Founded in 1991 shortly after the German reunification, the festival focusses on films from Middle and Eastern Europe and the successor states of the former USSR. Director Roland Rust was in charge of the festival 1996-2013, following Lutz Hattenbach. Since 2013 Bernd Buder functions as programme director. The main prize awarded by the International Jury is the LUBINA, a glass figurine. Since 1999, an Ecumenical Jury, appointed by INTERFILM and SIGNIS, attends the festival, and presents itself to the public at an ecumenical reception (since 2003).
