Registration is now open for the 11th European Arthouse Cinema Day, taking place on 22  November 2026. Organised by CICAE, the initiative brings together hundreds of cinemas  across the world, for a shared celebration of European filmmaking and independent cinemas  as crucial spaces for open cultural exchange. 

For one day each year, arthouse cinemas across countries, cities and communities become  part of the same international event, while remaining entirely free to shape it in their own  way. 

A preview ahead of its theatrical release, a filmmaker Q&A, a rediscovered classic, a  programme for younger audiences, a workshop or simply a film that deserves another moment  on the big screen: European Arthouse Cinema Day can take many forms. 

The principle is deliberately open. Participating venues are asked to screen at least one  European co-production, but everything else, from the number of films to the format and scale  of the event, is decided by the cinema itself. Across its first ten editions, European Arthouse  Cinema Day has reached 600,000 spectators in 45 countries, with around 660 cinemas  participating annually. The 2025 edition alone brought audiences together for 4,277  screenings and 400 national events, alongside international events and workshops involving  cinema professionals from around the world. 

Earache year cinemas talented filmmakers and political figures support the Day, and  participate in special screening events. This year, Pedro Almodovar, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Léa  Mysius, Faraz Shariat, Isabelle Stever & Anna Melikova, Valentina and Nicole Bertani, Boots  Riley and Anca Damian are by our sides with their latest films! 

A shared day, shaped locally 

European Arthouse Cinema Day is also an opportunity for cinemas to experiment with formats  that may not be part of their usual programme. 

Last year, a Q&A following Alice Winocour's premiere Coutures was broadcast live from Paris  to around 70 cinemas across France. In Berlin, a collaboration with Deutsche Hörfilm combined a screening with a workshop exploring cinema accessibility for blind and partially sighted  audiences. In South Korea, the initiative expanded into a five-day festival. Elsewhere,  participation can be as simple as one carefully chosen screening. 

This flexibility is central to the initiative. Rather than asking cinemas to reproduce the same  programme, European Arthouse Cinema Day provides a common framework in which each  venue can respond to its own audience, local context and resources. 

At the same time, bringing these individual events together gives independent cinemas a  collective visibility that can be difficult to achieve alone. The initiative aims to strengthen  international collaboration, support the circulation of European films and make visible the  cultural, social and political role played by arthouse cinemas. 

What participating cinemas receive 

Participation in European Arthouse Cinema Day is completely free. 

Registered cinemas receive ready-to-use communication materials, including the official  poster, logos and social media assets, alongside promotional videos featuring this year's  filmmaker ambassadors. 

In the run-up to 22 November, CICAE is also developing a curated selection of film  recommendations together with distributors, sales agents and international partners. These  will include special programming opportunities, reduced-price offers and selected previews  where available. 

Participating cinemas can also join the Arthouse Cinema Meets free webinars, offering  practical sessions, case studies and exchange with colleagues from the international arthouse  community. Sessions are dedicated to repertory cinemas, alternative distribution,  programming, or marketing, for instance. 

The wider Arthouse Cinema Hub website offers further resources on programming, marketing  and audience development, as well as opportunities for cinemas to exchange programmes and  ideas throughout the year. 

Cinemas as spaces for exchange 

Alongside celebrating the diversity of European filmmaking, European Arthouse Cinema Day  draws attention to the role independent cinemas play beyond exhibition alone. 

From its beginnings, the initiative has been connected to values of artistic freedom,  democracy, tolerance and cultural exchange across borders. Bringing hundreds of independent venues together on the same day makes that role visible not only to audiences, but also to  

cultural institutions and policymakers. 

For CICAE, the European Arthouse Cinema Day is therefore both a celebration and an  opportunity to strengthen connections between cinemas, filmmakers, distributors, cultural  organisations and audiences internationally. 

Registration is open on artcinemaday.org 

Register for European Arthouse Cinema Day 2026. Cinemas do not need to have their final  programme ready in order to register. They can sign up now and add their programme later as  plans develop. Registration and participation are free: 

The 11th European Arthouse Cinema Day takes place on 22 November 2026. 

One shared day, hundreds of individual programmes, and an international network of  cinemas bringing European films to audiences on the big screen. 

Romanian director Lucas Neagu returns with Nimic mai mult și nimic diferit (Nothing More and Nothing Different), a deeply intimate feature film about love, memory, devotion and the strange ways in which time reshapes the people who choose to remain together. Presented as “the happiest film on Earth,” the film approaches some of life’s most difficult questions through a story rooted in tenderness, human connection and the quiet rituals of everyday existence.

