The 12th edition of Connecting Cottbus on 4th and 5th November, 2010 will see the artistic director Gabriele Brunnenmeyer leaving the East-West Co-Production Market within the framework of FilmFestival Cottbus after more than a decade’s service to take up new challenges. We are therefore currently looking for a successor. Further information, a job description as well as the application procedure can be found at our website under the heading news > job vacancies.

The Deadline for the submission of projects was the 15 July 2010. The jury session will be on the 13 September 2010, the pitching session on the 4 November 2010. 12 projects will be selected.

The FilmFestival Cottbus hosted jointly with the East-West Co-production Market Connecting Cottbus and its main sponsor Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH an East European Brunch, which was attended by some 120 industry and media representatives. The annual reception was held at Grandhotel Pupp in the Czech town of Karlovy Vary. Among the guests was the film crew of THE WOMAN WITH A BROKEN NOSE. Producer Alexander Ris (Neue Mediopolis) came with the film's director Srđjan Koljevic. Koljevic praised the Cottbus Festival, where he kicked of his international career, describing it as "... an important window to the East European film industry".

The Festival did also welcome filmmaker Johannes Naber, who presents his new film THE ALBANIAN in the section East of the West of the current 45th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. He brought one of his main actors, Ivan Shvedoff, and his German producer Boris Schönfelder (Neue Schönhauser Filmproduktion) to the event. Even the screenwriter and actor Zdeněk Svěrák (EMPTIES) came to the Grandhotel Pupp in order to meet the FilmFestival Cottbus director Ronald Rust, the managing director of Medienboard Kirsten Niehuus as well as Gabriele Brunnenmeyer, artistic director of Connecting Cottbus. Even Eva Zaoralová, the artistic director of the Karlovy Vary festival, insisted on stoping by at the reception. Among the German guests were the manager of Arsenal film distribution, Stefan Paul, and his counterpart at Neue Visionen, Thorsten Frehse.

The FilmFestival Cottbus together with Connecting Cottbus invited on the occasion of the 60th Berlin International Film Festival to partake in a brunch on the 17th February 2010 in Berlin. The co-production market gave the Connecting Cottbus Special Pitch Award to young director Vladimir Perisic from Serbia. Persisic´s disturbing war drama ORDINARY PEOPLE won among others the Main Prize for Best Film in the FilmFestival Cottbus 2009. The Special Pitch Award enables Perisic to pitch his newest project at the upcoming Connecting Cottbus.

On the occasion of the 60th Berlin International Film Festival, FilmFestival Cottbus together with Connecting Cottbus invited to visit the Cottbus Lounge in the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin. Guest had the opportunity to meet the teams of FilmFestival Cottbus and Connecting Cottbus and got a glimpse of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the festival. Performance artist Theo Ligthart presented his high-proof creation “das korn”.

This year was the 11th time that the invitation went out again to Come and pitch it! A total of 14 promising projects were pitched to an audience of European professionals in order to find partners for their realisation. 150 visitors from 20 countries followed the varied presentations. This edition of Connecting Cottbus was, above all, one dominated by the directors. more

The 19th FilmFestival Cottbus closed. In addition to thousands of cinema guests there were more than 600 guests of the international film scene attending the festival. Parallel to the film festival the East West Co-production market Connecting Cottbus took place. „Also in this year a high professionality and a personal atmosphere were combined“, concludes artistic director Gabriele Brunnenmeyer. „The 14 presented ideas for feature films showed an astonishing variety of personal handwritings. Accordingly high was the interest of producers and financeers. This gives us reason to hope, that also from this year’s market many projects will be realized.” More than 100 One2One-meetings took place between producers, financiers and world sales.

This year also saw participants of Connecting Cottbus represented in the programme of FilmFestival Cottbus with new film productions: further information can also be found on the film festival's website. more

Connecting Cottbus will be held in Cottbus on 12 and 13 November 2009. The event includes a pitching preparation training for the selected projects, the public pitching session followed by Q&A, One2One meetings as well as an accompanying programme addressing current topics of the film industry. Furthermore the FilmFestival Cottbus offers delegates the opportunity to get a comprehensive overview of new films from Eastern Europe.

As a meeting place for an active producers' network from more than 22 countries, Connecting Cottbus has concentrated on the initiation of co-productions between Eastern and Western Europe. 13 promising projects were selected in September out of more than 50 submissions from 21 countries to be presented in November to an audience of European professionals in order to find partners for a successful realisation. A 14th project will be presented as a Special Pitch. more