Cinema Archipelago - The East as an Island? 

For the second time already, goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is presenting the interdisciplinary sidebar programme Cinema Archipelago, made possible with the generous support of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain. With this special festival programme, the festival once again has the possibility to shine a spotlight on new medial forms of expression in Central and Eastern Europe. In the wake of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, an acute desire for decolonization has arisen in the cultural scene and film sector in the post-Soviet space. The Symposium "Decolonizing the (Post-)Soviet Screen" brings research, scholarship, film heritage and cinematic practice together under the direction of Barbara Wurm and Heleen Gerritsen. The film selection features works from former Soviet states, but also films by filmmakers from indigenous or hitherto marginalised groups that are attempting to redefine their identities and relationship to dominant Russian culture.

RheinMain Short Film Award – Native Edition

Already celebrating its fourth edition, goEast is delighted to once again present the RheinMain Short Film Award this year, featuring 2,500 euros in prize money. A three-member regional jury will select the winning film. This year features a new thematic twist: the short films of the selection were all made by indigenous filmmakers or those representing marginalised groups. The Russian Federation is home to 185 ethnic minority groups. The Central Asian republics are also very ethnically diverse – and the official national borders artificial and arbitrary. The short films in this year's competition come from the autonomous republics of Kalmykia (EXULTATION, 2022, Arslan Manasyan), Sakha (AITAL, 2021, Vladimir Munkuev) and Chechnya (NO NATION WITHOUT CULTURE, 2022, Vladlena Sandu), as well as from Uzbekistan (TALE, 2022, Kamila Rustambekova and ARALKUM, 2022, Daniel Asadi Faezi and Mila Zhluktenko) and Kirgizstan (NEITHER ON THE MOUNTAIN NOR IN THE FIELD, 2022, Gulzat Egemerdieva). Ukrainian director Sashko Protyakh also appears here with KHAYT (2021), a futuristic short film, in which he fantasises about a future shaped by Asov-Greek culture for the (in the meantime completely destroyed) port city of Mariupol. The filmmakers will be in attendance in Wiesbaden. Following the festival, the short films will head out on tour, visiting cinemas throughout the Rhein-Main region.

Tales from the Bathhouse

The traditional bathhouse culture found in Wiesbaden is also a cherished part of Eastern European cultures. Following the successful experiment last year, the festival is returning to the VRChat bathhouse with this year's virtual reality programme. In 2023, goEast and guest curator Georgy Molodtsov are offering three groups of Central and Eastern European artists the possibility to breathe new life into their stand-alone VR works by transforming them into multiplayer online environments. Through this collaboration, goEast is able to provide greater visibility for these works and enable the artistic VR world to emerge from beneath the shadow of an industry dominated by pure entertainment products.

goEast's bespoke bathhouse invites members of the public to slip into their finest avatar bathing outfits and immerse themselves in the artistically designed world, or to explore the designers' creative works at the new festival location Altes Gericht in Wiesbaden. Admission to "Tales from the Bathhouse" is open to the general public at no charge. 

TikTok 2023

What is on the mind of Generation Z in 2023? Questions of identity, racism, Russia's war of aggression – young TikTokers speak their truth or slip into the skin of an alter ego for little sketches, like the "ungrateful Ukrainian refugee" or the "Balkan dad".  Once again, goEast has collected TikTok videos from our focus region as well as from young Eastern Europeans in exile, in order to present the festival audience a big-screen collage consisting of existential angst, absurd dance videos, uncomfortable opinions and bad puns.

"Space Age Animation" from Hungary and Estonia + Estonian Funk Embassy

Estonia and Hungary have more then their Finno-Ugric languages in common: they are both also home to unique animated film cultures. In Tallinn and Budapest of the 1970s and '80s, the marginal position of animated film enabled artists to operate outside of mainstream film culture and to create subversive and experimental works that frequently managed to evade the censors. These films from Estonia and Hungary are characterised by topics such as the conquest of outer space, sociocultural critique, the era of stagnation with its bourgeois tendencies, escapism, the dangers of technocracy and the creative desire to experiment. Now, a new short film programme at goEast brings together a selection of these works, such as AATOMIK & JÕMMID (1970) by Elbert Tuganov, founder of the Estonian film studio Nukufilm, THE FLIGHT (1973) and COLOUR-BIRD (1974) by Rein Raamat, founder of Joonisfilm. A further block consisting of two Pannonia short film programmes offers the festival audience an opportunity to appreciate the films of Pannonia studio founder Gyula Macskássy and his daughter Kati on the big screen. Kati Macskássy's art is particularly affecting for its animation of children's drawings and letters, which she used to indirectly expose the official propaganda of the era. Sándor Reisenbüchler's psychedelic and socially critical collages, such as PANIC (1983) and THE YEAR OF 1812 (1972), and two feature-length films, SON OF THE WHITE MARE (1981) by Marcell Jankovics and BUBBLEBATH (1979) by György Kovásznai, also occupy well-deserved spots in this programme. In the “Space Age Animation” section, festival attendees can enjoy a total of 20 classic animated films on the big screen.

Those who can't get enough of the groovy animation soundtracks here are warmly invited to attend the Psychedelic Funk Party at Wiesbaden's Schlachthof dance club on the Festival Saturday for a night of musical fun in the spirit of the special animation programme, featuring the DJs of Tallinn's Estonian Funk Embassy.

Guest Country Slovenia

Slovenia, a young nation with a literary and cultural tradition extending back for centuries, is 2023's Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. To complement this feature, goEast is inviting the festival audience to discover Slovenia's vibrant cinema scene. This coming fall, a Slovenian film series will be presented at the DFF cinema in Frankfurt am Main. goEast is offering the audience a small sneak preview during the festival week, in co-operation with the "Slovenska kinoteka", which has been dedicated to the formation, preservation and presentation of a film collection since its founding in 1996. In the scope of the festive goEast Matinee, with the director of the Slovenian Film Institute also in attendance, filmmaker Maja Weiss will be on hand to personally present her film GUARDIAN OF THE FRONTIER (2002). Živojin Pavlović's FAREWELL UNTIL THE NEXT WAR (1980) will also be screened in the scope of the archive presentation – the film processes the horrors of the Second World War from the subjective perspective of a former Slovenian partisan fighter.

Accreditation

Since 3 March, members of the press can register here for accreditation for goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film. During the festival, accredited industry guests and members of the press will receive access to an online media library featuring the festival films. Accreditation is free of charge for members of the press who wish to report on the festival.

Save the Date: goEast Press Conference

The press conference will take place at Wiesbaden's Caligari FilmBühne as a live, in-person event on the morning of Wednesday, 19 April, starting at 11:00.

Only three weeks remain until the opening of the 23rd edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and taking place in Wiesbaden and the surrounding region from 26 April to 2 May. A portion of the programme will also be available for online streaming in Germany in the scope of a collaboration with VoD platform Filmwerte.

The goEast Opening Film – AURORA’S SUNRISE

The 23rd edition of goEast opens with AURORA’S SUNRISE (Armenia, Germany, Lithuania, 2022). This creative forensic investigation from director Inna Sahakyan leads us back to the 1910s, when a nightmarish genocide was perpetrated against the Armenian people. The young Armenian Arshaluys Mardigian survived the mass murder and managed to emigrate to the USA, where she published her autobiography. The book was taken up in Hollywood in 1919 and adapted for the screen under the title AUCTION OF SOULS. This silent film relates Arshaluys Mardigian's struggle to survive and features Arshaluys herself in the leading role. The film was a box-office hit, though sadly only fragments have been preserved. Inna Sahakyan combines this archival material with animated sequences, reconstructing the story and bearing witness to the horrific events of the Armenian Genocide, a subject as relevant today as ever.

Films by Women about Women, Dramas, Documentary Films, Comedies and Portraits from Central and Eastern Europe – The Full Range of Diversity in the goEast Competition

The heart of the festival, the Competition section, encompasses an extensive programme and offers a wide audience from Wiesbaden and the surrounding area the opportunity to get to know highlights from the contemporary Central and Eastern European cinema scene. A five-member international jury presides over awards valued in total at 21,500 euros, while a dedicated FIPRESCI jury presents two International Film Critic's Awards. Especially coveted here is the "Golden Lily", the main award of the goEast Competition, endowed with 10,000 euros in prize money. The State Capital Wiesbaden also presents the Award for Best Director, endowed with 7,500 euros.