The 2026 selection brings together actors working across the Baltic Sea region and the Nordic countries. For the first time, the programme invited applications from Iceland and Norway.

Dear colleagues and partners,

FilmFestival Cottbus is getting ready for its 36th edition: from 3–8 November 2026, Cottbus will once again become a meeting place for filmmakers, industry professionals and audiences passionate about cinema from Central and Eastern Europe.

While the full programme will be revealed in mid-October, we are happy to share a first glimpse of what awaits you at FFC 2026 – from Andrzej Wajda’s cinematic legacy and contemporary Latvian cinema to perspectives on Montenegro and the transformations following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

And if you are planning to join us in Cottbus: Industry accreditation is now open.
 

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Get Accredited for FFC 2026
Planning to join us in Cottbus? Industry accreditation for the 36th FilmFestival Cottbus is open.

The regular accreditation fee is €55, with applications accepted until 1 November 2026. Late accreditations after 1 November are possible at a fee of €75.

Your accreditation gives you the opportunity to discover the latest cinema from Central and Eastern Europe, meet filmmakers and fellow industry professionals, and take part in the festival’s screenings, talks and networking opportunities.

Get Accredited
 

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100 Years of Andrzej Wajda: A Legacy Revisited

Andrzej Wajda would have turned 100 this year. In Don’t Call Me Vintage!, FFC brings four of his films back to the big screen: ASHES AND DIAMONDS (1958), INNOCENT SORCERERS (1960), LANDSCAPE AFTER THE BATTLE (1970) and THE PROMISED LAND (1975).

But this is more than a retrospective. Films by students and graduates of the Wajda School in Warsaw and Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF enter into dialogue with Wajda’s work, asking what his artistic and political legacy means to a new generation of directors today.
 

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Close-Up: Latvia
After focusing on Estonia in 2025, FFC continues its exploration of the Baltic film landscape with Close-Up: Latvia.

The section turns the spotlight on contemporary Latvian cinema, presenting different generations, genres and perspectives from a film culture that continues to make its mark internationally. The complete selection will be announced with the full FFC programme in October.
 

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View from the Black Mountain: Montenegro Special

Another journey takes us further south: View from the Black Mountain: Montenegro Special puts the spotlight on cinema from one of Europe’s smallest film countries.

The programme invites audiences and industry guests to discover different perspectives on Montenegro, its society and its cinematic landscape and filmmakers whose work is still rarely seen on German screens.
 

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Transformation without End?

More than three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the consequences of political and economic transformation continue to shape biographies, communities and societies.

Our special series Transformation without End? – Cinematic Perspectives on the Fall of the Berlin Wall and Its Aftermath brings together films exploring these experiences from different perspectives and asks how the upheavals of 1989 and the years that followed continue to resonate today.
 

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Watch & Vote: MIOB in Shorts 2026

The MIOB in Shorts Award is back – and the audience decides the winner. The members of the European Moving Images – Open Borders (MIOB) network have nominated twelve European short films for the 2026 edition.

The complete selection is available on This is Short until 15 October, giving audiences across Europe the chance to watch the films online and vote for their favourite. All twelve films will also be screened at FilmFestival Cottbus in November, where the winner will be announced at the closing ceremony.

Watch the MIOB in Shorts selection & vote
 

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Meet FFC on the Road

FFC Programme Director Bernd Buder will be on the festival circuit over the coming weeks. Meet him at the Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož (13–18 October) and DOK Leipzig (26–28 October).
 

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Save the Date
36th FilmFestival Cottbus
3–8 November 2026
 

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The full programme will be published in mid-October. Until then, stay tuned for more films, competitions, guests and industry news.

We look forward to welcoming you to Cottbus!

FilmFestival Cottbus Team

The upheavals of 1989/90 continue to resonate today. Biographical ruptures, new freedoms and social upheaval in the 1990s continue to shape political culture across Central and Eastern Europe. More than three decades later, a young generation of filmmakers is exploring a decade they themselves barely experienced first-hand. With Transformation without End? – Cinematic Perspectives on the Fall of the Berlin Wall and Its Aftermath, the 36th FilmFestival Cottbus (3–8 November 2026) brings films from the period into dialogue with contemporary perspectives on the post-socialist era.

Film pairings from different countries explore the hopes, ruptures and contradictions of those years. From the Baltic states, documentary classic IS IT EASY TO BE YOUNG? (Juris Podnieks, 1986), about Latvian youth subculture during the final years of the Soviet Union, meets the Lithuanian box-office hit THE SOUTHERN CHRONICLES (Ignas Miškinis, 2024). The coming-of-age love story takes audiences into Lithuania in the 1990s, exploring a period marked by new beginnings, disillusionment and emerging class divisions.

