Fresh ideas, new technologies, forward-looking formats: the talent program of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is once again in its 18th edition offering young film talents the opportunity to develop new projects, forge connections with peers and representatives from the film industry and draw attention to their film ideas, as festival director Heleen Gerritsen emphasised recently: “The development and support of young talent has long been a top priority at goEast. We are very pleased to see that former participants have been able to realise their projects and gain recognition on an international level. This year there are two exciting added challenges: we have extended the spectrum of the projects to include virtual reality and in 2018 we are not only working with filmmakers but also with other film professionals in the beginning of their careers. goEast is actively promoting diversity in the film industry with this step, not only in Central and Eastern Europe, but in Germany as well,” according to Gerritsen. The East-West Talent Lab, the Open Frame Award and OPPOSE OTHERING! bundle their energies and traditionally provide promising looks at the cinema of tomorrow.
East-West Talent Lab
goEast supports and connects young filmmakers and artists from Central and Eastern Europe, the Rhine-Main region and all across Germany. The thirty participants of the East-West Talent Lab can expect to partake in a multifaceted educational program from 19 to 24 April, featuring presentations on the ins and outs of film funding, panel discussions on broadcast and funding opportunities from the major television networks as well as a master class by the Oscar® nominated president of this year’s goEast jury Ildikó Enyedi. “We are thrilled about this year’s record number of submissions”, emphasised Lab director Andrea Wink: “110 applications from 25 countries – that’s an increase of 20 percent and it reconfirms the great interest our program enjoys in Central and Eastern Europe.” In the scope of a workshop, the young talents will receive guidance in preparing their five-minute project pitches – 14 selected project ideas will be presented at the pitching session, from short fiction film to documentary, animated and experimental film, or even virtual reality. A jury composed of Stefan Arsenijević (director, screenwriter and program manager of FIRST FILMS FIRST from Belgrade, Serbia), Anna Berthollet (sales and festival manager at Taskovski Films from London, Great Britain) and Holger Stern (commissioning editor for fiction feature co-productions at ZDF/ARTE) will ultimately select the winner of the goEast Development Award, presented by Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain. The winning project will receive prize money in the amount of 3,500 euros.
Open Frame Award for Virtual Reality
In 2018, the Open Frame Award is reinventing itself: for the first time eight experimental virtual reality and 360̊ projects from Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Rhine-Main region will be competing for the Open Frame Award, presented by the BHF BANK Foundation. The competition is also sponsored by the Adolf und Luisa Haeuser Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege.
“With the inclusion of virtual reality we are embarking on totally new approaches to storytelling”, comments Georgy Molodtsov, the curator of this year’s Open Frame Award exhibition. “The beautiful thing is: We’re all starting from square one! So the projects are not only being developed in the big film studios, they’re also being made on shoestring budgets, in countries with tiny film industries. In a nutshell: virtual reality is a fresh start!” According to Molodtsov, it is especially significant in this regard that the Open Frame Award provides international visibility for artists from Central and Eastern Europe through exhibitions in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden.
A three-member jury, consisting of Julia Leeb (filmmaker, VR expert and photographer from Munich), Dmitri Vrubel (artist and gallerist) and Simon Ofenloch (film editor ARTE/ARTE fiction on ZDF) will determine the winner of the award, which is endowed with 5,000 euros in prize money. The exhibition is scheduled to run from 10 to 16 April at Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt am Main, and from 19 to 25 April at Museum Wiesbaden.
OPPOSE OTHERING!
A further goEast talent development project is entering its third round in 2018: OPPOSE OTHERING! The section, made possible with the support of Foundation EVZ, focuses on ethical filmmaking and the inclusion of minorities in the audio-visual industry, according to section head Rebecca Podlech: “We have made it our mission to develop a cinema environment in Germany and Eastern Europe in which minorities enjoy equal rights and diversity is respected, by providing concrete guidelines for action. Acceptance, solidarity and creative subversion are crucial elements in this undertaking.” To this end, the program invites not only directors to attend, but is also open to young professionals with a background in film distribution, festivals, education and film production who wish to exchange information and experiences in workshops and discussions on diversity and the European film industry of tomorrow. In addition, two case studies will be presented. In the accompanying film program, OPPOSE OTHERING! is showing four tandem films co-produced by goEast, all four of which will be celebrating their world premieres in Wiesbaden: DOMASHNEE VIDEO (DE, 2018), BOND (DE, UA, 2018), IN THE FRAME (DE, FR, MD, RO, 2018) and ANTIGONNA BOND (DE, UA, 2018). Expanded horizons are guaranteed here!
Save the date: On 12 April at 11 a.m., the goEast press conference will take place at Caligari FilmBühne in Wiesbaden.
Please find more fotos in our download section: http://www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/press/downloads.php
The full program for the 18th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film will be announced in early April.
