The Cottbus FilmFestival announces prize money rise for the anniversary edition at the ENH in Wroclaw On Tuesday, 27 July 2010, the Cottbus FilmFestival held a reception at the largest film festival in Poland, the Era Nowe Horyzonty in Wroclaw, for the first time. At the festival club Arsenal the organizing agency pool production and all representatives of the festival office did welcome numerous well-known producers, directors and actors for the "Cottbus Cocktail". In his speech during the rece...

Setting a new record of 18.900 visitors the 19th FilmFestival Cottbus is closing down this Sunday, Nov 15th. In addition to thousands of cinema guests there were more than 600 guests of the international film scene attending the festival, amongst them more than 130 film makers as well as many producers. "We're no longer a sepcial-interest-section", said Festival Director Roland Rust. "Meanwhile Cottbus may be regarded as home of Eastern-european film." The Festival Dir...

Six young actors and actresses from six countries in Middle and Eastern Europe have been nominated at FilmFestival Cottbus for their outstanding performance: Anna Karczmarczek in GALERIANKI | MALL GIRLS plays Alicja, a teenager torn between monetary and love affairs. Russian actress Elena Liadova in BUBEN BARABAN shines as young bibliothekcary who witnesses the love affair and constant book thefts of her older collegue. Kati Farkas maneuvers between different relationships in the Hungarian dra...

19th edition of Film Festival Cottbus to establish a new record of premieresIn its 19th round, FilmFestival Cottbus is starting off with both a new record of national and international premieres and a significant raise of the prize money. A special highlight at the festival-opening is the screening of the German-Russian co-production THE LAST STATION, starring Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer as the main characters Leo Tolstoy and his wife Sofya. “This is a wonderful start for our festival...

Sponsorship Association „Friends of the German-Russian Film Academy“ constitutedIn the run-up of an official German-Russian Cinema Agreement, on Wednesday (July 29th, 2009) night the sponsorship association “Friends of the German-Russian Film Academy” was founded in Berlin. Peter Dinges, head of board of the Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA) called this funding a historical act, underlining that the long preparations for German-Russian cinema relations had finally resulted in concrete activit...

The FilmFestival Cottbus - Festival of Eastern European Cinema will increase the prize money. This is to be announced by Festival Director Roland Rust on the occasion of the reception at the befriended 44th International Film Festival in the Czech town of Karlovy Vary. The "DIALOG Prize for Intercultural Communication", endowed by the German Foreign Office, will come with an amount of 3,000 euros in the future. Through new prize sponsors, the "Prize for Best Debut Film" cou...

The FilmFestival Cottbus – Festival of Eastern European Cinema will increase the prize money. This is to be announced by Festival Director Roland Rust on the occasion of the reception at the befriended 44th International Film Festival in the Czech town of Karlovy Vary. The “DIALOG Prize for Intercultural Communication”, endowed by the German Foreign Office, will come with an amount of 3,000 euros in the future. Through new prize sponsors, the “Prize for Best Debut Film” could also be r...

This week, the FilmFestival Cottbus is travelling more than 600 kilometres to Svetlogorsk on the Baltic coast. Festival director Roland Rust and festival manager Andreas Stein are going there following an invitation to the 5th Baltic Debuts Film Festival in the Kalingrad region which belongs to Russia. On July 31, 2008, they will present the Cottbus festival of East European cinema and give a taster of the 18th festival edition which is set to have "New Cinema from the Baltics" as its focus from...

On Wednesday, 13 February 2008, the FilmFestival Cottbus offers its annual presentation at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival. Venue is the Federal Office of the State of Brandenburg in the German capital city.The East European Brunch is a now traditional Berlinale meeting-point for representatives of the film and media branches in East and West, and is an ideal opportunity for Cottbus Festival Director Roland Rust to outline the focal themes of the 2008 FilmFestival Cottbus later this ...

1. ROTTERDAM -- FIRST TIME -- TIGER IN YOUR TANK (ERASMUS YOUTH HOSTEL, good GRASS available at local cafe)--started JAN. 20  -- First time ever there and dug the city.  See my full report elsewhere, In any case, it was a jolly good way to start out the festival year. And the Chinese year of the Hound as well. 2. BUDAPEST -- SZABO FLAP, NO SHOW FOR REX MILLER --TAXIDERMIA  BEGIN SZEMLE WED. FEB. 1 -- a pretty interesting szemle as these yearly Hungarian film weeks go, and lottsa good fo...

