Current issues
Film critic Ron Holloway reviews the panorama of the 58th Festival de Cannes 2005.
No other European festival is better positioned than Cottbus to measure the depth and range of the current film revival in Central and Eastern Europe. Abetted by the smart programming skill of festival director Roland Rust, the 14th FilmFestival Cottbus (2-6 November 2004) – aka the 14th Festival of East European Cinema – was again a must-visit event for critics, cineastes, and fest directors interested in keeping apace with the hundred or more important productions released annually in filmlands stretching from the former German Democratic Republic to Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
Roland Rust, as astute a film critic as he is festival director, hit the nail right on the head when he chose Russian cinema as the focus of the 13th Cottbus Festival of East European Films, scheduled 4-8 November 2003. All three of the competition awards for feature films went to Russian directors, in addition to a special prize in the short film competition. And both the FIPRESCI (International Critics) and the Ecumenical Juries doubled up on the same opinions of the International Jury...
On the occasion of the church reception in Cottbus 2003, Hans Werner Dannowski, INTERFILM's Honorary President, talks about the development of the relationship between church and film in Germany
