Founded in 1999, connecting cottbus (coco) is one of the leading international meeting points for film professionals in an East-West-European context fosters co-production with a special focus on East-West feature film projects. We hope that this year‘s coco projects will follow in the footsteps of such films as THE HIGH SUN, ONE FLOOR BELOW (both Cannes Un Certain Regard ), MOTHERLAND (Venice Film Festival ) or A GOOD WIFE (Sundance Film Festival ), all of which were pitched in Cottbus before they were successfully produced and released.
Producers can apply with a feature film project for coco Pitch and, for the first time, for coco Work in Progress by July 28th, 2017. The projects either have to originate in or relate to Eastern Europe and show potential for an East-West co-production. The selection for coco Pitch will be announced in mid-September and for coco Work in Progress at the beginning of October.
Producers, sales agents, distributors, festival representatives, commissioning editors and financiersare welcome to reserve a place as guests without a project by submitting their application form by October 13 th, 2017.
This year,  pitch projects and four works in progress will get the chance to present themselves at connecting cottbus. The projects will be competing for the following coco awards: the coco Best Pitch Award with a cash prize of 1,500 EUR, plus an accreditation to the Cannes Producers Network in 2018 will go to the producer of the best pitch and is voted for by all of the industry participants. A jury of three industry representatives will award the coco Post Pitch Award of 25,000 EUR, an in-kind award donated by the German post-production house The Post Republic.
The Midpoint Scholarship Award will enable one coco- Lab project to develop its script by participating in our sponsor‘s Midpoint Feature Launch.
An innovation at the  edition of connecting cottbus will see the coco WIP Award of 35,000 EUR, an in-kind prize sponsored by the German post-production company D-FACTO MOTION, being presented to a work in progress project.
We are looking forward to receiving your submissions!
Your coco team