Two Slovak gangster comedies approach the gold-rush atmosphere of the era with dark humour: ON A BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE (Štefan Semjan, 1994) follows three petty criminals through Bratislava in the early post-socialist years, while INVALID (Jonáš Karásek, 2023), made three decades later, sends a cantankerous outsider down a similarly wayward path. From Hungary, István Szabó’s classic DEAR EMMA, SWEET BÖBE (1991), about two Russian teachers forced to completely rebuild their lives, is paired with the animated railroad movie PELIKAN BLUE (László Csáki, 2023) – a recollection of what it felt like to have little money but, finally, the freedom to travel and explore the world.

In eastern Germany, HERZSPRUNG (Helke Misselwitz, 1992) meets MORGEN VOR LANGER ZEIT (Luise Donschen, 2026). Misselwitz tells the story of Johanna, who seeks a new beginning in a small Brandenburg town after losing her job. Luise Donschen’s film begins in 1990: its protagonist Patty, played by Gerti Drassl, disappears in the Kyffhäuser Mountains amid the turmoil of German reunification, only to reappear 30 years later. Helke Misselwitz will personally present HERZSPRUNG in Cottbus.

The extent to which the developments of that period continue to resonate in the present is explored in DIE KLASSE VON 1990 (Sonja Hilberger, RP Kahl, 2026). The documentary brings together former acting students who fought to save their drama school in Rostock-Lichtenhagen in 1990 while witnessing the rise of right-wing extremism on their doorstep. The series is complemented by oral history films made in Cottbus, Lübeck and Neuruppin, in which school students ask contemporary witnesses about their memories of the opening of the border and life in the GDR.

During the festival week, young people from Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany will also come together in Cottbus to jointly explore the post-socialist era. The film series and the multi-day youth workshop are funded by The Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany.

80 Years of DEFA: A Focus on Sorbian Filmmaking

In the Homeland | Domownja | Domizna section, the FFC marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of DEFA by highlighting a lesser-known chapter of its history: Sorbian filmmaking. Between 1980 and 1990, almost 40 films were produced by the Produktionsgruppe Sorbischer Film / Serbska filmowa skupina (Sorbian Film Production Group) in Bautzen.

Three productions will be screened in Cottbus: WNUČKI ŁUŽIČANOW – DIE ENKEL DER LUSITZER (Armin Georgi, 1967), GAŽ WĚTŠYK DUJO … / UND AUF STEHT DIE WAHRHEIT (Toni Bruk, 1984) and WOPYT / UNRUHE (Toni Bruk, 1984). Toni Bruk’s two films will be shown in their Lower and Upper Sorbian-language versions respectively, with simultaneous German interpretation.

The 36th FilmFestival Cottbus

From 3 to 8 November 2026, FilmFestival Cottbus will present 147 films from 40 (co-)production countries across three competitions and numerous other sections. The complete festival programme will be published in mid-October.

The verdict of the Short Film Competition Jury at the 51^st Polish Film Festival in Gdynia has now been announced. The winners of this year’s special awards were also announced during the Young Gala on Friday, 25^th September 2026.

The Short Film Competition Jury, comprising:

Ewa Braun – Chairperson
Joanna Szymańska
Bartosz M. Kowalski

after viewing the 28 films selected for the Short Film Competition, awarded:

The Lucjan Bokiniec Award for Best Short Film

A cash prize of PLN 15,000. The award is sponsored by the Festival’s Patron, Energa SA

Case No., directed by Patrycja Polkowska

Special Prize

A cash prize of PLN 10,000 and a non-exclusive licence valued at PLN 15,000 from the Educational Film Studio

They Were All Named Anzhelika, directed by Aleksandra ‘Sasha’ Kutsen

Special Mention

A cash prize of PLN 5,000

The Knot, directed by Izabela Zubrycka

Award for Best Cinematographer

Production support worth PLN 20,000 in the form of equipment hire – funded by Heliograf

Patryk Roman for the film Recess, directed by Jana Saczka

THE JANUSZ KORCZAK GOLDEN LITTLE LIONS AWARD
Section Partner: KGHM Polska Miedź; Award Sponsor: Telewizja Polska
Too Old for Fairy Tales 3, directed by Kristoffer Rus

