Since its foundation, dokumentART has stood for international collaboration and provided a platform for young European filmmakers to network within the context of a wider Europe, also in a geographic sense. An important focus here is on the region of eastern Europe. This year, a total of eight films from various genres will be shown in two programmes, some of them serious, some humorous and ironic, some analytical, and some that simply observe, whether in documentary or fictional scenarios, how we deal with the “other” with regards to both human and non-human others, socially “different” people, or also people who do not physically conform to societal norms. Being “different” to the majority is often associated with many difficulties and hurdles. Empathising and putting ourselves in other peoples’ shoes has become a great challenge of our time, particularly in a media landscape in which increasingly idealised and perfect bodies and circumstances are presented as “normal” or standard. Against a backdrop of intensifying political, social and ecological problems and crises, these films pose increasingly important questions: what is normal, who defines it and how do we deal with it in the right way?