Sections
Feature Film Competition
The twelve best productions from central and eastern Europe. Up-and-coming talents compete with star directors, FFC regulars meet newcomers. The five-member International festival jury will decide on who is to receive the main prize, worth € 25,000, as well as the awards for Best Director and ...
Short Film Competition
In a manner short and succinct eleven films tell very different stories with strong emotions, varying from everyday portraits to situation comedy. A diverse cinematic express journey across eastern Europe, presented in two blocks on Friday evening: raise the curtain for the The Long Night of Short ...
U18 Youth Film Competition
First love and a lot of misunderstandings; that's a fairly accurate description of most people's younger years. That there's a lot more to it than that is shown by this year's seven competition entries, as well as the other non-competing short works featured. Youth issues both typical and less so ...
Lusatian FilmShow
This popular competition offers a unique forum for filmmakers from Lusatia. The cult event as a forerunner of the festival in its 18th edition: a big screen for directing talents from the Brandenburg and Saxonian Lausitz.
Spectrum
Between psycho-thriller, quirky animated comedy and contemplative experimental film: The Spectrum presents 13 cinematic discoveries - varied entertainment à la carte. Angry citizens led astray, comedians on the run, a cat in a ventilation shaft and, in the Estonian provinces, the lactocalypse; at ...
Close Up WWII
75th Anniversary of Liberation – The End of World War II The Second World War ended 75 years ago with the German surrender in May 1945. Since then the world, especially Europe and especially eastern Europe, have been busy licking wounds, coming to terms with war crimes and questioning history. War ...
Von Frust und Freiheit
In the 30th year of German reunification, this series focuses on the period after reunification and its effects on contemporary politics in (east) Germany and the formerly socialist states of central and eastern Europe, namely Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The focus is on the ...
Stau 1990/2020
In the 1990s the influx of right-wing extremist parties and right-wing extremist subcultures was one of the ugly side effects of the unification process in east Germany. In a similar way to today the "New Right" strived for an authority to interpret certain topics; as can also be observed today, ...
Specials
Two villages with the same name in two countries, two friends on different sides, but which one? A country caught between war and peace and questions of social trust that encompass historical guilt, responsibility and the present. Three-dimensional works stretching from the dome to the earth. ...
Specials FULLDOME
Fulldome - three-dimensional in the dome Fulldome film screenings in the planetarium combine the viewing experience of the 3D format with the uniqueness of going to the cinema: immersive cinema in a public space. Going beyond the scientific didactic film, fulldome filmmakers sound out the ...
SPOTLIGHT ČESKO
Films from Czechoslovakia and today's Czech Republic have proven hits amongst festival audiences since the FilmFestival Cottbus was founded; these number the laconic comedies from award-winning Petr Zelenka in the 1990s and the multifaceted mentality study NATIONAL STREET, which was in fact shown on ...
Russkiy Den
Traditionally the festival Wednesday is owned by the section RUSSKIY DEN. Here the FilmFestival Cottbus presents a selection of film year's highlights from Russia: Insights into a film landscape as diverse, emotional and extraordinary as the country itself. Russia has also been dominated by ...
Polskie Horyzonty
The film series POLSKIE HORYZONTY contains contributions by both established and young filmmakers from Poland – our neighbouring country Poland, which remains one of the most exciting film countries in Eastern Europe. Historically aware and open to discourse, controversial and artistically ...
Homeland | Domownja | Domizna
The film series HOMELAND | DOMOWNJA | DOMIZNA illuminates film production in Lower and Upper Lusatia with Sorbian and regional topics. In the Lusatian lignite mining area and among people who live with constant change and try to preserve the old in the new. (Re)discoveries between Sorbian ...
Hits
Again and again Eastern European films succeed in reaching the top of the box office lists in their production countries. This often puts them in front of international blockbusters. Especially on the big markets such as Russia or Poland, domestic films are gaining ground with audience - and not ...
Children's Film
On the occasion of the festival's 30th anniversary the FilmFestival Cottbus' Children's Film Competition is to be both fantastic and magical. Whether educational time loops, the search for the golden thaler or a musical band of robbers who want to save a kingdom; together with the screen heroes our ...