How to make -vf "movie=..." point to another folder in FFmpeg

Get rid of the movie source filter and use -filter_complex (used for filtering with multiple inputs) instead of -vf (used for filtering with one input). Now you can simply list your inputs as usual, and then tell each of your filters which inputs you want them to work with.

Since you only have two inputs you can simply do:

ffmpeg.exe -i x:\test1\video.mov -i x:\test2\overlay.mov -filter_complex overlay x:\test3\video_overlay.mov

This would be the same as:

ffmpeg.exe -i x:\test1\video.mov -i x:\test2\overlay.mov -filter_complex "[0:0][1:0]overlay[out]" x:\test3\video_overlay.mov

Get a recent ffmpeg build if yours does not support -filter_complex at Zeranoe FFmpeg Builds and see the FFmpeg Filters Documentation for more information.

For me, this is the only version working at all setups (double-escaped colon does not work in git bash under windows):

movie=\'c:/your/path/here.mp4\'