Following an opening film about one woman's fate, made by a woman, the Competition kicks off with NOT A THING (Veszélyes lehet a fagyi, Hungary, 2022) directed by Fanni Szilágyi. Adèl and Evá are identical twins that find themselves in sharply contrasting life situations, when their already tense sibling dynamic takes a turn for the even more dramatic. In Cristina Groșan's feministic sci-fi drama ORDINARY FAILURES (Běžná selhání, Czechia, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, 2022), the destinies of three women intersect as the world is about to end. In REMEMBER TO BLINK (Per arti, Lithuania, 2022) by Austėja Urbaitė, a French married couple preparing to adopt a pair of siblings from Lithuania resolves to hire Lithuanian university student Gabriele to interpret for and support the children in their acclimation phase – the result is a compelling, psychologically profound drama. Siniša Cvetić's THE BEHEADING OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (Usekovanje, Serbia, 2022) is also a turbulent and dramatic affair: UFOs, parallel universes, alcohol consumption, intergenerational conflicts and drugs collide during an evening meal with the whole family at mom and dad's place during the pandemic. Marko Šantić's WAKE ME (Zbudi me, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, 2022) is another socially critical drama. Following an accident, Rok suffers from temporary memory loss and no longer even recognises his girlfriend, Rina. He can only recall his hometown, and his former home there. After returning and being met with a chilly reception, Rok gradually begins to piece together his past, as memories of his xenophobic gang of friends, manipulation and violence come flooding back. The documentary portrait of society MOTHERLAND (Mutterland, Sweden, Ukraine, Norway, 2022), directed by Alexander Mihalkovich and Hanna Badziaka from Belarus, was pitched for the first time in 2019 at the East-West Talent Lab, where it won the Renovabis Research Grant for documentary films with a human rights focus. Belarusian mother Svetlana doesn't believe that her son committed suicide while completing his military service, as the official version has it. She fights to hold her son's murderers accountable, and to put an end to the Belarusian army's vicious hazing practices that claimed her son's life. Not long after, demonstrations following the re-election of Alexander Lukashenka begin, with their accompanying brutal repression by the authorities. The coming-of-age-in-war documentary WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY (My ne zgasniemo, Ukraine, France, Poland, 2023), directed by Alisa Kovalenko, follows a group of adolescents growing up in Donbas. The noise of machine gun fire is just as much a part of everyday life for the group of friends as the common question of what comes after graduation. A question with an especially bitter aftertaste, with perspectives in their home country so limited and the war destroying places that once provided a sense of comfort and familiarity. Their hopes and dreams are indestructible, however. With her film HOME GAMES, Alisa Kovalenko previously won the Award for Cultural Diversity at goEast in 2019.

Two films from Central Asia occupy a special place in the Competition programme. Memory loss is also an issue in the portrait of Kirghiz society THIS IS WHAT I REMEMBER (Esimde, Kirghizstan, Japan, The Netherlands, France, 2022) from veteran filmmaker Aktan Arym Kubat. Zarlyk, a man once considered missing, returns to Kirghizstan after 20 years of labouring as a "guest worker" in Russia. Suffering from amnesia, Zarlyk is unable to relate to his family. Stoic and silent, he does the only thing that has remained in his recollection: liberating the village streets from rubbish. The trauma from guest work, the opposing forces in a post-Soviet village community and a family's attempt to reunite in spite of multiple ruptures are all depicted with a steady hand. With his revenge-Western GOLIATH (Kazakhstan, 2022), director and regular goEast guest Adilkhan Yerzhanov takes us back again to Karatas: the village in the middle of nowhere in Kazakhstan where many of Yerzhanov's stories have previously been set. Here unscrupulous gangster boss Poshaev calls the shots. Yerzhanov's retelling of the "David versus Goliath" trope unfolds deliberately with an eye to the universal.

Genre film is also present beyond the work of Adilkhan Yerzhanov. First, there is the Ukrainian film noir outing LA PALISIADA (Ukraine, 2023) by Philip Sotnychenko, which tells the tale of Aisel and Kiril, two kids growing up in the mid-'90s within highly patriarchal structures. Their fathers, both police officers, are investigating a murder. Alas, in their haste to present a perpetrator to the public, the detectives subvert the law. Then there's Nenad Pavlović's conspiracy thriller TRAIL OF THE BEAST (Trag divljači, Serbia, 2022), set in Belgrade in 1979. Here, the budding journalist Jugoslav Bucilo begins to research the case of the former student leader Aljoša Josić, who is considered a missing person. His efforts end up entangling him in a murder case, in which both Aljoša himself and his father Blagoje – a senior intelligence agency official, played by cult actor Miki Manojlović – appear to be involved. In the scope of this year's archive presentation, we will also be showing a film by Nenad Pavlović's father Živojin, FAREWELL UNTIL THE NEXT WAR (Nasvidenje v naslednji vojni, Yugoslavia, 1980). TRAIL OF THE BEAST can also be read as an homage to the work of the father.

With JANUARY (Janvāris, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, 2022), director Viesturs Kairišs takes the audience back to the Baltic region in the year 1991, as Soviet special forces units are tasked with trying to repress the movement for Baltic independence. POLISH PRAYERS (Switzerland, Poland, 2022), director Hanka Nobis' documentary film debut, is a paradoxical portrait. For four years, she accompanies Antek, a young man deeply embedded in a highly religious and conservative family in today's Poland whose life is shaped by Catholicism, nationalism and a patriarchal conception of masculinity. The film not only provides insight into the inner turmoil of a young individual – it also reveals a deep rift at the heart of Polish society. The powerful montage film MANIFESTO (Russia, 2022), directed by Angie Vinchito (a pseudonym, employed to protect the identity of the Russian filmmaker), shows the violence that characterises the school system and everyday life in Russia, as seen from the perspective of school children and adolescents. Composed of YouTube and mobile phone videos, the film illustrates systematic brutality against young people.

The documentary film FLOTACIJA (Serbia, 2023), a work full of magical realism, is celebrating its international premiere in Wiesbaden. In the Eastern Serbian town of Majdanpek, co-directors Alessandra Tatić and Eluned Zoë Aiano record the collision between magic and economic crisis. FLOTACIJA also began its journey at Wiesbaden's East-West Talent Lab.

Last but not least: in the brilliant comedy PARADE (Paradas, Lithuania, 2022), director Titas Laucius stages a wily match against a church tribunal. When Miglė's youth brass ensemble is tapped to take part in a municipal parade, unlucky occurrences start to pile up in the life of the tough band director: her daughter causes a boy to knock out a tooth with his own trumpet, before revealing that she would rather devote herself to capoeira rather than pursuing music. As if that weren't enough, Miglė's ex-husband informs the family that his mother has passed and asks Miglė to petition a Catholic court to have their marriage annulled. 

Bioscope: Deep Cinematic Cuts from Central and Eastern Europe

In a space beyond competition fever and the need to present premieres, the Bioscope section promises unique cinematic experiences and highlights from the festival circuit. On offer here: a broad spectrum of current film productions from Central and Eastern Europe, showcasing the region's full artistic and thematic range – from diverse genre films to experimental works. In the multi-award-winning MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH MARRIAGE (Latvia, USA, Luxemburg, 2022), Signe Baumane uses copious humour and emotion as she traces the stages of protagonist Zelma's emancipation in her signature animation style, with a personal and forgiving touch. Berlinale award-winner Radu Jude, a familiar face at goEast, is on board here too. His most recent short films have been collected for the first time in CINEMA ALMANAC (Almanah Cinema: Șase filme scurte de Radu Jude, Romania, 2022), which reflects his curiosity for a variety of subjects and formal approaches. THE HAMLET SYNDROME (Das Hamlet-Syndrom, Poland, Germany, 2022), directed by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski, follows the theatre rehearsals of a group of five young Ukrainians processing their experiences of war in a reinterpretation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet". The directorial duo will also be giving a public master class about their cinematic practice at goEast. The family portrait FRAGILE MEMORY (Ukraine, 2022) from director Igor Ivankov takes us back into the filmic past of his grandfather Leonid Burlaka, who worked as a cameraman at Odesa Film Studio. While Igor is busy discovering his grandfather's oeuvre through a pile of film reels found in a garage, the elder man's memory is increasingly fading due to dementia. The psychological Christmas grotesque THE UNCLE (Stric, Croatia, Serbia, 2022), directed by David Kapac and Andrija Mardešić, is set in Yugoslavia in the late 1980s. Miki Manojlović shines in the title role as a nasty uncle. Finally, the section features a true venerable cinema master in the person of Jerzy Skolimowski, with EO (IO, Poland, Italy, 2022), his compelling homage to Robert Bresson's 1966 classic AU HASARD BALTHAZAR. 

Short film enthusiasts can look forward to a wild programme on the big screen too: the Anarcho Shorts. "Live, laugh, love" is this year's motto for the annual collection of colourful, unconventional films.

"Meet the Activists, illustrators_native" Exhibition, Rhine River Boat Trip with Poets and Thinkers on May Day and Party Trilogy

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a new national consciousness and a decolonial discourse have arisen among the indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities living under the Russian Federation. This has been linked to new protest movements against the war and against systemic racism in Russian society. These developments will be the topic of a goEast panel discussion featuring Alexandra Garmazhapova, founder of the Free Buryatia Foundation, and author and activist of the Asians of Russia and Free Tuva movements Dankhaiaa Khovalyg, from Siberia's Tuva Republic. Further participants include Seseg Jigjitova and Rinchina Azheeva from the Republic of Buryatia, who founded the collective "illustrators_native" at the beginning of 2023. The project aims to create a supportive and inspiring community for diverse illustrators from indigenous populations in Russia and to present works by illustrators devoted to the depiction and rethinking of their native cultures and stories. A selection of these works – from graphic novels to textile art all the way to video installations – will be on display in the exhibition room of Murnau-Filmtheater during the festival week.

