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On September 17, 2025, the 27th edition of connecting cottbus (coco) announced its lineup, featuring a record 16 countries. The projects span various genres, including neo-noir, satirical sci-fi, vampire romance, and queer drama.

The event will take place from November 5-7 during the FilmFestival Cottbus. Since its inception in 1999, coco has become a vital networking and project development platform for Eastern European filmmakers, with over half of the presented projects reaching completion and nearly 70% premiering at major festivals.

This year’s lineup includes projects showcased in two strands: cocoPITCH, which highlights projects in development, and cocoWIP, which presents works in progress. The cocoPITCH segment features a mix of debut films and new works from established directors like Darya Zhuk, Assel Aushakimova, and Tonia Noyabrova. Notably, more than half of the selected projects are directed by women, covering a wide range of genres and themes.

The stories include a ruthless debt collector, an underwater archaeologist, a solitary food courier, and even a hungry bear. Meanwhile, cocoWIP showcases new films from directors such as Tonia Mishiali, Claudiu Mitcu, and Nikola Ljuca, with genres ranging from political thrillers to intimate dramas.

Protagonists in these films include a mathematician with a radical self-help method, a disillusioned wife in communist Romania, misfits with superpowers, and fractured families navigating love and memory. All selected projects will compete for several awards and benefit from cocoLAB, which provides in-depth feedback from industry professionals.

In addition to pitching and work-in-progress sessions, participants will engage in networking activities and discussions on current co-production challenges and opportunities in Europe. Industry representatives, including producers, sales agents, and commissioning editors interested in East-West collaborations, can apply to attend the market without a project until October 2.

Here is the complete selection for the 27th coco East-West co-production market:

• cocoPITCH
• Astana Internet Stars – Assel Aushakimova (Kazakhstan) – Special Pitch Award FilmFestival Cottbus
• Bekki – Aygul Bakanova (Kyrgyzstan)
• Attention Whores – Alica Bednáriková (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
• Some Good News – László Csuja (Hungary)
• Radioamateur – Tomasz Habowski (Poland) – Midpoint coco Award
• Beginners – Birutė Kapustinskaitė (Lithuania)
• Lava Love – Steve Krikris (Greece/Iceland)
• The Inspector’s Debt – Teodora Markova (Bulgaria/Latvia)
• I’ll Wait for You Last Summer – Tonia Noyabrova (Germany/Sweden)
• Helmet – Roman Przylipiak (Poland)
• Purgatory – Žiga Virc (Slovenia/Austria/Greece)
• Saros – Ozan Yoleri (Turkey)
• Exactly What It Seems – Darya Zhuk (USA/Poland/Estonia/Netherlands)
• cocoWIP
• The Champion – Bohdan Karásek (Czech Republic)
• Rattlesnakes – Nikola Ljuca (Serbia/Slovenia/Croatia/North Macedonia/Greece/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Montenegro)
• Monarch – Dan Radu Mihai (Romania/Czech Republic/France)
• The Lion at My Back – Tonia Mishiali (Cyprus/Luxembourg/Greece)
• What God Thinks About Animals – Claudiu Mitcu (Romania)
• Swaps – Gjorce Stavreski (North Macedonia/Czech Republic/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Bulgaria)

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