"Chosebuz" is the traditional name of the city of Cottbus in the local Sorbian (Wendish) language, a minority Slavic tongue which is now unfortunately on the verge of extinction, but the culture of which survives in various forms in this border region of East Germany. The Cottbus Film Festival, now in its 16th edition was established in 1991 in order to promote the films of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This is one international film festival (as opposed to single country film we...

"Chosebuz" is the traditional name of the city of Cottbus in the local Sorbian (Wendish) language, a minority Slavic tongue which is now unfortunately on the verge of extinction, but the culture of which survives in various forms in this border region of East Germany. The Cottbus Film Festival, now in its 16th edition was established in 1991 in order to promote the films of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This is one international film festival (as opposed to single country film we...

Actress Jacqueline Bisset and French director Luc Besson called in their regrets, cancelling their expected visit to Karlovy Vary, but the celebrity slack has been taken up by the arrival of somewhat less shining lights of interest, and the party scene surges on unabated. The latest arrival was rapidly rising British actress Saffron Burrows, here to present her new film "Gangster No. 1" which, she says, is perhaps too violent for her own taste. I‘m worried about the audience watching it today,...

Prize-giving at the 15th Cottbus Film Festival - Festival of East European Cinema with surprises The 15th Cottbus Film Festival – Festival of East European Cinema came an end today with the prize-giving in the Stadthalle. Dr. Wolfgang Krüger, the Secretary of State in the Economics Ministry of the State of Brandenburg, presented the „LUBINA“ sculpture to the prize-winners in the Feature Film Competition. The French actor Jean-Marc Barr, a special guest of the renowned festival, drew the ...

As the FilmFestival Cottbus - Festival of East European Cinema announced today, the Hungarian director and OSCAR-winner István Szabó will be honoured with the „Lubina“ on the occasion of the 15th festival. Szabó, who has been the honorary president of the FilmFestival Cottbus since 2000, will be receiving this prize in recognition of his commitment as a supporter and international ambassador for the festival. The presentation will be held on November 8 during the opening ceremony in the C...

The 15th FilmFestival Cottbus ­- Festival of East European Cinema will open in the Cottbus Staatstheater on 8th November with Susanne Irina Zacharias' feature film debut „Hallesche Kometen" („Halle Comets”). The father-son story set in Halle/Saale was produced as part of the „Ostwind“ series, a joint programme workshop administered by RBB and ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel. The winner of the Film Prize of the Saarland Prime-Minister at this year's Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival in Saarb...

Prize-giving at the 14th FilmFestival Cotttbus ­ Main Prize for SCHIZO(SCHIZA)The 14th FilmFestival Cottbus - Festival of East European Cinema came to a close today with the gala prize-giving ceremony in the festival centre at the Stadthalle. The Minister of Economics of the State of Brandenburg, Ulrich Junghanns, presented the "LUBINA" prize sculpture, which was newly created last year, to the winners of the main prizes in the Feature Film Competition. The International Jury did not have an ea...

14TH FILMFESTIVAL COTTBUS GALA EUROPEAN OPENING AT THE FESTIVAL FOR EAST EUROPEAN CINEMA IN THE STAATSTHEATERThe Prime-Minister of the State of Brandenburg and the festival patron, Matthias Platzeck, will open the 14th FilmFestival Cottbus – Festival of East European Cinema on November 2 in the Staatstheater Cottbus. The opening programme consists of the world premiere of three films from the series entitled EUROPE’S OLD NEW FACES / VON DEN SOCKELN, a co-production by Rundfunk Berlin-Branden...

AT KARLOVY VARY, THE FILM FESTIVAL COTTBUS PRESENTS ITS FOCUS 2004:„NEW CZECH CINEMA: THE VELVET GENERATION“At the 39th International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, the Film Festival Cottbus will be making its traditional presentation in the section „East of the West“, this year showing the film LITTLE MEN by Nariman Turebaev (France/Kazakhstan 2003). The film experienced its German premiere at last year’s festival in Cottbus.In addition, the Cottbus Festival - along with its media par...