For May 1st, goEast has rented a traditional Rhine cruise ship and is extending a warm invitation to embark on a boat trip featuring special festival guests. While the idyllic landscapes of the Rheingau pass by on the riverside, short readings and poetry performances will provide intellectual stimulation. Selected filmmakers will be reading from the works of their favourite authors, with translation. The Wiesbaden author Alexander Pfeiffer will moderate. Meeting point and time: 1 May at 13:30, departing from the mooring at Rheingaustraße 148, 65203 Wiesbaden-Biebrich.

goEast fully intends to catch up on partying too, after a range of events had to be called off, mostly due to the pandemic, over the last three-and-a-half turbulent years. The fun kicks off with the goEast basement party room and DJ Janeck on 28 April at 23:00 in the new festival location at Altes Gericht. Estonian Funk Embassy will rock Kulturzentrum Schlachthof on Saturday, 29 April from 22:30. To go with the Hungarian-Estonian Space Age Animation film programme, the "Ambassadors of Funk", aka Henrik Ehte and his partner Ingvar "Indo" Kassuk, have been assigned to Wiesbaden to put the audience in a trance with funk, soul, disco and jazz treasures from Estonian artists of the '70s and '80s. The final party on 2 May gets going at 23:00 at Altes Gericht, with a colourful mix of Balkan beats, klezmer melodies and modern electro rhythms.

Accreditation

Members of the press can register here for accreditation for goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film. During the festival, accredited industry guests and members of the press will receive access to an online media library featuring the festival films. Accreditation is free of charge for members of the press who wish to report on the festival.

goEast Press Conference on 19 April 2023

The press conference will take place at Wiesbaden's Caligari FilmBühne as a live, in-person event on the morning of Wednesday, 19 April, starting at 11:00. We kindly ask that you register in advance to attend the event.

Introducing the Competition Jury

The festival team is delighted to reveal the members of the International Competition jury. Chairing the international goEast jury is prize-winning director, critic and festival curator Rada Šešić. Šešić grew up in former Yugoslavia and resides today in The Netherlands. She founded the documentary film competition at Sarajevo Film Festival, and is active as a curator for a range of other festivals. In addition, Šešić is a lecturer at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam and festival director at Eastern Neighbours Film Festival in The Hague. Šešić is joined on the jury by last year's Golden Lily award winner, Kaltrina Krasniqi from Kosovo. Krasniqi is a filmmaker and co-founder of the "Kosovo Oral History Initiative" and the cultural café "Dit’ e Nat’". Her debut film VERA DREAMS OF THE SEA celebrated its premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival and went on to win numerous further international prizes last year in addition to the Golden Lily in Wiesbaden. Director Mikhail Borodin was born in Uzbekistan. His fiction-feature debut CONVENIENCE STORE celebrated its premiere at the 2022 Berlinale. He made an appearance in Wiesbaden the same year, at goEast, with his documentary film COTTON100%, which deals with forced labour in Uzbekistan. In 2022, he also co-founded the Tashkent Film School together with film producer Julia Shaginurova. In addition, he heads the production company SESTRA Films. Belarusian documentary filmmaker and trained cameraman Andrei Kutsila, whose film STRIP AND WAR celebrated its world premiere at goEast Film Festival in 2019, where it won the FIPRESCI Award, is also a member of this year's jury. In early 2023, Kutsila, who has lived in exile in Poland for a number of years, founded the Belarusian Independent Film Academy together with other independent filmmakers from Belarus. Finally, born in South Africa, Justine Waddell was previously active as an actress for a long period. These days, she works as a producer, and collaborates frequently with filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe. In 2021, with support from BFI-FAN Fund, she founded the online platform Klassiki, which offers a cinephile audience online access to an exclusive selection of first-class films from Eastern Europe, the Baltic states and Central Asia.

The goEast Press Conference 

Festival director Heleen Gerritsen presented the programme for goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film on Wednesday, 19 April, at a press conference hosted by Wiesbaden's Caligari FilmBühne. Taking place this year from Wednesday, 26 April, to Tuesday, 2 May, goEast features 110 films from 18 countries.  

Attendees can look forward to 16 German premieres, one international premiere and one world premiere. The film-historical sections, numerous lectures and a host of film talks also promise exciting cinema experiences, as does the second edition of the Cinema Archipelago supporting programme, which aims to create new spaces for the reception of cinema and audio-visual art forms. 

"The City of Wiesbaden is proud of the many lines, extending long into the past, that connect the city to Eastern Europe, which we have watched with great concern for more then a year now due to the war in Ukraine. So it is that I am even more pleased that we will soon be able to set a positive example once again with the 23rd edition of goEast Film Festival and experience a range of exciting films in the cinema that offer a look at the inhabitants of Central and Eastern European countries and their stories", observed Ellen M. Harrington, director of Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum – DFF.  "I would like to thank the City of Wiesbaden, where the DFF was founded more than 70 years ago, and Axel Imholz in particular, for the many years of extensive support that have made this festival possible", Harrington continued.  
In the goEast Competition, current film productions are vying for the festival's three main prizes, awarded by an international jury: the "Golden Lily" for Best Film, endowed with 10,000 euros in prize money; the Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director, endowed with 7,500 euros; and the newly created CEEOL Award for Best Documentary Film, endowed with 4,000 euros in prize money. In addition, a dedicated jury representing FIPRESCI is presenting two International Film Critic's Awards. 

As Heleen Gerritsen, goEast festival director since 2017, explained: "The 23rd edition of goEast starts off with a strong Competition and a selection of special film guests. Encountering Eastern Europe on an equal footing – that has been goEast's motto since the first edition of the festival. That means talking WITH Eastern Europe, and not just ABOUT Eastern Europe. In times of war and cultural misunderstandings, forums for dialogue like ours are more important than ever." 

Around 350 guests from the Central and Eastern European film industry are expected to attend the festival in Wiesbaden. It is a particularly special honour to welcome Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić, the subject of this year's Portrait section. In the scope of film talks and an extensive workshop conversation, Žbanić will provide insight into her considerable oeuvre. The Symposium "Decolonizing the (Post-) Soviet Screen" explores the end of the "post-Soviet" era: numerous film scholars and filmmakers from the post-Soviet space will be discussing diverse aspects of decolonization in the scope of lectures, panels and an accompanying film programme. 

Platforming and amplifying new, hitherto marginalised cinematic languages and voices from Central and Eastern Europe outside of dominant mainstream narratives has been among goEast's central missions since its inception in 2001. In this regard, this year's focus on (post-) Soviet cinema as seen through the "decolonizing lens" within the programme of Cinema Archipelago is not entirely novel. The war in Ukraine and the many heated discussions (in Germany as well) about how or whether to engage with Russian culture have made the topic relevant and debate necessary. Further sections like the Anarcho Shorts or the RheinMain Short Film Award programme feature short films from a wide range of genres. The archive presentation, dedicated this year to Ljubljana's Slovenska kinoteka, includes a screening of Živojin Pavlović's FAREWELL UNTIL THE NEXT WAR (Yugoslavia, 1980). The Matinee at Caligari FilmBühne on Sunday, 30 April, features a screening of GUARDIAN OF THE FRONTIER (France, Slovenia, Germany, 2002) by Maja Weiss. The Czech Institute of Documentary Film (IDF), which has been supporting creative documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe since 2001, is in the spotlight as well with a film programme that offers festivalgoers the chance to explore the "ani-doc" or animated documentary film genre. There will be an accompanying workshop for young people led by Prague-based duo Nazlı Kaya and Tomáš Doruška at Wiesbaden's Medienwerkstatt, where participants will have the opportunity to experiment with the animated documentary film genre themselves. 

Anna Schoeppe, CEO of HessenFilm, is especially enthusiastic about this year's edition: "As an established highlight in Hessen's cultural calendar, goEast brings contemporary cinema from Central and Eastern Europe to the Rhine-Main region. In doing so, goEast also conceives of film as a medium that fosters cultural dialogue and exchange: between filmmakers and audience, and between up-and-coming directors from East and West. I am looking forward to a programme that provides an opportunity to experience the diversity of Central and Eastern European culture in Wiesbaden!" 

For Axel Imholz, head of the State Capital of Wiesbaden's Cultural Department, goEast Film Festival is of particular relevance at the present moment. As he expressed the context: "Russia's attack, the immeasurable suffering and destruction in Ukraine, all that is still present, day in and day out. This means that a festival like goEast, which provides a platform to filmmakers and attendees from East and West, not only a cinematic one but one for dialogue too, remains more incredibly valuable than ever." 

Karin Wolff, managing director of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, which is sponsoring the innovative supporting programme Cinema Archipelago for the second time, sees the programme's mission as one of strengthening solidarity and understanding: "After a successful inaugural edition, the Cinema Archipelago supporting programme is back for another round at goEast. The festival, which is hosted by DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, is placing new medial forms of expression in its focus, while at the same time continuing to grapple with the impact of the sustained Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Artists from Hungary, Ukraine, Latvia, Belarus and many other Central and Eastern European nations who will be making guest appearances at this year's festival wish to demonstrate in widely varying areas how tense the current relationship is between their own respective cultures and Russian culture, as well as the immense individuality that can be discovered in their own cultural scenes. Attendees can look forward to a multi-faceted programme consisting of classic and new formats. We are very excited about this year's festival and wish everyone great success!" 

The newly designed festival website has already gone live and the full programme is also available online. goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film kicks off for the 23rd time on 26 April – with a festive screening of the opening film AURORA’S SUNRISE (Armenia, Germany, Lithuania, 2022) from Armenian director Inna Sahakyanin at Wiesbaden's Caligari FilmBühne.  

You can find images related to the festival in our download section. 
The full program for the 23rd edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is currently available online. 

