16-08-2009

Cottbus Reception in Sarajevo

    Together with their supporters, FilmFestival Cottbus and the East-West Co-Produktion market Connecting Cottbus will present themselves with a reception at the 15th Sarajevo Film Festival on Aug. 18th 2009. The reception will be hosted by Medienboard managing director Kirsten Niehuus as well as Manfred Schmitt, managing director of Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung. From Cottbus, this popular industry meeting will be attended by festival director Roland Rust and Gabriele Brunnenmeyer, Artistic Director of Connecting Cottbus.

    The film festival in the Bosnian capital is considered to be the most significant in the region of former Yugoslavia. It focuses on recent productions from South-Eastern Europe. It was founded in 1995 and promotes cultural life in the war-torn city, also raising interest of foreign producers and cineasts in the cinematographic possibilities of the region. The journey of the festival director therefore also serves the purpose of research for the 19th FilmFestival Cottbus (Nov. 10-15, 2009).

    The Cottbus reception takes place within the scope of CineLink, the Sarajevo industry section and a co-production market like Connecting Cottbus. In the course of three days, new features and shorts are presented to potential co-producers and sponsors. CineLink is a partner of Connecting Cottbus.

    The extensive programm of Sarajevo Film Festival also includes two discoveries of Cottbus FilmFestival 2008: SONGS FROM THE SOUTHERN SEAS, a multinational production of Kirghiz film maker Marat Sarulu, in which German producers took part as well. The second movie is the Russian feature MUCHA by Vladimir Kott, which won best debut in Cottbus last year.

    Contact in Sarajevo

    Roland Rust, festival director (Aug. 17-20, 2009)

    Hotel Holiday Inn