JOURNALISTS’ AWARD
Through the Wall, directed by Maciej Sobieszczański

CICAE JURY AWARD FOR A DIRECTING DEBUT OR SECOND FILM
A Free Woman, directed by Eliza Godlewska and Alan Ruczyński

YOUTH JURY AWARD
National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute
Liquid States, directed by Maria Wider

ART HOUSE CINEMAS ASSOCIATION AWARD
Through the Wall, directed by Maciej Sobieszczański

THE POLISH CINEMA ASSOCIATION’S ‘AMBER LIONS’ AWARD
for the film Good Home, directed by Wojciech Smarzowski, to the film’s producer and distributor for the highest box-office takings in Polish cinemas during the 2025–2026 season

THE ‘AUDIO DESCRIPTION OF THE YEAR’ AWARD FROM THE DE FACTO ASSOCIATION AND THE KINO DOSTĘPNE FOUNDATION
JURY’S SPECIAL MENTION
A cash prize of PLN 2,500
Bartosz Wokan (scriptwriter) and Magdalena Dudowicz (script consultant) for the audio description in the film 13 Days Till Summer, directed by Bartosz M. Kowalski

THE ‘AUDIO DESCRIPTION OF THE YEAR’ AWARD FROM THE DE FACTO ASSOCIATION AND THE KINO DOSTĘPNE FOUNDATION
AUDIENCE AWARD
A cash prize of PLN 5,000
Alicja Maciejewska (scriptwriter) and Magdalena Dudowicz (script consultant) for the audio description in the film Skrzyżowanie, directed by Dominika Montean

THE ‘FILM FOR THE CLIMATE’ AWARD FOR THE MOST ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY PRODUCTION
Award sponsor: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
The Honorary Organiser of the Competition is the “Film for the Climate” Association | The National Chamber of Audiovisual Producers is the Content Partner for the Award within the Competition

in the Feature Film category:
producers and implementation of eco-friendly solutions: Kamil Janik and Patrycja Strzyżewska in the production of the film A Free Woman, directed by Eliza Godlewska and Alan Ruczyński

THE ‘FILM FOR THE CLIMATE’ AWARD FOR THE MOST ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY PRODUCTION
Award sponsor: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
The Honorary Organiser of the Competition is the “Film for the Climate” Association | The National Chamber of Audiovisual Producers is the Content Partner for the Award within the Competition

in the Short Film category:
the implementation of eco-friendly solutions by Jagoda Surzycka (creative producer) and Gabriela Rybołowicz (production manager) in the production of the film The Knot, directed by Izabela Zubrycka, produced by Katarzyna Staszczy and Jagoda Surzycka

THE ‘DON QUIXOTE’ AWARD FROM THE POLISH FEDERATION OF FILM DISCUSSION CLUBS
Through the Wall, directed by Maciej Sobieszczański

AWARD FROM POLISH FILM FESTIVALS AND REVIEWS ABROAD
Through the Wall, directed by Maciej Sobieszczański

GDAŃSK RADIO “GOLDEN CLAQUEUR” AWARD
The Time That Never Came, directed by Julia Rogowska

GQ POLAND AWARD FOR A CINEMATIC VISIONARY
Mikołaj Bukrewicz in the film Less of a Stranger, directed by Kristoffer Rus

HARPER’S BAZAAR POLAND DISCOVERY
Agata Trzebuchowska, director, and Maciej Edelman, director of photography for the film Sick

MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSPECTIVE – DR IRENA ERIS BRAND AWARD
Sonja Orlewicz-Zakrzewska, Jaśmina Polak, Magda Koleśnik and Monika Frajczyk for the film EXOTIC, directed by Sonja Orlewicz-Zakrzewska

ZWIERCIADŁO’ MONTHLY MAGAZINE AWARD: STRONG START
Patrycja Polkowska, director of the film Case No.

INTERIA ‘ON THE WAVE’ AWARD
Patrycja Polkowska, director of the film Case No.

AWARD FOR BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
presented by the Polish Post-Production Association and the Pomeranian Film Foundation in Gdynia
Sebastian Dominik, Supervisor, and Lumiere de Cinema for the film Less of a Stranger, directed by Kristoffer Rus

AWARD FOR BEST CASTING DIRECTION
Guild of Polish Casting Directors
Nina Gold, Martin Ware and Paulina Krajnik for the film Good Boy, directed by Jan Komasa

ENERGA TURNS ON EMOTIONS AT THE 51^st POLISH FILM FESTIVAL
1st place – Klaudia Cieślak

2nd place – Jakub Szwed

3rd place – Zuzanna Deyna