Organized under the auspices of the international federation of critics FIPRESCI, Cinematik seeks out contemporary trends cinema from all over the continent, which will culminate during the fest, 6-12 September, with screenings of top point getters in critics' pools and a prize for the most praised work.

This year films by younger directors dominate, such as Berlinale surprise hit The Strange Little Cat (Das merkwürdige Kätzchen) by Ramon Zürcher, said to combine elements of Jacques Tati, Michel Gondry and François Ozon and almost entirely set in one apartment. Peter Strickland's second feature, meanwhile, Berberian Sound Studio, illustrates the breadth of style in European indie filmmaking with its homage to 1960s and 70s Italian giallo horrors, a film ranked fifth among Sight & Sound's top films of 2012.

And Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary The Act of Killing, inspired by mass murders in North Sumatra, Indonesia, in the mid-1960s, has riveted international audiences as leaders of death squads reenact their crimes with pleasure.

The Strange Little Cat
Director: Ramon Zürcher
Germany
Production: Deutsche Film und Fernseheakademie Berlin

Berberian Sound Studio
Director: Peter Strickland
UK
Production: Illuminations Films, Warp X

The Act of Killing
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Denmark/Norway/United Kingdom
Production: Final Cut for Real

Our Children
Director: Joachim Lafosse
Belgium
Production: Jacques Henri Bronckart, Olivier Bronckart

Northwest
Director: Michael Noer
Denmark
Production: Nordisk Film Production

Sightseers
Director: Ben Wheatley
UK
Production: StudioCanal, Film4, BFI, Big Talk Productions

Reality
Matteo Garrone
Italy
Production: Fandango, Archimede, Le Pacte, Garance Capital

Rust and Bone
Jacques Audiard
Belgium/France
Production: Why Not Productions, Page 114, France 2 Cinema, Lumiere, Lunanime

The Hunt
Thomas Vinterberg
Denmark
Production: Zentropa Entertainments