Impressions of the 33rd FFC

MONDAY

The festival week began on Monday with the presentation of the first Lusatian child protection award, the Gondula Award, in our festival centre, the Stadthalle. This initiative was launched by Cottbus artist Martin Schüler. The prize money collected through donations totalling 10,331 euros was awarded after an online vote. First place went to the SOS Children's Village Lausitz, which received 5,731 euros. The Pusteblume children's centre in Burg received 2,000 euros in second place, while 1,000 euros went to the Ronald McDonald House Cottbus in third place. The prize will be awarded again next year!

An exhibition of Schüler's work was on show in the Stadthalle throughout the festival week. 

TUESDAY

In the evening, the 33rd FFC was ceremoniously opened at the Staatstheater Cottbus. Presenter Attila Weidemann hosted the evening and spoke on stage with State Secretary Tobias Dünow, Programme Director Bernd Buder and the cast & crew of the opening film BEI UNS HEISST SIE HANKA/PLA NAS GRONJE JEJ HANKA / POLA NAS RĚKA WONA HANKA. The Mayor of Cottbus, Tobias Schick, gave a welcoming address to the packed audience, which included many filmmakers and local celebrities such as several Energie Cottbus footballers.

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 Even before the opening ceremony, a great programme was offered in all venues from 5 pm. For example, the Polish documentary film VIKA! told the story of Poland's oldest DJane at the age of 84, including performances in the coolest nightclubs in Warsaw.

Many film guests also arrived in Cottbus on Tuesday. Here you can see the director Nejc Gazvoda from the U18 competition film  ROLE MODEL and Volodymyr Bakum, director of the Eco-East film BARTKA.

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was a full festival day with many great films. Films from Kazakhstan were screened in the Close-Up series this year. Here, slacker comedy met pop folklore and silent protest met historical genre thrillers. After the documentary film DER WEITE WEG ZURÜCK , the first SlowTalk also took place in the Glad House: Alexej Getmann (director of DER WEITE WEG ZURÜCK), Ira Peter (blogger, influencer, journalist specialising in Russian-German topics) and Edwin Warkentin (cultural mediator, head of the cultural department for Russian-Germans) talked about questions of Russian-German affiliation. The programme „Steppenkinder. Der Aussiedler Podcast was recorded live. You can listen to the podcast from 25 November wherever podcasts are available!

The film CLARA celebrated its world premiere at the FFC on Wednesday. CLARA tells the story of a young Romanian woman who left her home country and her child to earn money in Germany. A film about the losses suffered by migrant workers and their families, but also their wishes and desires. CLARA won over the Cottbus audience and received the Audience Award of the Lausitzer Rundschau on Saturday, endowed with 3,000 euros.

The first award ceremony of the FilmFestival Cottbus took place on Wednesday: eksystent Filmverleih received the "Cottbus ins Kino" award for BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY (Elene Naveriani, GE/CH, 2023). The prize is endowed with 10,000 euros and was donated by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. The prize makes it easier for a film to find its way into cinemas - a great recognition!

Many film guests came back to us on this day: Here you can see the director, a leading actor and the composer of the film CLARA.

A screening of TAMARA took place at Weltspiegel - director Jonas Ludwig Walter and actresses Lina Wendel and Linda Pöppel were present.

The artist and inventor of the Lubina, Beate Bolender, also dropped by the festival centre today. Here you can find a video about the creation of the Lubina.

THURSDAY

Having arrived in the middle of the festival week, there was another great programme on Thursday. In the evening, a real highlight awaited you with the Long Night of the Short Lusatians. A total of ten films from and about Lusatia were shown in the main auditorium of the Weltspiegel film theatre. BADEN GEHEN (Clemens Schiesko and Matthias Heine) was shown, as were ANKLEIDEZIMMER/HOBLEKAŔNJE (Frauke Rahr) and VOM SUCHEN UND FINDEN/PYTAŚ A NAMAKAŚ (Luka Golinski/ Mira Dubian). ANKLEIDEZIMMER/HOBLEKAŔNJE ) and VOM SUCHEN UND FINDEN/PYTAŚ A NAMAKAŚ were honoured at the awards ceremony as best film and best debut film by the Foundation for the Sorbian People.

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On 9 November, we once again commemorated the 1938 pogrom together with Cottbuser Aufbruch and the city of Cottbus. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., people were able to pause at the city fountain. It was also possible to talk personally with the organisers about the historical background and fates.

The visually stunning FullDome programme was once again waiting for you in the planetarium. Global warming, microbes, vegetable markets or animal carcasses - the 360° projections in the dome of Cottbus' space flight planetarium offered space for all kinds of philosophical, artistic, abstract and technical cinema.

On this day, the Oberkirche St. Nikolai became a place of intercultural, interdenominational and interreligious encounters - and a venue for the FilmFestival Cottbus. The Ukrainian-Polish short film competition entry AS IT WAS, was presented, co-directed by Damian Kocur, who won the FFC's director's prize in 2022.

In the evening, film fans were able to test their knowledge over several exciting rounds in the second quiz at the Bunter Bahnhof.

FRIDAY

There was plenty to discover on the fourth day of the FFC!

In the EcoEast series, films on ecological topics and sustainability were shown for the second year in a row. Aspects such as forestry in the Ukrainian Carpathians (BARTKA) and the melting Tujuksu glaciers in Kazakhstan (VOICE OF THE GLACIER) were the subject of the films. The documentary film  BOTTLEMEN , screened at the Kammerbühne, tells of the work of plastic bottle collectors at the Vinča landfill site just outside Belgrade.

