In addition to a high-quality film program and numerous gala events, the festival offers a four-day film industry forum, the "Odesa Film Office", in which new film projects are presented and topics relevant to the industry are discussed. The aim is to strengthen the network for film producers and promoters from the Ukraine within the European film industry

. Together with the FilmFestival Cottbus, the Odesa International Film Festival is organizing a conference under the title " Film and Independent Film Festivals: A Source of 'Multiplier' Benefits for Social Discourse" which reflects the role of film and film festivals in the implementation of civil society values. Representatives of the Tibilisi International Film Festival (Georgia), the “Cronograf” documentary film festival (Republic of Moldova), the international film festival "Golden Apricot" (Armenia), the Minsk international film festival “Listapad”, the Odesa International Film Festival, as well as the Russian producer Evgeny Gindilis and Samaya Asgarova, who is developing the idea of ​​a film festival in Baku in the frame of the Azerbaijan Film Studio, discuss the challenges and opportunities that arise for filmmakers and film festivals by tackling civil society issues. In the public film program, selected films show how civil society values ​​can be communicated in the film.

The meeting in Odesa serves the inventory of the work of film festivals. A follow-up meeting will take place at the upcoming FilmFestival Cottbus. The meetings also serve to strengthen the networking of film festivals and film festival initiatives in the Eastern Partnership countries and Russia. The series of events is supported by the Federal Republic of Germany, Federal Foreign Office.

More informationen about the Odesa International Film Festival: http://oiff.com.ua/en

From 12th to 16th July, the "Kozzi-Cybulski-Wilhelmi" film and theater festival in Cottbus's Polish partner town Zielona Góra shows a rich programme with current Polish and German feature films as well as theater plays. The focus is on the works of the Polish actor legends Mieczysław Cybulski, Roman Wilhelmi and Maciej Kozłowski. The "German Panorama" preents five films, including the multiple winner film of the European and German film awards, TONI ERDMANN by Maren Ade. The FilmFestival Cottbus presents its last year's competition winner, the Russian-German co-production ZOOLOGY. Bernd Buder, programme director of the FilmFestival Cottbus, will participate in the jury of competition, which shows ten current Polish feature films. Among the star gurests of the third edition of the film and theater festival in Zielona Góra are the director Wojcech Smarzowski, whose films MIGHTY ANGEL and ROSE were to be seen in Cottbus, and Agnieszka Mandat, the main actress in Agnieszka Holland's current feature film SPOOR. For further information (in Polish), please visit: http://www.festiwal.zgora.pl/

Bernd Buder, programme director of the FilmFestival Cottbus, takes part in the jury at this year's "Baltic Debut" film festival in Svetlogorsk. The festival in the Kaliningrad Oblast takes place for the 14th time. Nine films from the Baltic region compete for the awards for the best film, the best director and the special prize of the jury. The co-production countries are Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden. Buder works in the jury together with the Finnish-Russian actress Alina Tomnikov, the Estonian actor Kirill Käro and the Russian-Lithuanian film critic and journalist Vita Ramm. President of the jury is the director Vladimir Grammatikov. The program, curated by Leonid Demchenko, shows the artistic range of the young cinema in the Baltic Sea countries, from Ivan Schachnazarow's Roadmovie ROCK to the Polish coming-of-age-story MEMORIES OF SUMMER and the Swedish SAMI BLOOD (Berlinale-Generation 2017). For the opening on 4th  July, which took place in front of 1200 spectators in the Svetlogorsk music theater, Karen Schachnazarow showed his latest film ANNA KARENINA. VRONSKY'S STORY. The film is part of the series "Russian Premieres", in which also Boris Khlebnikov's ARRHYTHMIA, which had his international premiere in Karlovy Vary, and Andrei Zvyaginttsevs LOVELESS (Cannes 2017) are shown.

The Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Brandenburg (JFFB) will take place for the 23rd time from 2nd to 11th July . The FilmFestival Cottbus is proud to be a partner of this  renownedfestival for the second time. The JFFB presents not only an enormous artistic range of current films , but above all differentiated, and contradictory views on Jewish everyday life, culture and history worldwide. In the context of the JFFB the FilmFestival Cottbus presents the documentary  ANGEL WAGENSTEIN: ART IS A WEAPON about the Jewish-Bulgarian film author and novelist Angel Wagenstein.  Born as a descendant of Sephardic Jews in Bulgaria, he left his home country briefly to return as an ardent communist. The excitement quickly gave way to an analytical distance - the screenwriter, who also wrote the scripts for the DEFA films "Stars", "Eolomea" and "The Little Prince", is regarded as a master of intermediate notes. Wagenstein will be, together with Andrea Simon, the director of the documentary, present at the screening on the 3rd July, 18:00 in the Berlin fsk-cnema. The film critic Jörg Taszman, also programme consultant for the FilmFestival Cottbus, will conduct the Q and A.

With Ferenc Török's "1945" and the documentary film REVERSING OBLIVION by Ann Michel and Philip Wilde (5th July., 20:00, fsk-cinema), which had its world premiere at the FilmFestival Cottbus' 2016 edition, two more films in the programme of this year's JFFB explore Eastern European subjects. The festival opens with THE HISTORY OF LOVE, the new film by the Romanian-born director Radu Mihăileanu. Among the discoveries in the program is also the Israeli cult film AVANTI POPOLO, Rafi Buakais farce about the Six Day War (and wars in general) from 1986. A visit to the JFFB is worth it! Further information: www.jffb.de

From June 5 to 12, Elvira Geppert is scouting at the 16th Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca. During the days of Romanian film, she watches the most recent Romanian films and researches latest news from one of the most creative film countries in South Eastern Europe. During the Industry Days, she will join the closed screenings which present the most current Romanian films which will be premiered at international A-festivals soon – the FilmFestival Cottbus also looks forward to present a selection of new Romanian films in it’s competition and other sections.

More information about the Transilvania International Film Festival at: http://tiff.ro/en