THE AWARDS

REMEMBER TO BLINK (Per arti, Lithuania, 2022, directed by Austėja Urbaitė, produced by Živile Gallego) won the Golden Lily, endowed with prize money in the amount of 10,000 euros, at the 23rd edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film in Wiesbaden. In this psychological drama, Jacqueline and Leon, a French couple, are faced with challenges after the adoption of a pair of siblings from Lithuania. When they hire a Lithuanian college student to help the kids acclimate to their new surroundings, the domestic atmosphere becomes increasingly tense. The members of the international jury, led by Rada Šešić, explained their selection thusly in a statement: "This film re-examines adoption and motherhood through complex power dynamics between two women and ideas of East and West, reminding us that the colonial practices we have inherited often resurface to affect contemporary life."

The award ceremony at Caligari FilmBühne formed the grand finale for an emotional and eventful festival week at goEast. After seven days full of cinematic art, virtual reality, workshops, numerous discussions, lectures, film talks and exhibitions, featuring screenings of 110 films and with more than 350 guests from the international film industry present in Wiesbaden, the winning films of the Competition, the East-West Talent Lab and the Work-in-Progress Competition were honoured and presented with prizes valued at a total of 27,500 euros.

Director Titas Laucius won the Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director (endowed with 7,500 euros) for his film PARADE (Lithuania, 2022), a black comedy revolving around a brass band and a run of bad luck in the life of its director. The jury praised the film thusly: "A remarkably confident debut, with an acute sense of the humour to be found in failed relationships, and the institutional rules that bind people together, and a phenomenal lead female performance by Rasa Samuolyte."

WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY (Ukraine, France, Poland, 2023) by director Alisa Kovalenko was honoured with the CEEOL Award for Best Documentary Film (4,000 euros), presented for the second time by the Central and Eastern European Online Library. The coming-of-age-in-war documentary follows a group of adolescents growing up in Donbass who dream of travelling to the Himalayas. The jury observed: "Bringing to the screen the vivid dreams and ambitions of small-town teenagers caught in a brutal environment of dashed hopes and trapped lives, this cinéma vérité documentary shows a remarkable ability to engage with, understand, and bring close to us their stories and aspirations."

A Special Mention went to THIS IS WHAT I REMEMBER (Kirgizstan, Japan, The Netherlands, France, 2022) by Aktan Arym Kubat. This portrait of a society that centres on a guest worker suffering from memory loss is set in a post-Soviet reality. In the words of the jury: "A seemingly silent yet visually powerful film that roars from within, touching on the power of love in the divine sense to revive waning social values, traditional roots, with a keen sense of the engulfing environmental crisis and beautiful lead performances by both the director and his son."

The FIPRESCI International Critic's Award in the fiction feature category went to REMEMBER TO BLINK (Lithuania, 2022) by director Austėja Urbaitė. The jury explained their selection was "(f)or the careful and intense way of describing a delicate subject as the fulfilment of female desire for motherhood and family. The film dramatically deals with the confrontation between cultures and the problems of international child adoptions."

In the documentary film category, the FIPRESCI jury, consisting of Davide Magnisi, Živa Emeršič and Tina Waldeck, chose to honour MOTHERLAND (Mutterland, Sweden, Ukraine, Norway, 2022) from the directorial duo of Alexander Mihalkovich and Hanna Badziaka. The film was notable, in the jury's own words, "(f)or the brave revealing of the violence and corruption in the Belarusian Army through the story of mothers trying to bring the culprits to justice. Regardless of the failure of their attempts, the film brings a strong message of the power of humanity and resistance."

A Special Mention in the RheinMain Short Film Award section, supported by Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain went to ARALKUM (Uzbekistan, 2022) by Daniel Asadi Faezi and Mila Zhluktenko. The jury explained their selection with the following statement: "A poetic journey into the land of dried-up life which reminds us of the horrific consequences of human greed. With powerful, aesthetic images, the filmmakers have succeeded in creating a moving warning about the irreversible destruction of nature."

The main RheinMain Short Film Award went to NO NATION WITHOUT CULTURE (KEINE NATION OHNE KULTUR, Chechnya, 2022) by Vladlena Sandu. According to the jury: “With clear and precise images, the director brings impressive observations from a nearly forgotten city out into the world – rendering the destruction of a culture's soul visible. A timely scream from a society that has been silenced."

In the East-West Talent Lab, made possible with the generous support of Renovabis and the Goethe Institute, the Project Market Pitch took place in front of a three-member jury. "We love the energy of your project and are happy to announce that: The Pitch-the-Doc Award goes to ASHES TO ASHES, DUST TO SIDE CHICKS (Kazakhstan) by Intizor Otaniyozaova", the jury shared, adding: "Empowered by Beyonce the director goes on a quest to trace the mosaic of her ancestry and to reclaim herself and her voice. She takes us on the road from the Eastern border of Kazakhstan to the Western border of Uzbekistan and through her eyes we will experience the complexity of the region. The discoveries on her journey will impact her own growth."

THE SIGH OF MEMORY (Kirghizstan) by Gulzat Egemberdieva received the Renovabis Research Grant for Projects with a Human Rights Focus (3,500 euros). According to the jury: "With the Renovabis Research Grant – and 3,500 euros – we would like to support a filmmaker still at the very beginning of her latest film.  We look much forward to Gulzat Egemberdieva tracing the story of the opium trade in Central Asia from the early Soviet times until today.  Gulzat grew up in a region where opium farming had a big impact for decades that was hardly addressed. Told with a unique perspective and with exceptional access, The Sigh of Memory turns to the past to understand how this problem still reverberates in the present."

Every year since the very first edition of the festival, goEast media partner 3sat has awarded one film from the programme with a television broadcast package. In 2023, this honour goes to an entry in the Competition: the Latvian fiction feature JANUARY (Janvāris, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, 2022), with the words: "The strength of Viesturs Kairišs' film lies in its understated intricacy. It unfolds from a young man's unsure search for his purpose in his relationships and his artistic ambitions into a powerful, expressive description of the Latvian struggle for independence in 1991. The instances where private behaviour (between opportunism and protest), moral integrity and political action intersect are made visible, as well as their contradictions, subtly illuminating the present moment to a degree, in the tradition of Krzysztof Kieślowski, though without providing easy answers. From a formal point of view, the film plays adeptly with various analogue image formats and archival material, while impressively recalling the significance of Latvian filmmakers like Juris Podnieks and Andris Slapinš and their part as artists in the struggle for independence and democracy." The film is slated to celebrate its television premiere on 3sat on the occasion of the 2024 edition of goEast.

The 23rd edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film took place in Wiesbaden, Germany, from 26 April to 2 May. In addition to a multifaceted Competition section and intensive encounters in the cinema, this year's festival highlights included guest appearances by internationally celebrated filmmakers such as Radu Jud, and the Portrait of Jasmila Žbanić, with the director in attendance. The Symposium, which took place under the title "Decolonizing the (Post)- Soviet Screen", was met with a very high degree of enthusiastic participation by guests from Germany and abroad. With Cinema Archipelago, a supporting programme extending beyond the traditional cinema experience, the festival explored new medial territory for the second time, with the generous support of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, enabling, among other things, a successful exhibition under the title ILLUSTRATORS_NATIVE and panel discussions treating indigenous activism in the former Soviet republics.

Here is a full overview of all of this year's award winners:

1. Golden Lily for Best Film

REMEMBER TO BLINK (PER ARTI, Lithuania, 2022, directed by Austėja Urbaitė, produced by Živile Gallego)

2. Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director

PARADE (PARADAS, Lithuania, 2022, directed by Titus Lucius)

3.CEEOL Award for Best Documentary Film

WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY (MY NE ZGASNIEMO, Ukraine, France, Poland, 2023, directed by Alisa Kovalenko)

4. Special Mention of the International Jury

THIS IS WHAT I REMEMBER (ESIMDE, Kirgizstan, Japan, The Netherlands, France, 2022, directed by Aktan Arym Kubat)

5. FIPRESCI International Film Critic's Award (fiction feature) 

REMEMBER TO BLINK (PER ARTI, Lithuania, 2022, directed by Austėja Urbaitė)

6. FIPRESCI International Film Critic's Award (documentary film) 

MOTHERLAND (MUTTERLAND, Sweden, Ukraine, Norway, 2022, directed by Aleksander Mihalkovich and Hanna Badziaka)

7. Special Mention RheinMain Short Film Award

ARALKUM (Uzbekistan, 2022, directed by Daniel Asadi Faezi and Mila Zhluktenko)

8. RheinMain Short Film Award 

NO NATION WITHOUT CULTURE (Chechnya,2022, directed by Vladlena Sandu)

9. Pitch-the-Doc Award

ASHES TO ASHES, DUST TO SIDE CHICKS (Kazakhstan, directed by Intizor Otaniyozaova)

10. Renovabis Research Grant

THE SIGH OF MEMORY (Kirgizstan, directed by Gulzat Egemberdieva)

11. 3sat Broadcast Selection

JANUARY (Janvāris, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, 2022, directed by Viesturs Kairišs)

Every year since 2001, goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, transforms the Hessian state capital of Wiesbaden into one of the most internationally significant platforms for cinema from Central and Eastern Europe. With its program consisting of film screenings and accompanying events, goEast's reach extends beyond regional audiences – to communities with histories of migration from Eastern Europe and industry guests from the international film sector alike. The film festival showcases current cinematic art from Central and Eastern Europe and provides a platform for discussing urgent social and political issues. In the scope of film-historical programs, goEast renders the cinema heritage of Central and Eastern Europe visible, often in collaboration with archives from Germany and abroad. These diverse series are carefully assembled by qualified guest curators and cinema professionals. In the scope of the goEast Symposium, film scholarship meets the film industry, while the Competition features screenings of contemporary cinema from Central and Eastern Europe, with the filmmakers in attendance. The sidebar program provides space for video art, digital audio-visual formats and VR, while the East-West Talent Lab offers active support for up-and-coming film professionals from Central and Eastern Europe. Moreover, goEast also functions as a place where film guests can expand their networks and enter into dialogue with one another, and as a platform for the discussion of current socio-political topics. 

