Filmfest Dresden was founded in the spring of 1989 and since then has developed from being a forum for banned or rarely screened feature films into a well positioned international festival for short films. Dresden's long tradition for animated film as the location of the former East German DEFA Animation Film Studios proved to be a key factor in the decision to introduce competitions for fictional and animated films especially. The festival's International Competition has been held since 1992, and this was followed in 1998 by the establishment of a National Competition for German productions. Since 2006, the Saxon Minister for Science and Fine Arts Promotion Prize worth €20,000 has been awarded here.

Further cooperative events have occurred over the last few years in the programming area especially with the European Centre for the Arts Hellerau, the DEFA Foundation, the Institut Francais de Dresde, the Province of Quebec and many more.

The "Perspective for Animated Film" exchange forum was first held during the 2002 festival and has remained a permanent feature of the festival since then. It is targeted at young European filmmakers, screenwriters and producers and provides them with a platform for shared projects. The participants spend one week together in Dresden and one in an eastern European capital city where they attend workshops on training, production and funding opportunities across Europe.