This paper is devoted to the study of generalized tilting theory of functor categories in different levels. First, we extend Miyashita’s proof (Math Z 193:113–146,1986) of the generalized Brenner–Butler theorem to arbitrary functor categories $\mathop{\textrm{Mod}}\nolimits\!(\mathcal{C})$ with $\mathcal{C}$ an annuli variety. Second, a hereditary and complete cotorsion pair generated by a generalized tilting subcategory $\mathcal{T}$ of $\mathop{\textrm{Mod}}\nolimits \!(\mathcal{C})$ is constructed. Some applications of these two results include the equivalence of Grothendieck groups $K_0(\mathcal{C})$ and $K_0(\mathcal{T})$, the existences of a new abelian model structure on the category of complexes $\mathop{\textrm{C}}\nolimits \!(\!\mathop{\textrm{Mod}}\nolimits\!(\mathcal{C}))$, and a t-structure on the derived category $\mathop{\textrm{D}}\nolimits \!(\!\mathop{\textrm{Mod}}\nolimits \!(\mathcal{C}))$.

We study the existence of some covers and envelopes in the chain complex category of R-modules. Let (𝒜,ℬ) be a cotorsion pair in R-Mod and let ℰ𝒜 stand for the class of all exact complexes with each term in 𝒜. We prove that (ℰ𝒜,ℰ𝒜⊥) is a perfect cotorsion pair whenever 𝒜 is closed under pure submodules, cokernels of pure monomorphisms and direct limits and so every complex has an ℰ𝒜-cover. As an application we show that every complex of R-modules over a right coherent ring R has an exact Gorenstein flat cover. In addition, the existence of -covers and -envelopes of special complexes is considered where and denote the classes of all complexes with each term in 𝒜 and ℬ, respectively.