The FilmFestival Cottbus (FFC) celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2020. The official start of this significant festival year was the international industry meeting "East European Brunch" during the 70th Berlinale on 26 February 2020. Together with the Representation of the State of Brandenburg to the Federal Government, the FFC and the East-West co-production market connecting cottbus (coco) welcomed over 300 guests from the film industry, cultural, economical and political sectors. Advances on the program content of the 30th FFC and the 22nd coco edition, as well as new team members were introduced at the reception. Furthermore, the film NATIONAL STREET received the "Cottbus to Cinema" award and Svetla Tsotsorkova was awarded the FFC Special Pitch Award.

From November 3 to 8, 2020 the FilmFestival Cottbus (FFC) celebrates its 30th festival anniversary. While the first, four-day edition in 1991 with 19 films from six countries laid the foundation for the festival's history, today's FFC now offers its 22,000 festival visitors and 500 industry guests 200 films from up to 45 production countries over six days.

During the "East European Brunch" Bernd Buder, programme director of the FFC, announced three year-specific film sections of the 30th FFC. "The section 'Cottbus Classics' shows films shot in Cottbus and the region on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the FFC. Lusatia as a filming location and the FilmFestival Cottbus as a driving force for the (Eastern) European film landscape has written film history in recent years".
The 'Spotlight: Česka' will also be dedicated to contemporary Czech cinema. "Whether laconic comedies, international festival hits, national blockbusters or successful TV series - films from Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic have been among the big hits with the audience since the FilmFestival Cottbus was founded," Bernd Buder emphasised.
Another film programme will take the 30th anniversary of German reunification as an opportunity to examine the transformation processes of the 1990s and their effects on current politics in a cross-border film section. "Films from (East) Germany as well as the post-communist countries of Eastern Central Europe - Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary - invite the audience to explore and experience different perspectives on the political and social upheavals of the 1990s in the individual countries.

In addition to the programme outlook for the 30th FFC, Bernd Buder also introduced the new programme consultant team of the FilmFestival Cottbus. This team includes Jana Piontkovska, Katharina Stumm, Joshua Jádi, Marcel Maïga and Nikolaj Nikitin.

As part of the East European Brunch, NATIONAL STREET (director: Štěpán Altrichter), the adaptation of the successful novel of the same name by Jaroslav Rudiš, received the "Cottbus to the Cinema" award. Donated by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, this prize is endowed with up to 10,000 EUR to promote the distribution of a festival film. NATIONAL STREET was shown during the 29th FFC 2019 in the Feature Film Competition and will be released in German cinemas on May 21, 2020.

The FFC Special Pitch Award goes to Svetla Tsotsorkova. This prize enables the Bulgarian director to participate in the 22nd East-West co-production market connecting cottbus (November 4-6, 2020), where she will pitch her new project FORTUNE TELLER. Svetla Tsotsorkova won the main prize for best film at the 29th FilmFestival Cottbus with her film SESTRA | SISTER.

About the FilmFestival Cottbus
The 30th FilmFestival Cottbus takes place from 3 to 8 November 2020. In four competitions and numerous side sections, the FFC will show about 200 films competing for prizes with a total value of 75,000 euros and the coveted prize sculpture LUBINA (Sorbian: the Lovely).
Over 22,000 spectators attended the Festival of Eastern European Film in Cottbus in 2019.
The 30th FilmFestival Cottbus is substantially supported by the State of Brandenburg, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH, the City of Cottbus, the Federal Foreign Office and the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union.

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Every year, the Krakow Film Foundation Programme Council grants the Dragon of Dragons award for the exceptional contribution to the development of the international cinema. During the anniversary 60th Krakow Film Festival, the award will go to Péter Forgács – the outstanding Hungarian documentary filmmaker and a world-famous multimedia artist.

The extraordinary works of Forgács are based on the original technique of making films from ready-made materials, shot by other authors. The artist devoted many years to collecting, archiving, reconstructing and editing old, damaged, amateur film tapes, giving them new meanings. The images set in the realities of the dramatic fates of Hungary and Europe of the 20th century, seem to remind that the history of the world is a collection of ordinary people’s personal stories.

The Danube Exodus

The official award ceremony of the Dragon of Dragons is held on the 2nd of June, 2020, at the 60th Krakow Film Festival. In the programme of the Festival, within the frames of the retrospective, there will be many special works by the artist, among others, “The Danube Exodus,” “Hunky Blues. The American Dream,” and “Miss Universe 1929 – Lisl Goldarbeiter. A Queen in Wien.” The viewers will also have the unusual opportunity to watch fragments of the audiovisual installation “Letters to Afar,” which Forgács prepared specially for the opening of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN in Warsaw in 2013. Traditionally, the award-winner of the Dragon of Dragons will also give a master class open to filmmakers, but also to all fans of documentary cinema.

Details

The 60th Krakow Film Festival will take place on May 31 – June 7, 2020

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