The documentary film  RUSSIA VS LAWYERS presents a team of human rights lawyers in Russia who took a stand against the repressive state. The film was followed by an in-depth SlowTalk with guests. The central question was: What room for manoeuvre was there currently for lawyers in Russia who defended members of the opposition and dissidents?

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There were also some great events to attend on Friday. A panel discussion in the Stadthaus focussed on the Ukrainian film scene and discussed the opportunities it offers under the current difficult conditions with filmmakers from Ukraine.

At 8 pm there was another SlowTalk in the Glad House: "Kazakhstan in search of a new identity?" with great guests Yuliya Kim (film producer, Kazakhstan/France), Aisultan Seit (director QASH, Kazakhstan) and Tolganay Talgat (actress, QASH).

And in the evening, the Piano Schulze Boogie Band created a fantastic atmosphere in the Bunte Bahnhof.

SATURDAY

Saturday was "Ukrainian Day" at the Cottbus FilmFestival. Seven of the ten films from Ukraine were screened. PHOTOPHOBIA shows the everyday life of two children in a metro tunnel in Kharkiv while the city's residents sought shelter from Russian bombs. YOU KNOW IT´S GOING TO BE ABOUT WAR is set in Kyiv and shows the underground and party scene between excessive partying and war trauma. As in the previous year, admission to all films in the FFC programme was free on this day on presentation of a valid Ukrainian passport at the box office.

The film series Polskie Horyzonty: The Female Gaze showed a selection of very different films by Polish female directors. Agnieszka Smoczyńska's still young oeuvre took centre stage. Her feature film THE SILENT TWINS, in which she sheds light on the fate of twin sisters who are admitted to a clinic in their teens after years of silence and rebellion, was screened in the Stadthalle.

In the afternoon, the film and talk SERBSKA UTOPIJA focused on Sorbian utopias and futures. What could they look like? What roles do film, television and networks play in this? The panel addressed questions of Sorbian futurism and the task of the present to break away from the dystopia of disappearance.

The competition film THREE THOUSAND NUMBERED PIECES was followed by an in-depth discussion with the filmmaker Ádám Császi. In his film, a Hungarian director stages a theatre play with Roma in which they are exhibited as if in a zoo. This "Poverty Porn" is sold to the German Theatre, where the torment continues during rehearsals without anyone being interested in the perspectives of the Roma. Császi, known for his opposition to the Orbán regime, presented a masterful and provocative reflection on systemic racism, feigned altruism and the ambivalence of woke culture.

The award ceremony began at 7pm at the Scandale in the Bunten Bahnhof, hosted by Knut Elstermann.

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And these were the winners of the 33rd FFC:

Director Anna Buryachkova was delighted to receive the main prize of the 33rd FilmFestival Cottbus. The Ukrainian-Dutch production FOREVER-FOREVER was honoured with the EUR 25,000 prize. The film provides a rare insight into the complex emotional world of the post-Soviet "90s kids" growing up in Kyiv. FOREVER-FOREVER convinced the international festival jury and won the main prize "for a gripping coming-of-age story that shows the turmoil of the Eastern Bloc in the 1990s in an authentic, moving and well-constructed way."

The main prize for the best feature film has been sponsored by the Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrechten (GWFF) for more than two decades now.

The special prize for best director, donated by Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg and endowed with EUR 7,500, went to Rezo Gigineishvili for PATIENT #1, which uses the example of a declining Soviet political functionary to reflect on a political system that has to keep its symbolic figures alive artificially in order to survive itself. "The director created a complicated, multi-layered metaphor of seemingly ancient times that unfortunately still feels very true and relevant, while masterfully orchestrating a wonderful ensemble of performers," said the jury, explaining their decision.

Eka Chavleishvili was delighted to receive the EUR 5,000 prize for an outstanding individual performance. In BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY, she impressed the International Festival Jury "with the creation of an unforgettable character with such strength, size and bravery that you simply couldn't take your eyes off her." In addition to the prize money, all three winners also received the coveted glass prize sculpture Lubina.

A list of all FFC award winners can be found here.

SUNDAY

And there it was, the last day of the 33rd FilmFestival Cottbus. But great films were still shown in all venues on Sunday.

A highlight for the whole family was the brand new fairytale film DAS MÄRCHEN VON DER ZAUBERFLÖTE, which was shown at 10 a.m. in the Stadthalle.

The opening film BEI UNS HEISST SIE HANKA/PLA NAS GRONJE JEJ HANKA / POLA NAS RĚKA WONA HANKA by Grit Lemke was screened in the Stadthalle at midday. In her new film, Lemke reflects on the pressure from outside, a sense of unity from within and the reinterpretation of Sorbian. The screening began with a musical performance by the women's ensemble under the direction of Walpurga Walde. This choir can also be heard in the film!

We screened the winning film  BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY in the late afternoon in the Stadthalle together with the Israeli short film THE BOY by Yahav Winner. The latter was an act of solidarity with Israel and Winner's family. The Israeli director was murdered by Hamas terrorists in October.

In traditional Sunday evening style, we screened the new  POLIZEIRUF 110: COTTBUS KOPFLOS at 8.15 pm in the Stadthalle. With the Jazzy Diamonds and the carnival association, this screening became an event. Tickets were completely sold out!

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