At its heart, cinema thrives on disruption – whether personal, political, or social. This year, CinEast embraces that theme, exploring how upheaval shapes lives and stories across Central and Eastern Europe. 

“Disruptions for us as a definition is not something that is necessarily 100% negative,” says Radek Lipka, festival artistic director, adding: “Rapid change can sometimes be very beneficial. But it also puts many things we know in danger – nature, human relations, our ability to understand politics without being drained by propaganda.”

Over 17 days, cinephiles will welcome the disruption into their lives as they take their pick from more than 65 films and 45 short films shown across 120 screenings. Cine-concerts, live music and debates extend the conversation beyond the cinema halls, creating opportunities for audiences to reflect, exchange and connect.

Among the evergreen highlights is the photography exhibition, which this year probes the omnipresence of screens, the spread of fake news and the impact of rapid technological change. Films, meanwhile, range from intimate portraits of personal upheaval to sweeping stories of geopolitical shockwaves.

Ukraine in Focus

Since 2022, CinEast has made a point of amplifying Ukrainian voices. The 2025 edition continues this commitment with a special programme dedicated to Ukraine. Among the most powerful screenings is My Dear Théo, a film by mother and filmmaker Alisa Kovalenk, who traded her camera for a rifle while still filming video letters to her son in France. She will attend CinEast to present her film and participate in a debate with Luxembourg’s Minister of Defence on 11 October during the festival’s warm-up weekend.

The festival’s solidarity project CinEast4Ukraine also continues. The 2024 edition raised €10,500 to finance an ambulance for Ukraine. In 2025, festival organisers hope to raise a similar amount to continue raising public awareness, turning cinema into tangible solidarity.

If CinEast champions Ukrainian resilience, it also confronts Russian repression head-on. The festival will also feature Mr Nobody Against Putin, a 2025 documentary by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin. Initially shot in the primary school where Talankin taught in Karabash, in the Ural Mountains, to document the school’s compliance with the state’s “patriotic education” mandates, Talankin smuggled the footage out of Russia. The result is an intimate examination of the transformation of Russian schools during the early stages of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, capturing moments of coerced patriotism and silent dissent. 

Poland As Guest Country

For the first time since its creation, the festival has named Poland as guest country, showing 14 feature films and 25 shorts showcasing the vibrancy of its cinema. According to Radek, it wasn’t featured earlier because the organisers felt the then ruling party in Poland would support it with public financing. “We preferred to wait until the power changed there,” said Radek, himself a Polish national. “Polish production is really huge so there was a lot to choose from,” the artistic director added.

The Polish film programme spans everything from acclaimed festival winners to comedies and fresh debuts, while other highlights include a masterclass with celebrated filmmakers Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, and a concert by Grammy-winning jazz pianist Włodek Pawlik, who returns to Luxembourg with a personal project performed alongside his son, Łukasz, and Luxembourgish musicians. The opening and closing concerts will also offer a chance for gourmands to taste Polish and Ukrainian cuisine.

Feast of Films

With 120 screenings, the festival offers a feast of films from classics to animation, documentary and a number of local and international premieres.

Festival goers will have a chance to see five Luxembourg co-productions before their mainstream release, including Dracula, an inventive reimagining of the Dracula myth set in contemporary Transylvania by Radu Jude (RO/AT/LU), co-produced by Paul Thiltges Distributions and Samsa Film. Winter of the Crow by Kasia Adamik (PL/LU/US), co-produced by Iris Productions follows a British professor visiting Warsaw in 1981 who finds herself ensnared in a brutal cat-and-mouse game after witnessing a student’s murder in the grip of martial law. Young children may enjoy Thelma’s Perfect Birthday, an animation about a penguin who learns the courage of being true to herself, by Reinis Kalnaellis (LV/LU) and co-produced by Paul Thiltges Distributions.

Serving as an antidote to our tech-driven lives is Whispering Forest (LU/FR), following artists and locals in Poland’s ancient Białowieża Forest. Directed by Katarzyna Kot, and produced by Iris Productions, the film weaves together music, nature, and ritual as a meditation on our relationship with the land and the urgency of environmental loss.

And, for those who have lost hope in human connection, Gintarė Parulytė’s short Sujip (LT/LU/NO) offers balm. The films follows a suicide helpline phone operator as he takes a call which sparks a quietly powerful connection, changing both their lives forever.

New Venues, New Audiences

Operating such a large-scale event year in has not been without its challenges, the main one being the closure of Cinémathèque for renovations. To ensure the closure does not impact the festival’s scale, screenings will take place at Cercle Cité, Mudam, Rotondes, Neimënster, Ciné Utopia, and Kinepolis Kirchberg. CinEast also expands its reach this year through Cinextdoor, bringing films to regional cinemas in Dudelange, Esch and Echternach, as well as the Ancien Cinéma Vianden and Kino Achteinhalb in Saarbrücken. For those who can’t make it to every screening, about half of the line-up will be available online until after the All Saints break, allowing audiences to catch up from home.

Cinema Without Borders

CinEast’s mission is clear: to break down stereotypes about Central and Eastern European cinema. “We don’t want Czech films for Czech people and Polish films for Polish people,” says Radek. “We want to show everybody in Luxembourg that the films from these countries are well worth seeing.”

It also aims to disrupt social isolation and disconnection, by serving as a platform to spread the message of artists and bring people closer together. “At CinEast, people have the opportunity to talk and meet. Whether they are cinema fans or fans of a theme in the film,” says Radek.

More than a festival, CinEast 2025 is an invitation: to watch, listen, debate, and discover how cinema can disrupt, connect, and inspire.

Cineast runs from 10–27 October. To view the programme or book tickets, visit www.cineast.lu