Prize-giving at the 15th Cottbus Film Festival - Festival of East European Cinema with surprises

The 15th Cottbus Film Festival – Festival of East European Cinema came an end today with the prize-giving in the Stadthalle. Dr. Wolfgang Krüger, the Secretary of State in the Economics Ministry of the State of Brandenburg, presented the „LUBINA“ sculpture to the prize-winners in the Feature Film Competition. The French actor Jean-Marc Barr, a special guest of the renowned festival, drew the winners of the prizes for the audience. More cinema-goers than ever before took part in the voting for this year's Audience Award.

The 15th jubilee edition offered a strong and many-facetted competition with ten films from eight countries. The international jury comprising Andreas Dresen (Germany), Dorka Gryllus (Hungary/Germany), Maciej Karpinski (Poland), Cedomir Kolar (Croatia/France), Nadia Turincev (Russia/France) decided on the prize-winners. Prizes with a total value of Euros 40,000 were awarded in Cottbus.

The Main Prize for Best Film in the Feature Film Competition went to the Slovenian-Croatian film ODGROBADOGROBA (GRAVEHOPPING) by Jan Cvitcovic.
Watch the trailer at http://www.yomiento.com/sansebastianfestival/2005/videos/530010.wmv

The Special Prize of the Jury was awarded to the film RYNA (Romania/Switzerland). The Special Prize for an Outstanding Artistic Contribution went to Alexei Fedorchenko, the director and producer of the Russian film PJERWYJE NA LUNJE (FIRST PEOPLE ON THE MOON). You will find a complete list of the prize-winners further below.

At this year's industry gathering CONNECTING COTTBUS, 124 leading producers and distributors from 13 countries held negotiations about future joint feature film projects for a European audience.

Festival director Roland Rust noted a surprising diversity in the cinematic forms of expression, especially among the young directors. „One trend was significant in this edition," he concluded, „the East European cinema was never as close as now to everyday life. The young directors have arrived in reality.“

A successful edition of the festival came to an end with the preview of the film SUMMER IN BERLIN (SOMMER VORM BALKON) by Andreas Dresen, which will be released in German cinemas in January. As the organiser pool production reported, a clear growth in the numbers attending could be posted in both the film programme as well as the accompanying events: more than 16,000 people came to the festival. With the repeat screenings and the showing of a prize-winning film, the Sunday was given over completely to the Cottbus audience.

Apart from the main screening venue in the festival centre, the „Weltspiegel“ was played again for the first time in Cottbus – Germany's oldest cinema, which was built in 1911, was shining again in its renovated finery after years of staying closed. 400 guests from 24 countries visited the internationally renowned festival of East European cinema in the Lausitz region.
The FOCUS for 2005 was dedicated to the cinematography of Hungary and was organised in cooperation with Magyar Filmunió. The FOCUS for 2006 will be directed on those two countries who will be joining the European Union in 2007: Bulgaria and Romania.

The Cottbus Film Festival is supported by the State of Brandenburg – Ministry for Economics and the town of Cottbus. The first partner is Vattenfall Europe Mining and Generation. Other supporters of the festival are the Federal Office for Political Education (bpb), the Spree-Neiße-Bober Euroregion, the Foreign Office, the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media and the DEFA Foundation.
The media partners are Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, the Lausitzer Rundschau and Radio EINS.

All information and photos as well as the jury motivations can be found at www.filmfestivalcottbus.de.

Contact:

MEDIA OFFICE FilmFestival Cottbus
Edith Kleibel Karina Hemmo
T. +49-30-88 71 44 0 T. +49-355-355 42 67
m. +49-172-99 16 433 m. +49-172-9717 745






15. FilmFestival Cottbus – Festival des osteuropäischen Films | Festival of East European Cinema (8.-12.11.2005)


PREISE | PRIZES

WETTBEWERB SPIELFILM | FEATURE FILM COMPETITION
Die Internationale Festivaljury vergibt den | The International Festival Jury awards the


Hauptpreis für den besten Film | Main Prize for Best Film
15.000 Euro
gestiftet von der | donated by
Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrechten
an | to
ODGROBADOGROBA | VON GRAB ZU GRAB | GRAVEHOPPING
Regie | director: Jan Cvitkovič
Slowenien, Kroatien | Slovenia, Croatia 2005



Spezialpreis der Jury | Special Prize of the Jury
7.500 Euro
gestiftet vom | donated by
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg