109 films from 39 countries will be shown this year at goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film from Wednesday 10 April to Tuesday 16 April. Festival director Heleen Gerritsen presented the programme at a press conference held Thursday morning at Wiesbaden’s Caligari FilmBühne cinema, where she expressed her excitement regarding the festival’s 23 German premieres, three international first screenings and one world premiere. Aside from a broad range of top-calibre filmmaking, the festival also offers a significantly expanded accompanying programme, featuring exhibitions, workshops, lectures, film talks and, of course, the legendary goEast parties. New this year is the “Pan-European Picnic”, which sees the festival cultivating even deeper roots within the local community.

“In the 19th year of goEast’s existence, the DFF is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its own founding here in Wiesbaden as the Federal Republic of Germany’s first institution for cinema heritage,” commented Ellen Harrington, director of DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum. “We would like to thank the state capital and the state of Hessen for supporting our mission and for supporting goEast, which has been committed to promoting a vibrant culture of debate since 2001. Their tool of choice in these efforts is cinema, which demonstrates in a variety of ways that democracy is a central asset of a united Europe. goEast is a showcase for the cinema of Central and Eastern Europe and demands – 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall – that we treat everyone with respect, in particular the marginalised elements of our society too,” emphasised Harrington.

The goEast Competition again features a total of sixteen films which will be vying for the festival’s three main awards. “This year’s Competition section is distinguished by works from young filmmakers, including several debut films, and works which treat themes of intergenerational conflict. As such, the films seize upon current tendencies in society – in the West as well adolescents and millennials are taking to the streets in protest and rebelling against the decisions and politics of older generations,” observed festival director Heleen Gerritsen. “In the East, the conflict is further exacerbated by the fact that the different generations came of age in different political and economic systems. Both aesthetically and thematically, the young generation of filmmakers is choosing to use another film language, a new one,” Gerritsen continued. “This year’s films often revolve around young individuals, their motivations in life, their drives for discovery and emancipation, or their relationships with older family members and authority figures as well. But for instance they also explore the question of why young people are willing to make radical sacrifices for their political convictions,” as Gerritsen revealed.

Around 200 filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe are expected to attend goEast. Želimir Žilnik and Sami Mustafa are among the guests of this year’s Symposium, entitled “Constructions of the Other: Roma and the Cinema of Central and Eastern Europe”. The Homage is devoting an extensive retrospective to the work of a venerable master of the Polish New Wave, Krzysztof Zanussi, who will be on hand to give insight into his life’s work. Multi-award-winning director and this year’s goEast Jury President Teona Strugar Mitevska is presenting her opening film

GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, goEast is partnering for the first time with FilmFestival Cottbus to present the thematic focus “Everything Remains Different? The Wild 90s”, which directs attention back to the transitional period following the dissolution of the Iron Curtain. The newly created event series “Pan-European Picnic” promises to cross borders between East and West and interdisciplinary boundaries between film, literature and the visual arts. At the film talks in the “goEast Salon”, audience members have the chance to enter into direct dialogue with the filmmakers of the Competition while enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the Festival Center.

For Axel Imholz, head of the Cultural Department of the State Capital Wiesbaden, the history of the city is linked in myriad ways with Germany’s Eastern European neighbours. The celebrated painter Alexej von Jawlensky, who lived in Wiesbaden and is buried there as well, and the Russian Orthodox Saint Elizabeth’s Church atop the Neroberg are just two of the best-known examples that testify to this connection. “goEast brings international filmmakers and film fans to Wiesbaden and generates important insights and understanding for the cultures of our neighbours to the East with its films and talk formats – that is just as timely and important today as it was at the beginning of the festival,” observed Imholz. The head of the city’s Cultural Department emphasised that Wiesbaden considers itself lucky to be able to host such a unique festival highlight in the state capital.

Dr. Helmut Müller, managing director of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, which is supporting the pilot project “Pan-European Picnic” this year, is particularly looking forward to the new event series: “30 years after the Pan-European Picnic of Sopron, on the border between Hungary and Austria, we have to ask ourselves today just how united and border-free our Europe is and how things look when it comes to solidarity and mutual understanding.” According to Müller, it is all the more important to protect and expand upon the achievements made in understanding in all levels and forms. “That is precisely the approach taken by the Pan-European Picnic in Wiesbaden: it’s about building a bridge between the established film festival and small cultural associations, a bridge to locations outside of the film theatres, places where individuals with Central and Eastern European migration backgrounds come together from throughout the entire Rhine-Main region.”

