Last night, glasses clinked in Cottbus to celebrate 25 years of Eastern European cinema in Lusatia, 25 years of intercultural dialogue and 25 years of taking pleasure in film. The opening of the 25th FilmFestival Cottbus in the large auditorium of the Staatstheater Cottbus was attended by the who's who of politics, business and media.
"It is not uncommon for Cottbus to be mentioned in the same breath as Venice or Karlovy Vary", is how the Governing Mayor of Cottbus, Holger Kelch, expressed his joy at the especially large number of nations featured in "his" city to mark the anniversary. The official start was made by a first in the history of the festival - a television film, POLIZEIRUF 110:
BEYOND THE BORDER by the broadcaster rbb. "Television is involved in almost all cinema films, usually as a co-production partner," stated Programme Director Bernd Buder to explain the decision. "A German-Polish co- production with a German-Polish team of investigators - that sets a strong example. Moreover, this instalment of Polizeiruf was shot in the vicinity:
in Frankfurt/Oder." The rbb presenter Petra Gute charmingly hosted the evening, announcing a number of highlights in the Jugendstil auditorium.
Musical accompaniment was provided by Cottbus's rock ' n' roll veteran Russ Marasus, with other musicians from Cottbus eventually joining the jam session on stage. Among the special guests at the opening was the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, HE Monique van Daalen, who was delighted that Cottbus would also showcase Dutch cinematography this year:
On the one hand, the "globalEAST" section will cast a view to joint productions of our north-western neighbour and Eastern Europe, on the other, the East-West co-production market connecting cottbus, taking place in the frame of the film festival, will also place a thematic focus on the Netherlands. During her speech the Ambassador stroke a more serious note when she addressed the current migrant crisis: "In the public perception the East of Europe has become a transit lounge for hundreds of thousands of people. Our gaze follows that of the media reporting on this transit: It gets caught where the passage becomes difficult - at the borders. 'Borders'
is a word that, in the EU context, had only been used with the attribute 'green' until very recently. Today we know that Europe needs to earn this adjective back."
In the three competitions and ten further programme sections, the audience is invited to around 200 films from more than 40 nations at various venues.
In addition to the six traditional ones, the Stadthalle Cottbus, Weltspiegel, Glad-House-Saal, Obenkino, Kammerbühne, and the large auditorium of the Staatstheater Cottbus, further venues will be open for the first time as a one-off: the visitors' centre of the Gutsökonomie Schloss and Park Branitz, the Cottbuser Stadthaus, the Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk and the Raumflugplanetarium Cottbus.
The festival is substantially supported by the State of Brandenburg, the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the City of Cottbus as well as the MEDIA - Creative Europe programme of the European Union. The festival opening was supported by the Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg (ILB) and media.connect Brandenburg.