Under a new artistic direction, the 24th FilmFestival Cottbus opened with the Hungarian film "Underdog" by Kornél Mundruczó. After Roland Rust, festival director for a long time, programme director Bernd Buder took over responsibility for the film selection. In the competition he selected 12 East European films running for the festival award LUBINA, as well as for the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.
The winner of the main prize of the festival is the Russian-German entry "Corrections Class" (Klass korrektsii) by Ivan Tverdovskij. His feature film debut also won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, as well as the FIPRESCI Prize.
The festival section >Focus< this time was devoted to diversity. Entitled "queerEAST", it shows a selection of films dealing with homosexuality in Central and Eastern Europe. This was also an issue at the Ecumenical Reception of the churches.