Dr. Markus Ingenlath, managing director of Renovabis, explained: “With the creation and support of a research grant for documentary films with a focus on human and minority rights in Eastern Europe, goEast is turning its attention to issues of exceptional relevance for the present moment. These efforts are in harmony with the spirit of our work at Renovabis: we want to take a credible and unflinching look at the situation in our ‘neighbourhood’, for it is only by doing so that real dialogue can take place,” according to Ingenlath. “In addition, the festival provides the opportunity to take advantage of another information channel, namely cinema, and to show that these politically sensitive issues belong within the broad spectrum of our mission, when it comes to promoting the development of civil society,” emphasised Ingenlath.

On 10 April, goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film will kick off its 19th edition with this year’s opening film GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA (GOSPOD POSTOI, IMETO I' E PETRUNIJA, North Macedonia, Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, France, 2019) by North Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska.

You can find photo materials for this year’s festival in our download section: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/Press/downloads

The full programme for the 19th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is available at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/program

goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and made possible with the support of numerous partners. Primary funding partners are the State Capital Wiesbaden, the Hessen State Ministry for Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, ŠKODA AUTO Deutschland, Renovabis, BHF BANK Foundation, Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege, the German Federal Foreign Ministry and Deutsch-Tschechische Zukunftsfonds. Media partners include 3sat, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

Visions du Réel International Film Festival (5 – 13 April 2019) will give its floor to world premieres of 3 new Czech documentaries. Greta Stocklassa’s directorial debut Kiruna – A Brand New World has been selected for the International Feature Film Competition, while another debut The Sound is Innocent by Johana Ožvold will have its premiere in the International Competition Burning Lights. Rozálie Kohoutová and Tomáš Bojar’s new documentary Off Sides will be screened in the Grand Angle section.

Kiruna – A Brand New World

by Greta Stocklassa

Czech Republic 2019 / 80’

Producers: Veronika Kührová, Michal Kráčmer (Analog Vision)

Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

International Feature Film Competition
TUE 9 April | 16:00 - Grande Salle | World Premiere
WED 10 April | 11:45 - Grande Salle

The Sound Is Innocent

by Johana Ožvold
Czech Republic, France, Slovakia 2019 / 68’
Producer: Kristýna Michálek Květová (Cinémotif Films)
Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Burning Lights
WED 10 April | 16:00 - Grande Salle | World Premiere
THU 11 April | 20:30 - Capitole Fellini

Off Sides

by Rozálie Kohoutová, Tomáš Bojar

Czech Republic 2019 / 75’

Producer: Tomáš Bojar (Cinema Arsenal)

SALES: Durna Safarova – Filmotor, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Grand Angle
SUN 7 April | 13:15 - Théâtre de Marens | World Premiere
MON 8 April | 18:00 - Théâtre de Grand-Champ, Gland

Czech Film Center at Visions du Réel

Czech Film Center, division of the Czech Film Fund, will be attending Visions du Réel in Nyon. Get in touch with us and learn more about recent Czech documentary films or co-production and shooting possibilities in the Czech Republic.

Vítězslav Chovanec - Festival Relations - Docs & Shorts
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +420 778 487 864
8 – 12 April

Czech docs in print

Czech Documentaries 2018-2019

Docu Talents from the East – call for submissions

The most remarkable new documentary projects from Central and Eastern Europe will be presented at the 15th edition of Docu Talents from the East. You can now submit your films in the production or post-production stage – the deadline for applications is April 30. Ten projects will be introduced to festival programmers, distributors, sales agents and journalists attending the CineLink Industry Days at the Sarajevo FF on August 21. Since its launch in 2005, the Docu Talents has presented over 140 projects, many of which have subsequently premiered and collected prizes at film festivals around the world.  

Have your film supported from the Ji.hlava Film Fund!

The Ji.hlava Film Fund provides in-kind grants totaling 20,000 EUR for visual and sound post-production of documentaries originating in Central and Eastern Europe. We are primarily looking for projects with unique authorial style and focus on contemporary and thought-provoking themes. Ji.hlava Film Fund's partners are UPP, Soundsquare and the Center for Documentary Film, and the deadline for submissions is April 30.

