Gaby Babić, director of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film since September 2010, will be stepping down from her position at Deutsches Filminstitut from October 2017. She will be succeeded as festival director by Dutch film producer and curator Heleen Gerritsen, who will take up her new appointment on October 1st. 
“After seven years of leading goEast Film Festival, I am looking forward to a personal and professional change,” Babić stated. “As goEast is very firmly established at this point in its 17th year of existence, it is a good moment for a leadership transition. I would like to thank my team, with whom I had the pleasure of enthusiastically realising seven wonderful festival editions, and I look forward to experiencing goEast in the future as a guest under the direction of Heleen Gerritsen, who will bring new highlights to the festival with fresh ideas. I am already excited to see what she and her team will come up with.”
Gaby Babić played a substantial role in the evolution of the festival. In addition to the presentation of extraordinary auteur films, in particular she also placed socio-political issues and unusual retrospectives at the centre of her work as festival director. In the scope of goEast’s efforts to promote young filmmaking talent, she conceived the projects OPPOSE OTHERING!, Young Filmmakers for Peace and the East-West Talent Lab. Deutsches Filminstitut would like to thank Gaby Babić for her brilliant work and is very pleased that she will remain associated with the festival in the future as a freelance collaborator. 

Dutch film producer and curator Heleen Gerritsen studied Slavistics, Eastern-European history and international economics in Amsterdam and St. Petersburg and previously served as director of the European documentary film festival dokumentART in Neubrandenburg. “For a film festival situated in Western Germany to place its focus on Central and Eastern Europe is as relevant and necessary as ever: in periods of upheaval, such as the one in which the European project has found itself for a number of years now, cinematic art, as an accessible medium, can play a significant role in breaking down prejudices and building bridges between cultures. goEast is a festival with a unique format that has been successfully showcasing the full range of Central and Eastern European filmmaking for many years. Films treating contemporary social issues find an audience in Wiesbaden right alongside film-historical retrospectives and special programs. With Deutsches Filminstitut, the festival also has a strong institutional partner behind it. In my view, this represents an optimal starting position for a further development of the festival focussed on the future.”

For more information, please contact: 
Stefan Adrian
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+49 - 0611 - 23684312

 

The seventh edition of the US in Progress will be held from the 25th till 28th of October 2017, as a part of the 8th American Film Festival in Wroclaw (October 24-29th).

Thanks to support of the Polish Film Institute we are happy to initiate the first edition of Polish-American Co-production Meetings, a networking opportunity for Polish producers seeking partners from the US. Panels will consist of producers and publicists working in the US or with collaboration with US and aim to foster transatlantic projects. Guest speakers will include George Rush, Adam Kersh, Mike Ryan, and others.

US in Progress is held twice yearly (June edition takes place in Paris during Champs-Elysees Film Festival). In Wroclaw, invite-only screenings will feature four projects selected from numerous submissions of independent American feature-length films in the final editing stages.

Congratulations to the 2017 US in Progress Wroclaw participants: 

●      Ghost Box Cowboy by John Maringouin

●      Honky Kong by Stephen Gurewitz

●      Jules of Light and Dark by Daniel Laabs

●      One Man Dies a Million Times by Jessica Oreck

The filmmakers and their producers will attend the presentations as well as one-on-one meetings with top European buyers and festival programmers and listen to presentations from Polish film organizations dealing with film production and promotion. 

Selected four Polish producers and filmmakers attending will pitch their ideas to the US producers and investors. Other local professionals are invited to network and learn more about the differences in European and American film production system in a less formal setting. 

The 2017 US in Progress Wrocław partners who provide in-kind awards of post-production service packages of combined value amounting to $50,000 are the following leading Polish sound and image studios: 

●     Orka 

●     Coloroffon 

●     Fixafilm  

●      Chimney Poland 

●     Soundflower Studio (a score composed by Maciej Zielinski)

●     Aeroplan 

There is also an up to 35% equity investment offer to a selected project (subject to mutually agreed upon conditions) as a partnership with Salem Street Entertainment and UnLtd Productions. Other awards include an acquisition offer from Ale Kino+ tv channel and a free pass to Cannes Producers' Network next year.

To learn more or contact US in Progress please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

TALLINN: Mattie Do’s Dearest Sister, a coproduction between Laos, France and Estonia, has been selected as Laos’ first entry to the Academy Awards in the best foreign language film category.

LJUBLJANA: Hanna Slak’s third feature film The Miner / Rudar has been chosen as the official candidate from Slovenia for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The film is a Slovenian/Croatian/German coproduction.

We would like to invite all filmmakers and producers to submit their documentary projects in any stage of development to the EAST DOC PLATFORM, the largest meeting place for the international documentary industry in the Central and Eastern European region. For the first time, documentary shorts are welcome, too.