Cost-Saving Measures

The start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine just under two years ago marked a historical turning point that has also resulted in financial consequences for goEast. In light of continually increasing costs and despite the unchanged, sustained level of support and funding from HessenFilm & Medien GmbH, the State Capital Wiesbaden and Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, goEast finds itself forced to curtail its programming radically in 2024. In addition, goEast must reduce the number of film guests invited to participate in the festival by nearly half.

In the words of Festival Director Heleen Gerritsen: "goEast's focus region remains enormously relevant. Instead of cutting staff or particularly cost-intensive historical programs such as the Symposium, we were left with no choice this year but to eliminate three central programming elements entirely – namely the traditional Homage section, the Bioscope program and our VR/XR program. Insider knowledge of Eastern Europe, highly specialised expertise and technical know-how are indispensable for goEast. In spite of all this, we hope the festival is received enthusiastically by our audience and that we may see extra ticket sales that make it clear that this festival, with its large range of programming, is both relevant and appreciated."

Naturally, in spite of the cuts, the goEast team, along with its guest curators, is highly motivated to assemble this year’s festival program. From 24 to 30 April 2024, goEast is delighted to welcome audiences both new and old to Wiesbaden to discover Central and Eastern European cinema through film screenings, film talks and encounters with filmmakers.

Symposium: "The Other Queers – Cinematic Images from the Periphery of Europe"

In the annual Symposium section, goEast has devoted itself since 2001 to exploring topics, regions and currents in Central and Eastern European cinema from film-historical, sociological and political perspectives. As part of the Cinema Archipelago series, the program in 2024 is made possible again with the generous support of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain. 

In 2023, under the title "Decolonizing the (Post-)Soviet Screen" the Symposium set a new record for attendance. More than 3,000 industry guests and experts from Germany and abroad turned out for the events and film screenings. For 2024, co-curators Jasmina Šepetavc (University of Ljubljana, LGBT Film Festival Ljubljana, Slovenia) and Yulia Serdyukova (Filma - Feminist Film Festival Kyiv / Yutopia Films, Ukraine) are gathering film scholars, activists, filmmakers, student groups and colleagues from other festivals with a focus on queer cinema at Museum Wiesbaden under the programmatic title "The Other Queers". Discussion panels and lectures by renowned scolars like Nebojša Jovanović, Katja Čičigoj and others provide the theoretical framework of the event.

From a global perspective, the discussion about queer film history is still disproportionately focussed on Western film images. The typical discourse about queerness implies a rather receptive West and a homophobic Eastern Europe and reinforces the notion that the West has undergone a linear development towards more tolerance, acceptance and public visibility for LGBTQ+ individuals and issues, while the East "lags behind" due to its past. This conception of a homophobic past followed by a liberal attitude towards queerness after the events of 1989/90 is often inaccurate. Among other things, the films of the Symposium present Eastern European images of LGBTQ+ existence (in particular that of gay men and lesbians) that often stood in an ambivalent relation to public attitudes regarding homosexuality.

Since its inception, goEast Film Festival's central missions have included the platforming and amplification of marginalised cinematic languages and voices from Central and Eastern Europe beyond dominant mainstream narratives. This also comes to bear in the 2024 Symposium. The film program consists of historical and contemporary works, including the feature-length films FIVE MINUTES OF PARADISE (Yugoslavia, 1959) by Igor Pretnar, DUBRAVKA (Ukrainian SSR, 1967) by Radomir Vasilevsky, KILL ME GENTLY (Yugoslavia, 1979) by Boštjan Hladnik and A SEVERE YOUNG MAN (Soviet Union, 1935) by Abram Room. The program will be complemented by diverse short film programs: including Queers and Subversive Cinema from Ukraine, a program featuring short films from Central Asia and the Caucasus curated by the artists' collective krёlex zentre from Kazakhstan, Queer Feminist Porn Shorts and short films from former Yugoslavia.krёlex zentre will also open the overall program with a performance at Murnau-Filmtheater. In addition, the section includes a music video compilation featuring pioneering works from Eastern Europe's queer, alternative scene produced between 1985 and 1999, assembled by film researcher and music editor Natalie Gravenor.

Call for Submissions Still Open for East-West Talent Lab (Deadline: 27 February)

The East-West Talent Lab has firmly established itself within the international film industry. Former participants Aleksander Mihalkovich and Hanna Badziaka from Belarus have even gone on to receive nominations for the European Film Award for their film MOTHERLAND. Three East-West Talent Lab-alumni have films in this year's Berlinale Forum program: producer Michael Kalb with SHAHID, producer Thomas Kaske with THE NIGHTS STILL SMELL OF GUNPOWDER and producer Ewelina Rosinska with WHAT DID YOU DREAM LAST NIGHT, PARAJANOV? In 2024, goEast is once again supporting emerging filmmakers and up-and-coming producers from Central and Eastern Europe, by connecting them with one another and with peers from Hessen and the rest of Germany.  The emphasis of this year's program, coordinated by Andrea Wink, once again lies on documentary formats. From now until 27 February 2024, filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe can submit their project ideas in development. Producers from Central and Eastern Europe as well as Germany without a current project can also apply to participate in the East-West Talent Lab. In 2024, the Lab will once again feature two awards: the Renovabis Research Grant, endowed with 3,500 euros, for a documentary film project treating human rights and/or minority rights, and the Pitch-the-Doc Award, featuring a training package for the support of project development, valued at 500 euros. Participants can look forward to a full five-day program consisting of a masterclass, workshops, the goEast Human Rights Sunday and opportunities to network with television editors and funding institutions, as well as diverse film screenings.

goEast Opening Film – CROSSING

The 24th edition of goEast will open with a screening of the Georgian-Turkish road movie CROSSING (SWE/DNK/FRA/TUR/GEO 2024), in the presence of director Levan Akin, whose previous film AND THEN WE DANCED delighted international audiences, including German cinemagoers. With his new film CROSSING, Akin transcends borders and brings human beings from very different backgrounds together. Retired Lia, from the Georgian port city of Batumi, sets off with adolescent Achi to look for Lia's missing niece Tekla. They are joined in their search by Evrim, a young female lawyer for trans rights in Istanbul, as a hidden web of solidarity and humanity reveals itself in the back courtyards and streets of the glistening Turkish city.

First Competition Films

Also hailing from Georgia is the allegorical religious satire CITIZEN SAINT/ MOKALAKE TSMINDANI (GEO/FRA/BGR, 2023), directed by Tinatin Kajrishvili, who will be vying for the Golden Lily in this year's Competition section. In the desolate mountain landscape of Georgia there stands a cross with a petrified miner, who is worshiped as a saint by individuals from far and wide. When the stony pitman is scheduled to undergo a little restoration at a local museum, he suddenly vanishes – in his place, a mute stranger appears, and soon proceeds to work miracles.  While the villagers initially react sympathetically to this saint incarnate, fear gradually gains the upper hand – what will happen if the holy man begins to speak and opts to divulge the intimate wishes and private prayers that have been entrusted to him? In brilliant black-and-white images composed by cameraman Krum Rodriguez, the film humorously examines the absurdity inherent in the cult-like veneration paid to saints.

This year's Competition also features the dark-humoured Serbian grotesque WORKING CLASS GOES TO HELL / RADNIČKA KLASA IDE U PAKAO (SRB/GRC/BGR/MNE/HRV/ROU, 2023), directed by Mladen Đorđević. The working class strikes back quite literally here. After a 13-year absence and a stint in prison, Miya returns from Belgrade to his small Serbian hometown. There, he joins a group of former workers whose family members lost their lives in a factory fire five years previously. Led by fearless Ceca, the association demands justice and accountability from the corrupt mayor, the factory owner and the local organised crime boss, a trifecta that rules over life in the small town. To achieve their aims, the comrades resort to increasingly drastic tactics, and – inspired by Miya, who claims to be a medium – to satanic rituals and violence as well. Mladen Đorđević will be on hand in Wiesbaden to present his film.

More details regarding the Competition selection will be revealed in early April.

RheinMain Short Film Award – Decolonizing the Post-Soviet Screen

For the fifth year running, goEast is proud to present the RheinMain Short Film Award, endowed with 2,500 euros in prize money and made possible once again with the generous support of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain. A three-member regional festival jury will select the winning film. Taking up the theme of the 2023 Symposium, the program, curated by Maxim Tuula, will focus once again on filmmakers from the post-Soviet space.