Film submissions to the 23rd Ji.hlava IDFF are open

Send us your documentary films to be considered for the 23rd edition of Ji.hlava, taking place on October 24 – 29, 2019. The deadline for 2019 films is May 31. The second deadline – for rough cuts and films that have so far not had a festival world premiere – is July 31. We accept feature-length and short films as well as animated and interactive documentaries. Films premiered at Ji.hlava have the chance to be nominated for the European Film Academy Awards, and our winners are also eligible for Oscar® consideration.

Meet Ji.hlava IDFF at other festivals 

You can meet members of the Ji.hlava IDFF team at some of the upcoming film festivals. The festival director Marek Hovorka will be in Nyon on April 6 – 12 attending Visions du Réel, together with our programmer Petr Kubica (April 10 – 13). Jarmila Outratová, the head of industry, will be in Barcelona at D'A Film Festival on April 28 – 30 and in Belgrade for Beldocs on May 8 – 11. Our programmer Andrea Slováková will attend the 65th International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen on May 1 – 5. We will be happy to meet you on these occasions!

Ex Oriente Film: Apply until April 19

Ex Oriente Film is an international training programme for documentary professionals supporting the development and funding of creative documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe. The core of the Ex Oriente Film is based on three week-long residential workshops held over 9 months, including in October at the Ji.hlava IDFF. Each year up to 12 selected projects receive assistance from a wide range of film experts, with each workshop focusing on a different segment of development. Click here for the details about the workshop.

DAFilms Festival Focus: One World Romania online

DAFilms.com presents films from One World Romania. Couldn‘t make it to Bucharest but want to see films from the program? No problem! Until April 14, you can watch an exclusive selection of festival films online. You can enjoy for example Coby, a documentary from American Midwest. Suzanna is 23 and goes through a transition into a man, Coby. This transformation impacts her entire family and makes them change their perspective. The film was premiered at Cannes IFF in the ACID section and toured dozens of film festivals afterwards.

The sale of festival passes will start on the 15th of April and accreditations will be available to purchase from 8th of April. 

This year’s edition of the Krakow Film Festival will showcase over 200 films from all over the world, including several dozen of world, international and Polish premiere screenings. The best documentaries, short features and animations will compete in four film competitions and will be presented in over a dozen of fascinating festival sections. It is worth to book some time from 26th of May till the 2nd of June and purchase your festival pass or an accreditation now. 

FOR THE VIEWERS – PASSES

The passes are available in promotional prices only till the 10th of May

• the regular pass – 110 pln
• discount passes – 60 pln

After that the prices will go up respectively to 170 pln and 90 pln. Apart from the passes for the the whole Festival we also offer day passes. 

The passes will be available online on the Festival’s website and starting on the 10th of May also in the festival cinemas registries: Pod Baranami Cinema, Mikro Cinema, Kijów.Centrum, Paradox Cinema, Agrafka Cinema.

During the Festival all types of passes will be available for purchase at the Festival Center located at the The Małopolska Garden of Art (Rajska 12 street).

For detailed information on the passes and tickets visit our website.

FOR FILM INDUSTRY, JOURNALISTS AND ART SCHOOL STUDENTS – ACCREDITATIONS

The deadline for submitting accreditation applications is 19th of May 2019. The festival offers four types of accreditations:

• Industry – allows participation in all the film screening and KFF Industry events
• Market – allows entry to the film market and KFF Industry
• Media – allows participation in all the film screening and KFF Industry events
• Student – available to art school students, connected to film. Allows entry to film screenings and chosen KFF industry events

Till the 10th of May all accreditations are available in promotional prices. 

For detailed information on the types of accreditations and their prices visit our website.

The 59th Krakow Film Festival will take place on May 26 – June 2, 2019

Follow our news on the website and in the social media: Facebook, Twitter i Instagram.

SOFA Goes Tbilisi: Up, Up, Up for the Third Year

The third edition of the Tbilisi SOFA workshop takes place in the beautiful Georgian capital from April 1 – 6 2019. The participants of the 2018/2019 edition: Eva Brazdžionytė (Lithuania), Agnieszka Kruk (Poland), Victoria Leshchenko (Ukraine), Marat Parkhomovsky (Israel), Róbert Vámos (Hungary) and Natia Nikoleishvili (Georgia) meet after the August 2018 Warsaw workshop for a concentrated follow-up. After Warsaw’s focus on project development, the Tbilisi workshop will concentrate on deepening the marketing aspects of their projects. For that, all participants will be supported by experienced professionals from the AV industry. This year they will include: Josef Reidinger (Managing Director of ARRI Media GmbH); Richard Naylor (Director of BOP Consulting); Karin Schockweiler (Deputy Director of Film Fund Luxembourg); Renaud Redien Collot (Senior Analyst at Institut Friedland); Juliane Schulze (Media Deals); Cornelius Ochman (Director of the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation) and Jowe Harfouche (Executive Director of the Network of Arab Alternative Screens NAAS). The programme will include two public events. The first one on April 4 at 5pm will be a conversation with Josef Reidinger. The second one on April 5 at noon will start with an introduction on the current state of the Georgian film industry led by Tamara Tatishvili (Georgian film agent), followed by a mission statement by SOFA Head of Studies, Nikolaj Nikitin and a final project presentation by the participants 2018/2019.

