The Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF) took place this year from 14 to 24 October, initially in person in Riga, Valmiera and Madona, and simultaneously online throughout Latvia. The festival now closes out its eighth edition by announcing this year’s winners! The winning films were selected from a broad lineup that included more than 100 films across ten sections and competitions.

The 21st Just Film festival, the biggest sub-festival of the Black Nights Film Festival, announces this year's programme, screening films that affect kids and youth from all around the world. For the first time ever, the festival offers the opportunity to watch films that are made by Estonian kids and youth with the help of Just Film's new initiative that awards young filmmakers with scholarships to make their own films.

Five Croatian films and two minority co-productions will appear in various programme sections at the 31st edition of the Cottbus Film Festival. In addition, two Croatian projects will be presented at the co-production market and networking platform, Connecting Cottbus.

Opus Bonum, the international competition of the IDFF Ji.hlava 2021, will present world premiere of one Czech film - Out in Force by celebrated documentarist Martin Mareček, who made a portrait of Czech film critique Kamil Fila whose desire to achieve the greatest physical strength contrasts with moments of complete lack of mental strength. The Czech Joy section, loaded with brand-new Czech documentaries, will introduce 12 films in world premiere, 6 Czech premieres and 19 films in total. Czech docs are also present in the sections Testimonies, Short Joy, Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz and in the non-copmetitive selection of the festival.

During the 18th Verzió Film Festival, several industry programs will be available to documentary filmmakers and non-professionals alike, in person and online. Panel discussions and masterclasses, presented by national and international experts, will take place 10–14 November, and will provide insight on reviving the film industry in a world shaken and transformed by the pandemic, the kind of projects supported by the Sundance Institute, and the steps to take towards making your first feature-length documentary.

The sixth edition of the European Arthouse Cinema Day is set to take place in over 600 cinemas across the world on Sunday, 14 November 2021.

Slovak film The Golden Land wins the Festival President's Award

From 28 October to 4 November, the first retrospective of Slovenian films shot between 1956 and 2020 will take place in China. A total of six Slovenian feature films will be screened. The retrospective will open in the Chinese capital of Beijing, at the local Film Archive. All films will be subtitled in Chinese and English and will later be screened in other major Chinese cities as well.

The 31st FilmFestival Cottbus returns to local cinemas from 2nd to 7th of November and presents its programme of 170 films from 40 (co-)production countries, for the first time, in seven venues and on a total of ten screens. In addition, there will be digital cinema in streaming, parallel to the festival and extended until 16th of November. The festival opens with the competition entry ABTEIL NR. 6, a railroad movie between East and West, metropolis and province and two opposing people, which won several prizes in Cannes.
In addition to the four competitions and traditional programme sections, the 31st FFC highlights Slovakian cinema, the Turkish film landscape and the transformation processes after the collapse of the Soviet Union. From Slovak classics from 1946 to current genre and auteur films to full-dome films. From film heritage to science fiction, from slapstick to interactive film games, from the quirky horror comedy to the crisis of meaning of a dissatisfied mainstream director, from new works by old masters like Srdjan Dragojević, Petr Bebjak or Levan Koguashvili to masterful debuts by new talents. Female characters often take centre stage, often the unusual surprises - from the family comedy about a family mother's lesbian coming out, which became a box office hit in Poland, to the contemplative concept film about a mother and son who brought their husband and father out of a coma after a stroke through sheer empathy and togetherness.