From 3 to 8 November, the 25th
Film Festival Cottbus will take a look at Eastern European cinematography, which has always also reflected the geopolitical situation of the day.
The festival΄s competition sections, will present the entire diversity of Eastern European cinema ranging from arthouse films to comedies, while the same applies for the rest of the sections and special screenings. Programme Director Bernd Buder said, among others, that "the filmmakers reflect upon the past, present and future, make statements, document events, or seek to change the viewers’ perspective [...] they comment on society with black humour or from a very personal perspective or shoot genre films that can indeed – both in technical and narrative terms – measure up to international competition.”
Ivo Gregurevic in The Ungiven by Branko Schmidt
The festival will provide opportunities to enter into a dialogue with film professionals during the entire festival week by the Film Talks (Q&A) and the MasterTalks introduced last year – succinct keynote speeches by professionals of the film industry. This year’s speakers include cult director István Szabó, an Oscar award-winner and Honorary President of the Film Festival Cottbus.
Balkan cinema is present at Film Festival Cottbus with several new productions.
Feature Film Competition
Three Days in September by Darijan Pejovski (FYROM/Kosovo*, 2015)
Short Feature Competition
The Island by Ozana Nicolau (Romania, 2015, 21΄)
Specials
9:06 by Igor Sterk (Slovenia, 2009)
Spectrum
National Hits
Honey Night by Ivo Trajkov
globalEAST
Focus
Bread And TV by Georgi Stoev (Bulgaria, 2013)
Specials/Islam
Under The Cover by Nejra Latic Hulusic & Sabrina Begovic (Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2015)
10 feature film projects from 10 countries will be presented this year to potential European co-production partners and compete for a number of awards. Five of these projects, come from countries from the region.
1985 by Bogdan Muresanu (Romania)
Beside its films program, the festival will present a varied supporting programme with concerts, exhibitions, readings and festival parties provides entertainment beyond the cinema seat.