Find details on www.joinsofa.org.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Meanwhile, film/AV-related cultural managers are invited to apply for the 7th SOFA edition that will be held in Warsaw, Poland (August 18 – 23, 2019) and later continued in Tbilisi, Georgia (April 25 – 30, 2020). Selected SOFA running projects will be invited for a third workshop focused on financing, in Vilnius, Lithuania (September 17-21, 2020). Project submission deadline: May 29, 2019. More information on: www.joinsofa.org.

Don’t sit on your coach, join SOFA!

SOFA – School of Film Agents is a programme of workshops aimed at strengthening national film industries and the European cinematic landscape, as well as kick-starting projects in the realm of cinema. SOFA helps its participants to develop their ideas into concrete projects, opening up new avenues towards application for financing programmes and final implementation. SOFA’s focus on cultural managers and film agents rather than producers and directors has made it a unique programme on the international film/AV scene.

www.joinsofa.org, www.facebook.com/SchoolofFilmAgents/

www.joinsofa.org

SOFA – School of Film Agents is a joint project of Filmplus gUG (Berlin) and Institute for Democratic Changes (Tbilisi), funded by German Federal Foreign Office and Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union. The executing company of the Georgian workshop is Takes Film with the support of local funding partners: Georgian National Film Center, Ministry of Culture and Sport of Georgia, Enterprise Georgia (Film in Georgia). In addition, the 2019 Polish workshop will be funded by: Polish Film Institute, SDPZ (Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation), Mazovia Warsaw Film Commission and the Lithuanian session by the Lithuanian Film Centre. The organizers also wish to thank the strategic partners: Goethe- Institut, EAVE and the Network of Arab Alternative Screens (NAAS).

WHAT WE DO In its 7th edition SOFA – School of Film Agents invites up to eight professionals for intense workshops to Warsaw (August 18 – 23, 2019), Tbilisi (April 25 – 30, 2020) and Vilnius (September 17 – 21, 2020). We support film initiators, cultural managers and catalyzers with unique project ideas in the AV world. Selected participants will be trained in various creative fashions to reach local and international cinema-goers as well be given the opportunity to make ties beyond borders. With the help of experienced lecturers, you will receive a tailor-made coaching which enables you to realize your dream project efficiently. Our work- shops connect you with decision makers and high-level professionals in the AV industry. The rest is up to you – make your dream come true!

All participants are coached on-the-scene by Oliver Baumgarten (programme director, Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis, Saarbrücken), Ewa Puszczyńska (producer, Ida/Cold War), Christine von Fragstein (pitching expert), Renaud Redien-Collot (marketing expert) and Nikolaj Nikitin (head of SOFA). Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick acts as godfather. Among last editions’ experts were Marion Döring (European Film Academy), Karel Och (Karlovy Vary IFF), Roberto Olla (Eurimages), Sonja Heinen (European Film Promotion), Rainer Rother (Deutsche Kinemathek), Funa Maduka (Netflix), Anna Serner (Swedish Film Institute), Juliane Schulze (Media Deals), Vitalijus Zukas (Lithuanian virtual reality creator) and Tamara Tatishvili (Georgian film agent).

WHO WE LOOK FOR AV professionals with previous experience in cultural management (studies, business etc.) from Central or Eastern Europe / Central Asia / republics of Caucasus / Greece / Israel / Germany / MENA region Project proposals could include establishing a film festival, film fund, film commission, digital distribution platform, a cinema theater, film museum / archive, a project connected to copyright law, a print or online film magazine, VoD platform, a training initiative or another creative and highly innovative project in the field of film culture management.