The drama THE LATE WIND (KAZ, 2023), directed by Shugyla Serzhan, deals with a young pregnant Kazakh woman whose partner disappears when the city is overrun by protests. AlisiTelengut's animation BAIGAL NUUR - LAKE BAIKAL (DEU/CDN, 2023), which tells of the formation and history of the eponymous body of water in Siberia, features the voice of a Buriatian woman speaking a language threatened with extinction. In the documentary CHORNOBYL 22 (UKR, 2023), Oleksiy Radynski mixes covert mobile phone recordings of the Russian conquest of the area around Chernobyl with statements from local residents and employees of the former power plant.

Karakalpakstan is a remote region in Uzbekistan which is striving for independence. Mirtemir lives in Nukus, the capital city. MIRTEMIR IS ALRIGHT, directed by goEast alumni Sasha Kulak and Mikhail Borodin, is a witty portrait of a teenager attempting to make the best of an impossible situation – all while still managing to be nice to his grandma. In QIRIM (CZE, 2023), director Kateryna Khramtsova takes a look at a non-binary person's participation in the activities of the Crimean Tatars and the Euromaidan protests – in the process proving that she is definitely not afraid to experiment. 

The filmmakers will be present in Wiesbaden. Following the festival, the short film program will tour the cinemas of the Rhine-Main region.

Co-operations with ZDF/ARTE: ArteKino Classics at the Sunday Matinee & New Voices from Central Asia

As an institution for film heritage and a member of the international archive association FIAF, the preservation, digitalisation and presentation of film heritage are at the centre of the activities of DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum – the institution behind goEast. In this connection, it makes perfect sense that the 2024 edition of the goEast Matinee is taking place in co-operation with ArteKino Classics. Under the label ArteKino Classics, ARTE is again presenting a selection of classic European films across the entire continent that are canonical for their countries of origin and represent milestones in the evolution of cinematic storytelling.

Zoltán Fábri's MERRY-GO-ROUND / KÖRHINTA, presented here in a newly restored version, is the special Matinee feature on Sunday, 28 April, starting at 11:00 am at Caligari FilmBühne. MERRY-GO-ROUND, one of the most famous films in Hungarian cinema history, celebrated its world premiere in Cannes in 1956, a decisive year in Hungary's past, just months before Soviet tanks rolled through the streets of Budapest. The unusual, unbound camerawork and the performance by the very young female lead Mari Törőcsik made this film, which has since become a classic, one of the most highly touted productions at the 9th Cannes International Film Festival. In the film, Mari Pataki, the daughter of an affluent farmer, falls in love with the young co-operative member Máté Biró. However, her father has other plans for her: following the principle "land marries land", he has chosen the owner of a large farm to be his future son-in-law. At a village festival, the young lovers delight in the intoxicating charms of the eponymous swing carousel – alas for Mari there is still no way out of marrying the rich farmer. At the wedding, Máté causes a scandal when he dances a seemingly endless czardas with the bride. In the end, both love and the Stalinist ideals of the era manage to win out.

The film will be presented by Hungarian-German actress Dorka Gryllus, with an introduction from Györgi Raduly, director of the Hungarian National Film Institute – Film Archive. Following the screening, there will be a reception in the Caligari FilmBühne foyer. 

This year also features a co-operation with the ZDF/ARTE's "Kurzschluss" short film program. In Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan and Uzbekistan, the film industry reinvents itself time and again. Beyond the realm of the great Soviet studios like Kazakhfilm and the well-worn scenic tropes of mountain and steppe landscapes, new film schools are opening their doors, and artists are organising and connecting in collectives. goEast is showing a small but exquisite program of fiction and documentary films from this vibrant region. A portion of the films will be broadcast in 2025 in the scope of the ZDF/ARTE "Kurzschluss" series, and the program will also be screened in June 2024 at Kurzfilmfestival Hamburg.

Rhine, Wine & Rhymez: Riverboat Outing Featuring Eastern European Poetry

Somewhat outside the realm of cinema and competition fever, a riverboat outing on the Rhine featuring poets and thinkers, under the slogan "Rhine, Wine & Rhymez", is set to offer some welcome variety for the second time, as a pleasant contrast to the film program. Actresses Ilinca Manolache (Romania), Dorka Gryllus (Hungary/Germany) and Mateja Meded (former Yugoslavia/Germany) along with filmmakers  Mladen Đorđević (Serbia) and Aizhan Kassymbek (Kazakhstan) will be reading in their native languages and talking about all things cinema with Wiesbaden-based author Alexander Pfeiffer. The recited poems will be translated live into English.

goEast organised a similar boat outing for the festival audience during the previous year's festival edition. Following the readings, there will be ample opportunity to relax with a glass of wine and enter into conversation with the filmmakers.

The boat casts off on Saturday, 27 April, at 2:30 pm, from the landing at Rheingaustraße 148, 65203 Wiesbaden-Biebrich.

Accreditation and goEast Press Conference

Members of the press can apply now here for accreditation for goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film. Accreditation grants admission to the film screenings in Wiesbaden, Darmstadt and Gießen. In addition, during the festival period accredited industry guests and members of the press receive access to an online media library featuring an extensive selection of festival programming.

goEast 2024: Awards

In just two weeks, it's that time again: on Wednesday, 24 April 2024, the 24th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film gets underway. Prizes with a total value of 21,500 euros are waiting to be matched with winning films. Particularly coveted here is the main prize in the Competition section, the "Golden Lily" for Best Film (endowed with 10,000 euros). In addition, the State Capital of Wiesbaden presents the Award for Best Director (endowed with 7,500 euros in prize money). Finally, the CEEOL Award for Best Documentary Film is endowed with 4,000 euros. A dedicated three-member jury representing FIPRESCI presents two International Film Critic's Awards. And the jury of the East-West Talent Lab also honours exceptional projects from Lab participants.

Dramas, Documentaries, Comedies, Satire and Portraits from the East and Middle of Europe – The Full Range of Diversity in the goEast Competition Section

The centrepiece of the festival is the Competition, which offers a broad audience from Wiesbaden and the surrounding area the opportunity to become closely acquainted with highlights of contemporary Central and Eastern European cinema. In 16 feature-length fiction and documentary films, the audience witnesses the great conflicts of our era, such as armed confrontations, oppression, corruption and anti-Semitism, though many of the films also revolve around efforts to break free from encrusted structures, both in the family and in society at large. The most brilliant productions of the past two years grace Wiesbaden's cinema screens for one full week, while film talks following the screenings give attendees the opportunity to ask their questions.

Following the festival opening, which features a screening (out of competition) of the Georgian co-production CROSSING, SMILING GEORGIA (GEO/DEU, 2023), directed by Georgian filmmaker Luka Beradze, serves as an absurd historical document, taking viewers back in time to 2012, when President Mikheil Saakashvili promised free dentures for the dentally challenged during an election campaign. The rural population took him at his word, crowding dental practices to have their rotten teeth pulled – only to see Saakashvili's party lose the election in the end.

Olga Chernykh's essay-like multi-generational portrait A PICTURE TO REMEMBER / FOTO NA PAMYAT (UKR/FRA/DEU, 2023) opened the 2023 edition of IDFA, one of the most important festivals for documentary film world-wide, and is now celebrating its German premiere at goEast, which Chernykh is scheduled to attend. The Donetsk native employs sound and visual recordings of Ukraine's disturbing present shaped by war, poetically juxtaposed with materials from three generations drawn from her own family archive.

Dmitrii Davydov's Sibirian drama PLAGUE / CHUMA (RU-SA, 2023) is celebrating its international premiere. Rough customs dominate the daily life of a village in the Siberian Republic of Sakha, where conflicts are typically resolved with violence. Ivan, a widower, can't seem to keep himself from getting pushed around by the other villagers, which gradually causes his son Taras to lose all respect for him.

Askhat Kuchinchirekov's coming-of-age drama BAURYNA SALU (KAZ, 2023) tells the moving story of Yersultan, who, in accordance with local tribal tradition, is given to his grandmother after birth so that she may raise him. His life takes a painful turn when she passes away: now Yersultan must return to a family for whom he has next to no feelings. The director, who incorporated and processed his own similar childhood experiences in the film, will be on hand in Wiesbaden.

In the intimate family documentary 1489 (ARM, 2023), directed by Shoghakat Vardanyan, towards the end of his military service the filmmaker's brother Soghomon vanishes while on a mission in Nagorno-Karabakh during the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Desperate for news, the family attempts to regain contact with him. In these moments of helplessness, Vardanyan takes out her camera and films her shared everyday life with her parents. Vardanyan, who won the main prize at IDFA in Amsterdam for her debut outing, will also be attending the festival.

In the pastoral social drama STEPNE (UKR/DEU/POL/SVK, 2023), directed by Maryna Vroda, protagonist Anatoliy returns to the village where he spent his childhood following years of absence, to care for his dying mother. Here in the snow-covered Ukrainian countryside live those individuals who have increasingly been forgotten by post-Soviet society: the old and poor. With its incorporation of performances by non-actors and fantastically composed images, the film is sure to charm festival viewers. Maryna Vroda will also be in Wiesbaden to present her film.

In the coming-of-age-themed long-term documentation KIX (HUN, 2023) from directorial duo Dávid Mikulán and Bálint Révész, who will also be on hand in Wiesbaden, filmmaker Mikulán sets out with skateboard and camera in hand to find subjects to film for his university project. A trail of chalk on the Budapest asphalt ultimately leads him to Sanyi Marku, a kid from a precarious social background who now becomes Mikulán's protagonist. The director films Sanyi's life over the next ten years, in episodic fashion, showing Budapest from an unusual perspective.

