Credit: Ievgenii Karanov, Chronicle.lu
The eighteenth edition of CinEast, the Central and Eastern European Film Festival in Luxembourg, is set to take place from Friday 10 to Sunday 26 October 2025.
The festival unveiled its full programme at a press conference on Tuesday 30 September 2025 at the Cercle Cité in Luxembourg-Ville.
This year’s edition will feature 65 feature films and more than 45 short films through over 120 screenings in cinemas. Alongside the film screenings, the programme includes concerts at Melusina, Rotondes and Neimënster, several film debates, a large photography exhibition, two additional exhibitions, special evenings and the CinEast Pro coproduction meeting.
The 2025 festival will also highlight Polish cinema through a “Focus on Poland”. This section will include fourteen feature films, several short films, a young audience programme, and a Polish evening combining screenings, a debate and a gathering with Polish specialities. Music will also play a role, with performances by Pawlik & Pawlik Duo feat. Jeff Herr and the folk group Bubliczki. Around thirty international guests will attend, participating in Q&A sessions and film debates.
Speaking to Chronicle.lu, Radek Lipka, President of CinEast, explained one of the main novelties of this year’s festival: “The first new thing is that we modified the programme a little. This year the festival will take place in two parts, which was not the case before. There will be a ‘Warm-up Weekend’ from Friday 10 to Sunday 12 October, like a foretaste of the festival, with cinema but also music elements. We will show films across different genres and countries. Then, after a two-day break, the official opening will follow on [Wednesday] 15 October.”
The feature film Chopin, A Sonata in Paris (Chopin, Chopin!) by Polish director Michał Kwieciński has been selected as the Opening Film for the 2025 edition. The international premiere will be screened in its original version with English subtitles at the festival's opening ceremony on Wednesday 15 October at 19:00 at Kinepolis Kirchberg.
The seven films in competition at CinEast 2025 are: Girl America (Amerikánka) by Viktor Tauš, God Will Not Help (Bog neće pomoći) by Hana Jušić, Little Trouble Girls (Kaj ti je deklica) by Urška Djukić, Milk Teeth (Dinți de lapte) by Mihai Mincan, Two Prosecutors (Два прокурора) by Sergei Loznitsa, Father (Otec) by Tereza Nvotová, and Wind, Talk to Me(Vetre, pričaj sa mom) by Stefan Đorđević.
The International Jury, which will award the Grand Prix CinEast 2025 and the Special Jury Prize, is composed of Bosnian director and screenwriter Danis Tanović (President of the Jury), Luxembourg actress Sascha Ley, Luxembourg producer Adrien Chef, Polish filmmaker Maria Zbaska and Georgian director Akaki Popkhadze.
The Press Jury, responsible for awarding the Critics’ Prize, consists of Olivia Popp (Cineuropa), Hendrik Warnke (Saarländischer Rundfunk) and Valentin Maniglia (Le Quotidien).
The Young Talent Jury, made up of students from BTS Cinema, will award the Young Talents Award. Its members this year are Natalia Dembowska, Victor Lespagnol, Nithael Athanasiou and Louise-Henriane Lestienne.
Mr Lipka, acknowledged that this year’s edition is slightly shorter than usual: “The festival will be three days shorter. So of course it will be a challenge to reach over 10,000 attendees again, but we are doing everything we can and hope the audience will follow us. It depends on many things – school screenings, online screenings, cinemas and also special events.” He added: “Still, from year to year, people are coming back and supporting the festival, sometimes watching films online when they cannot attend screenings in person. These online screenings remain available for up to two weeks after the festival, which is also important to note.”
The 2025 programme will also include a selection of screenings for children and teenagers, with the traditional Kids Show, of wordless animated films at neimënster, Saturday afternoon screenings at Ciné Utopia and a dedicated programme of school screenings in collaboration with local high schools.
The festival will again support the CinEast4Ukraine charity project, aiming to raise funds to assist victims of the war in Ukraine, after last year’s edition collected €10,500 to finance an ambulance.
More details on the festival programme are available on www.cineast.lu.