HOW TO BE PART OF IT If we drummed up your interest, submit the following documents (in English) to Nikolaj Nikitin, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. until May 29, 2019:

max. two pages of project description: what’s your project idea about? What’s your motivation? Tell us about your objectives and what’s so new and unique about your project! Why is it you who can make it? a one-pager on the budget a one-pager financing plan a business plan a professional biography and background info on how you got involved working in the AV sector

For selected participants, there is an administration fee of 750 EUR. Scholarships are available upon request.

In 2018 the Filmtalent Zlín Foundation supported 22 film projects to the tune of over € 60.000 (CZK 1.549 million).

The Zlín Film Clapperboard Salon is where art lovers and cinephiles meet. For the 22nd consecutive time, this year again Film Clapperboards painted by renown, loyal artists will be sold in an auction on 26 May 2019 during the Zlín Film Festival. Through the FILMTALENT ZLÍN Foundation this money will be re-invested to provide a support to Czech and Slovak young start-ups in the field of cinema, student filmmakers and other film-related projects in a social or educational context.

more...

DISCOVER & EXPLORE Big thematic section at 59th Zlín Film Festival 2019 Open your eyes and see: - Nature documentaries - Feature films about the indigenous - Children´ s and Youth films from the Balkan countries - Travelling documentaries more...

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The Zlín Film Festival – International Film Festival for Children and Youth is the oldest and, currently, largest film festival of its kind in the world. The festival’s mission is to present a wide range of high-quality international film productions for children and teenagers and to make them accessible to a young audience. An important aspect of the festival is to develop the young audience’s aesthetic, social, and moral feelings, and to expand their awareness of the outside world. Every year the festival welcomes more than … young visitors, hosts numerous international film delegations presenting their creative work, and attracts over … children’s film professionals from around the globe. The aim of the program is to contribute to the development of Czech cinema for children and youth. The organizer of the festival is the company FILMFEST, s.r.o..

From Wednesday 10 April to Tuesday 16 April 2019, goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film will be transforming Wiesbaden for the 19th year running into one of the world’s most important showcases for cinema from Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to top-calibre filmmaking, the festival, hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, also features a host of innovative virtual reality projects.

For the second year in a row, experimental 360° and virtual reality works will be competing for the Open Frame Award at goEast. The competition, presided over by an expert international jury, is presented and endowed with a prize of 5,000 euros by BHF Bank Foundation. Last year’s winners, the Russian artist duo of Natalya Severina and Denis Semionov, won over the jury with their interactive VR work “Nominal Empire”. The programme brings creatives from Eastern Europe together with an international audience and jury with the aim of developing a vision for the potential and future of VR art and cinema.

Eight interactive installations and 360° projects from Romania, Lithuania, Belarus, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Russia will be on display in the Open Frame Award exhibition. In the run-up to the festival, the projects can be experienced from Thursday 4 April to Sunday 7 April at DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut und Filmmuseum via headsets, before moving on to Museum Wiesbaden, where they will be shown during the festival week. Thanks to technical support from HTC Europe, Samsung Germany and INVR, visitors to the exhibition have the opportunity to immersive themselves in the projects at close range.

The international jury is composed this year of Dutch-Iranian VR artist Ali Eslami, Franziska Nori, director of Frankfurter Kunstverein, and Israeli VR curator Tal Haring.

“At goEast, we celebrate artistic freedom and the exploration of new forms for telling stories with virtual reality works. This year, our nominees reconnect with past events by reconstructing them in virtual reality, giving the audience the possibility to explore the environments and make up their own minds,” revealed Georgy Molodtsov, curator of the Open Frame Award, adding: “Social and emotional plots are allowed to unfold through deft, artistic use of the still young medium. We hope that our exhibition and award will play a valuable role in the creators’ efforts to expose their ideas and their works to a wider international audience.”

For more information as well as full descriptions of the individual projects, please visit: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/sektionen/Open+Frame+Award/

Press Conference The press conference for the 19th edition of goEast will take place at 11 am on Thursday 4 April at Wiesbaden’s Caligari FilmBühne cinema. We kindly ask that you register in advance to attend.

You can find photo materials for this year’s festival in our download section: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/de/presse/downloads

The full programme for the 19th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is available at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/de/programm

goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and made possible with the support of numerous partners. Primary funding partners are the State Capital Wiesbaden, the Hessen State Ministry for Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, ŠKODA AUTO Deutschland, Renovabis, BHF BANK Foundation, Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege, the German Federal Foreign Ministry and Deutsch-Tschechische Zukunftsfonds. Media partners include 3sat, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Deutschlandfunk Kultur.