In the feminist drama MADINA (KAZ/PAK/IND, 2023) by Kazakh filmmaker Aizhana Kassymbek, Madina, a dancer, lives together on the Caspian Sea with her grandmother, her younger brother and her two-year-old daughter. She tries to earn enough to support the whole family by working as a dance instructor by day and a go-go dancer in a club by night. Burdened by her ex-husband's harassment and an oligarch's unwelcome advances, to top it off one day she discovers a family secret that changes everything. Aizhana Kassymbek is also scheduled to attend the festival in Wiesbaden.

Kumjana Novakova's SILENCE OF REASON / ŠUTNJA RAZUMA (MKD/BIH, 2023) also deals with female trauma. Their identities protected, multiple women from the town of Foča recount systematic rapes perpetrated against them by Serbian soldiers during the Bosnian War. Combined with archival images and footage of the crime sites, the accounts, presented primarily in text form with sparing use of distorted audio, form a cinematic collage that leaves the viewer speechless and appalled. The film will be screened in the presence of special film guests.

The observational documentary film FAIRY GARDEN (HUN/ROU/HRV, 2023), directed by Gergö Somogyvári, tells the tale of Fanni, who's recently been kicked out of the family home and now lives, together with 60-year-old unhoused Laci, inside a self-built hut erected in a forest clearing. The 19-year-old transwoman dreams of love, a feeling of closeness, acceptance, a better life and gender transition – not an easy matter, since it is officially not possible to have one's gender changed in Hungary, where homelessness is also criminalised. The director is scheduled to attend the festival in Wiesbaden.

Andrei Cohn, director of HOLY WEEK / SĂPTĂMÂNA MARE (ROU/FRA/CH/TUR, 2024), will also be making an appearance in Wiesbaden. His theatrical tragedy takes the audience back to 19th-century rural Romania, where Leiba runs an inn with his family. The surroundings are idyllic and business at the inn is bustling. Everything would be just fine if the Jewish innkeeper and his family didn't find themselves subjected to the massive anti-Semitism of the era. Though the villagers and travellers enjoy dining at Leiba's place, they make no effort to conceal their racist loathing.

Ivan Tymchenko's OXYGEN STATION / KYSNEVA STANTSIYA (UKR/SVK/CZE/SWE, 2023) is a magical-realist biopic. In the summer of 1980, Mustafa Dzhemilev, a leading human rights activist for the Crimean Tatars, is banished to the Siberian village of Zyryanka after concluding a 303-day hunger strike. His forced labour in the oxygen station is akin to the endless routine of legendary Sisyphus. The director will be in attendance.

Nicole Philmon, director of the documentary work 09.05.2022 (NLD/MNE, 2023), will also be in Wiesbaden for the festival. Her film takes a look at the festivities for 9 May, otherwise known as Victory Day, which Russia has celebrated annually since the end of the Second World War in 1945, with the ostensible intent of commemorating the suffering of the "Great Patriotic War". What did this national holiday actually look like in 2022, just months after Putin ordered a massive attack on neighbouring Ukraine? The film, produced by Sergei Loznitsa, is celebrating its world premiere in Wiesbaden. 

Full of biting satire and garish colours, the four episodes of Andrei Kashperski's PROCESSES (BLR/POL, 2023) relate recent Belarusian history, from the aftermath of the protests against Lukashenka in 2020 to the Ukraine War today. The director is also expected to attend the festival in Wiesbaden.

Juries

This year's chair of the international goEast Competition Jury is Nicoletta Romeo, from Italy. As artistic director of Trieste Film Festival, she is exceedingly knowledgeable when it comes to Eastern European cinema: her film festival is also focussed on films from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Nicoletta Romeo has worked as a producer, as head of programming for the Venice International Critics Week and as a program advisor for the Thessaloniki Film Festival and 4 Ecrans, Paris. She has been collaborating with Trieste Film Festival since 1996, and in 2016 took over as artistic director. She has curated several retrospectives dedicated to Greek, Romanian, Polish, Georgian and Yugoslav cinema.

Romeo is joined by actress Ilinca Manolache from Bucharest, who shined most recently in the lead role of Radu Jude's new film DON’T EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD. Manolache studied acting at the National University of Theatre and Film (Bucharest) and has been performing on renowned theatre stages since receiving her degree. In the realm of cinema, she has worked primarily with Radu Jude, with roles in I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY and BAD LUCK BANGING or LOONEY PORN (Golden Bear – Berlinale). 

This year's jury line-up continues with Czech film producer Jiří Konečný (1973), founder and owner of Endorfilm (Prague), which primarily produces films for the cinema. His films have been selected to appear at numerous international festivals, including Cannes, Venice and the Berlinale, and have received more than 100 awards. Nine of his films have been national candidates for an Oscar. Konečný graduated from the University of Economics in Prague and from FAMU. He is a member of the European Film Academy (EFA), the Czech Film and Television Academy (CFTA) and the Slovak Film and Television Academy (SFTA), as well as a lecturer at FAMU in Prague. 

Director, curator, activist and performer Hamze Bytyçi, a native of Kosovo, is also joining this year's jury. He studied acting in Freiburg and founded the Berlin based Roma organisation RomaTrial e.V. in 2012 and the international festival for Romani cinema "AKE DIKHEA?" in 2017, where he has since served as artistic director. Bytyçi's most recent films include the short documentary film JOŽKA (2017) as well as a series of nine animated short films about survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide of the Sinti and Roma peoples (2019-2022), which are part of the monument for the murdered Sinti* and Roma* of Europe.

Born in Warsaw, jury member Maciek Hamela received a master's degree from Sorbonne University (Paris IV) in French literature. Hamela worked in renovations and as a tour guide, while studying film directing at École Internationale de Création Audiovisuelle et de Réalisation (EICAR). Since graduation, he has worked as a journalist, producer and filmmaker. He is a long-time BBC Channel collaborator, as well as the co-creator and producer of the documentary short film BLESS YOU, for which he received a Doc Alliance Award within the Cannes Docs program in 2021. He has produced other award-winning films, such as CONVICTIONS (2016). His most recent directorial outing is the documentary IN THE REARVIEW (2023), which will be screened at goEast in the scope of Human Rights Sunday. He is also a director and producer of various radio works, as well as of Plan B, a documentary podcast series.

The international film critics organisation FIPRESCI is also represented in Wiesbaden with its own three-member jury:

Prof. Dr. Bojidar Manov has accompanied goEast's evolution since the first festival edition in 2001. He was born in 1947 in Sofia, where he works as a film critic and journalist (for Trud News, Kultura monthly, Bulgarian National Radio, Bulgarian National Television and Kino magazine, among others). He has served as dean of the Cinema Faculty at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia and vice president of FIPRESCI. Prof. Manov is a member of the European Film Academy, the author of twelve books and the translator of six novels. In addition, he is an honorary citizen of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.

Katrin Hillgruber works as a freelance journalist and film and literature critic for diverse newspapers, radio broadcasters and the online film magazine "artechock" in Munich. Since 2015, she has been active on a volunteer basis as a curator for the Munich-based film festival "Cinepol"/ "filmPOLSKA" and its successor, "Mittel Punkt Europa Filmfest" (www.mittelpunkteuropa.eu).

Catalin Olaru, a native of Romania, has worked as a film critic since 2009. He is the author of several essays and studies in the anthologies "Film Politics" and "Film Politics II", as well as the artistic director of Taifas, the Balkan Film and Culture Festival and the European Film Festival.

The East-West Talent Lab Jury also consists of three members:

Jessica Gorter is a Dutch documentary filmmaker. She studied directing and editing at the Dutch Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam. In her work, she often deals with the life and history of the former Soviet Union. After a few short films, Gorter made her breakthrough with 900 DAYS (2011), which treats the myth and reality of the siege of Leningrad. The film received praise internationally and was honoured with multiple awards. In 2014, Gorter received the prestigious Documentary Award from the Dutch “Prince Bernhard Cultural Fund” for her work. In her third feature-length film THE RED SOUL (2017), the director investigated why Stalin is still seen as a hero by so many Russians. Her latest documentary, THE DMITRIEV AFFAIR (2023), is a thematic continuation of all the films she has made in Russia since the 1990s, laying bare the consequences for individual lives of the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The film will be celebrating its German premiere at goEast.

Dagmar Mielke has worked since 2004 as a commissioning editor for RBB/ARTE. Before that, she worked for several other editorial offices and as an author and director. Recent documentaries Mielke has commissioned include JUDGMENT IN HUNGARY (Eszter Hajdú), AQUARELA (Victor Kossakovsky), HOW TO SAVE A DEAD FRIEND (Marusya Syroechkovskaya) and BECOMING NAWALNY (Igor Sadreev / Aleksandr Urzhanov). Many of the films have won national and international awards, among them Oscar nominated RABBITS À LA BERLIN by Bartek Konopka and Piotr Rosolowski, the best Israeli documentary of 2015, Mor Loushy's CENSORED VOICES, and the German Film Award winner of 2019, GUNDERMAN, directed by Andreas Dresen.

