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Films from Serbia, Ukraine and Poland were among the winners at the 34th edition of FilmFestival Cottbus and the parallel East-West co-production market connecting cottbus in Germany at the weekend.

Serbian director Iva Radivojević received the main award with a cash prize of €15,000 in the feature film competition for her second narrative feature When The Phone Rang which also garnered the Fipresci jury prize.

The international jury, comprised of Armenian director-producer Inna Sahakyan, Croatian actress-screenwriter Anja Matković and sales agent Xavier Henry-Rashid of Film Republic, praised Radivojevic’s film ‘for its authentic narrative of a country falling apart and its unique,...

Filmmakers from Latvia, Kosovo and Slovenia will be among those presenting projects in development and works in progress at the 26th edition of the East-West co-production market connecting cottbus (coco), taking place during Germany’s FilmFestival Cottbus from November 4-6.

The project line-up includes Latvian director Anna Ansone’s debut feature Summer Blues about two sisters taking a transformative journey amid tense emotions from Germany back to Riga, It is currently structured as a Latvia-Germany co-production between Alise Gelze’s White Pictures and Cologne-based Filmfaust,

Kosovar director Rita Krasniqi will present Vestige, a drama that centres on a town’s...

Lessons of Tolerance follows a family overcoming their homophobia, an education that war with Russia seems to be giving many in the country

Arkadii Nepytaliuk grew up in a small village in Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi region under the control of the Soviet Union. “As a child, I did not know about the existence of LGBT people at all. I learned about them in Kyiv when I was studying … and they scared me a lot. I was scared to imagine that a guy could fall in love with another guy.”

Nepytaliuk, now 56, is a film director whose latest film Lessons of Tolerance hopes to challenge Ukrainian people to rethink how they treat others in society. Inspired by Igor Bilyts’ 2017 play Gay Parade, the film follows a struggling, homophobic Ukrainian family who agree to host a gay activist in exchange for funding from the EU. Like the family in his film, Nepytaliuk...

Beta Film has sold Starlight Media and Gaumont Ukrainian war drama “In Her Car” to Nhk Japan, Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovakia. Further negotiations are underway.

Created by Eugen Tunick – who directs alongside Arkadii Nepytaliuk – and backed by Zdf, France Télévisions and all Nordic public broadcasters, and “In Her Car” sees therapist Lydia (Anastasia Karpenko) trying to divorce her husband. It’s February 2022 and the war has started, but instead of following her daughter’s advice and fleeing the country, Lydia starts helping strangers, driving them to their destinations.

The show is set to world premiere on Feb. 19 in Berlin as part of a special event dedicated to the future of Ukraine in Europe, hosted by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

“The idea was to tell one story per episode: There is always a new passenger. That being said, it was also essential to follow Lydia’s story, because it keeps developing throughout the whole season.

Beta Film has released a moving trailer for the Ukrainian war drama “In Her Car,” a gripping series about the ongoing crisis told through the eyes of those who are living it, the company announced ahead of Mipcom.

“In Her Car” (10 x 30’) is produced by Starlight Media and Gaumont in co-production with France Télévisions, Zdf (Germany) and Swiss public broadcaster Srf. The show was also boarded in its early stages by Nordic public broadcasters Svt (Sweden), Dr (Denmark), Yle (Finland), Nrk TV (Norway) and RÚV (Iceland). Showrunner and creator Eugen Tunick directs alongside Arkadiy Nepytaliuk.

The story begins with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Lydia, played by Anastasia Karpenko, (“How is Katia?”), is a seasoned therapist who alongside her practice fields questions and concerns from her followers on social media. Privately, her life is in disarray, as she tries to divorce a husband who not only cheated on...