Maciej Nowicki is chairman of the board of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Poland, one of the largest human rights organisations in Central and Eastern Europe. A lawyer by training, Nowicki is an expert on human rights, the rule of law and documentary films, and has served as a jury member at several international film festivals. In 2001, he co-founded the international film festival "WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film" in Warsaw, which he directed until 2021. In addition, he conceived "FUTURE DOCS" – an international platform for creative encounters between human rights advocates and documentary filmmakers.

A Large Delegation from Kosovo and Albania 

In 2024, goEast is taking a look at Albanian-language works of film drawn from the archives of Kosovo and Albania that have helped to shape the region's cultural identity, with the participation of diverse special guests – filmmakers Antoneta Kastrati, Erblin Nushi, Gentian Koçi, Blerina Hankollari, Eneos Çarka, Norika Sefa and Besnik Sahatçu (grandfather of the Kosovar-British singer Rita Ora) are all scheduled to attend, alongside representatives from the Kosovo Cinematography Center and the Albanian National Center of Cinematography (ANCC). The program also includes a roundtable discussion on the subjects of potential co-operation opportunities and future perspectives for this inspiring region. The panel "Future Perspectives for Film Production and Film Heritage in Kosovo and Albania", with Blerta Zeqiri, director of Kosovo Cinematography Center, Ilir Gjocaj from Kosovo Film Archive, Albanian filmmaker Gentian Koçi and Arben Lami, interim director of Albanian National Center of Cinematography, moderated by Heleen Gerritsen, will be exploring specific questions reflected in the event's title.

Accreditation and goEast Press Conference

Members of the press can apply now here for accreditation for goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film. Accreditation grants admission to the film screenings in Wiesbaden, Darmstadt and Gießen. In addition, during the festival period accredited industry guests and members of the press receive access to an online media library featuring an extensive selection of festival programming.

The annual festival press conference will take place at Wiesbaden's Caligari FilmBühne on Wednesday, 17 April, beginning at 11:00 am. 

The full program for the 24th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is revealed.

On Sunday, September 15, the 19th edition of the Cinematik International Film Festival came to a close in the evening hours. Seven festival cinemas screened almost 100 feature-length and short films, often to fully sold-out theaters. The festival set new attendance records.

The international competition, titled Meeting Point Europe, showcases the best of European feature films from the past year. The winners are chosen by a jury of 15 film critics from the FIPRESCI federation.

Among the nominees were several prestigious award recipients from world festivals and notable national representatives. This year, the Cinematik jury awarded the Meeting Point Europe prize to the British co-production The Substance (2024), directed by Coralie Fargeat. The film follows aging television star Elisabeth Sparkle (played by Demi Moore), who is given the opportunity to try a miraculous substance that can make her younger, more beautiful, and perfect. However, there is a catch – she must share her time with her new self, Sue (played by Margaret Qualley), alternating weeks between the two. This extraordinary piece of modern cinema was seen by nearly a thousand viewers at the festival.

Festival audiences also selected their own favorite film through voting and ratings. The Audience Award of the 19th Cinematik festival went to the American-British-Georgian film Tatami (2023), co-directed by Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Guy Nattiv. The film tells the story of Iranian judoka Leila (played by Arienne Mandi) and her coach Maryam (played by Zar Amir Ebrahimi) as they travel to the World Judo Championships, aiming to bring home Iran's first gold medal. Midway through the tournament, they receive an order from the Islamic Republic for Leila to fake an injury and lose, or else she will be branded a traitor to the state. With her freedom and that of her family at stake, Leila faces an impossible choice: obey her regime, as her coach urges, or fight for gold.

The second competition at Cinematik, Cinematik.doc, focuses on domestic filmmakers, with Slovak documentarians competing for awards. The Cinematik.doc Literary Fund Award went to Daniela Meressa Rusnoková for her film Grey Zone (2024). The film is a cinematic essay, a personal story, and a tribute to mothers and families of prematurely born children, high-risk newborns, and vulnerable, disadvantaged individuals. The jury praised the film for its “extraordinarily convincing, sensitive, and personal portrayal of motherhood and the care of premature infants, a topic whose everyday aspects are mostly socially invisible.”

The Mayor of Piešťany Award was given to director Paula Ďurinová for her documentary Lapilli (2024). The film is an intimate journey that delves deep into the solid matter of the earth. Traveling through diverse rocky landscapes, the director comes to terms with the sudden loss of her grandparents. The jury’s statement: “We honor the film for pushing the boundaries of audiovisual storytelling towards poetry and philosophy, and for its inventive portrayal of the grieving process, in which human time is compared with the geological time of the Earth.”

The 20th edition of the Cinematik International Film Festival will take place from September 10 to 15, 2025, in Piešťany.

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The upcoming seventh edition of the established industry event European Work in Progress Cologne (EWIP) has seen a new record number of submissions. Over 220 projects have been submitted by film makers all over Europe to get one of the highly desired spots at EWIP. Up to 30 participants of EWIP will be chosen by end of September. The plentitude of interested film makers is a clear sign for the ever rising relevance of the event among its peers.

EWIP will take place in Cologne from 14 to 16 October 2024 and is significantly supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, one of the leading film funding institutions in Europe, the Creative Europe MEDIA programme of the European Union and the City of Cologne. It is thanks to the support of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW that EWIP could be launched and has been able to establish itself in the European film industry over the past seven years. The firmly established industry event also takes place in co-operation with the Film Festival Cologne, KölnBusiness as well as the Creative Europe Desks Germany and the International Film Distribution Summit – IFDS. Since its beginnings, EWIP has taken place in the run-up to the Film Festival Cologne.

EWIP offers buyers, industry delegates and journalists the opportunity to get an overview of the latest and most exciting film projects at an advanced stage of production. The 30 or so carefully selected European co-productions will present their current state of development, show first scenes and pitch their plans in order to attract the best partners for the further production process and evaluation phases within the EWIP platform. An international jury consisting of seven renowned industry experts will choose the most promising projects as winners of the EWIP Awards.

If you have any requests for material, are interested in an interview or have any questions, please contact the responsible press agency mm filmpresse, Sylvia Müller, tel. 030 – 41 71 57 22, mueller@mm-filmpresse.de and Claudia Hegner, tel. 03741 – 55 03 414, hegner@mm-filmpresse.de.

"Cinema stands for diversity!"

A joint call to safeguard democracy and stand up for diversity and exchange across borders and cultures ended this year's General Assembly of the International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas – CICAE on the 15th of May 2024 in Cannes.The participating cinemas and associations from 17 countries likewise called on EU citizens to exercise their right to vote in the European elections on 6-9 June 2024.

Arthouse cinemas around the world are committed to programmes that showcase diversity and artistic freedom, sometimes under difficult circumstances. As crucial cultural hubs for their local communities and through open exchange with audiences, filmmakers and their works, cinemas promote tolerance, freedom of expression and provide a crucial space for core democratic values as a whole. With its projects and actions, the CICAE continues to support cinemas in countries where these values are increasingly under threat or no longer existing at all. This increasing threat makes it all the more crucial that democracy, for example through elections, is practised by everyone.

For CICAE President Dr Christian Bräuer, it is clear that cinemas, as places of democracy, require special protection: "Those who support independent cinemas, with their diverse programmes, festivals and series for audiences of all sizes and ages and their mission to provide a forum for different ideas and cultural expressions, are strengthening any open society. Our appeal is therefore also directed at politicians to recognise the value of cinemas for the community and to ensure their survival."

Expansion of Activities to Strengthen International Collaboration across the Sector

The CICAE itself is expanding its activities to enable international collaboration across the sector following the relocation of the renowned global initiative Arthouse Cinema Training (19-25 August 2024) to Berlin and the change in management to Sebastian Naumann. The international members of the association’s Board of Directors have been working on numerous projects. These include the development of the global day of action of independent cinemas, the European Arthouse Cinema Day on 17 November 2024, and the expansion of the Arthouse Cinema Awards, in which juries of cinema exhibitors at international festivals around the world shine a spotlight on films with special cultural and artistic value. A new addition, following the spirit of international collaboration, is the platform Arthouse Cinema Hub, which enables cinemas around the world to share best practice and highlight their work and initiatives (www.arthousecinemahub.com).

Taking Stock: The State of the Sector

During the well-attended members' meeting, hosted by CICAE president Christian Bräuer, attendees from across the world presented and discussed current developments. Despite significant challenges representatives from most territories expressed optimistim about the future of the sector and reaffirmed the continuous key role of independent and arthouse cinemas for cultural diversity and the wellbeing of the international audiovisual ecosystem. In the afternoon, the members met for several workshops to develop perspectives for the association’s projects and activities.

For Christian Bräuer, international collaboration and exchange remains crucial for the wellbeing of cinemas everywhere and, by extension, for the wellbeing of the audiovisual sector as a whole.

"Running an arthouse cinema is becoming increasingly complex and demanding everywhere!", says Bräuer. "In the ‚Filterworld‘ age where algorithms dictate what we see on our small screens, cinemas offer people a unique cultural forum where audiences can engage with and focus on a wide range of programmes and perspectives. They remain the last mile for any film to reach and form a connection with their audiences. Since the end of the pandemic, audiences are returning in droves, led by the enthusiastic embrace of the cinematic experience by younger people “.

Yet, cinemas are threatened, says Bräuer, by exponential growth of operating costs and an increasingly unfavourable political climate. Bräuer:

„In order to continue their crucial mission, cinemas require political support, tailor-made funding, and regulations that provide an equitable playing field for all actors within the audiovisual ecosystem“.