The 24th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film came to a festive conclusion on Tuesday evening. The awards ceremony at Caligari FilmBühne formed the grand finale for an emotional and eventful festival week at goEast. After seven days full of cinematic art, workshops, numerous discussions, lectures, film talks and exhibitions, featuring screenings of 90 films and with more than 200 guests from the international film industry present in Wiesbaden, the winning films of the Competition, the East-West Talent Lab and the RheinMain Short Film Competition were honoured and presented with prizes valued at a total of 28,000 euros.

The Awards

SILENCE OF REASON (MKD/BIH, 2023), by director and producer Kumjana Novakova, won the Golden Lily, endowed with 10,000 euros in prize money, for the 24th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film in Wiesbaden. The forensic video essay deals with the subject of rape as a weapon of war. The International Jury, chaired by Nicoletta Romeo, explained its selection with the following statement: "The Golden Lily for Best Film goes to SILENCE OF REASON for the original and radical form in which this experimental essay film manages to convey the horror of the systematic mass rapes in Bosnia in the 1990s, through the written minutes and the oral recordings extracted from trial testimonies of survivors and the raw footage deteriorated by time. The repeated mass crimes committed amidst everyone's silence and indifference become a universal document of every war crime perpetrated everywhere against women, managing to break the silence and taboos, thus becoming a milestone for everlasting memory."

Director Maryna Vroda won the Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director (endowed with 7,500 euros) with STEPNE (UKR/DEU/POL/SVK, 2023). The pastoral social drama revolves around the experiences of Anatoly, who returns to the village of his childhood to care for his aging mother. In the words of the Jury: "What starts as a simple family story of a few days in the life of a vulnerable and lonely man becomes an elegiac tale of an isolated place in the post-Soviet Ukrainian countryside, of past generations and their history, and a requiem to a vanishing world through a choral perspective. Vroda's powerful cinematic debut film manages to portray the life of a disappearing, melancholic universe, its pain and lost hopes, with tenderness, authenticity and a mature gaze."

A Special Mention went to the intimate family documentary 1489 (ARM, 2023) by director Shoghakat Vardanyan. The Jury praised the film in the following statement: "Made by an artist with no filmmaking experience who nonetheless displays an undeniable, natural talent and impeccable instinct, this film is a visceral, unembellished punch to the gut. An incredibly courageous and intimate account of the pain inflicted by the Nagorno-Karabakh war on an Armenian family. Though their wounds will never completely heal, their portrayal also offers hope and catharsis to multitudes of people suffering such tragedies around the world."

3sat Feature Film Broadcast Selection: BAURYNA SALU 

goEast media partner 3sat, which has awarded one feature film from the Competition section with a television broadcast package every year since the festival's inception, selected BAURYNA SALU (KAZ, 2023) for the honour in 2024, with the statement: "Through its aching and touching examination of the nomadic Kazakh tradition of the same name, the quiet, but vibrant feature-length debut 'Bauryna Salu' by Ashkat Kuchinchirekov offers authentic insights into an unknown world and its life and work practices. Speckled with tender and light-hearted coming-of-age moments, the drama, which premiered in San Sebastian and which is carried by its captivating young lead Yersultan Yerman, advances to the raw, emotional core of its deliberately reduced conflicts. While a hand camera sensitized for the fugitive moments of everyday life both epitomizes and makes present the naturalistic approach of the mise-en-scène, the moody colours of the film – emphasizing earthy comfort and ice-blue solitude – transcend the fictional and let intimately shimmer through the personal childhood memory of a broken soul silently awaiting answers."

The film is slated to celebrate its television premiere on 3sat during the 2025 edition of goEast. In 2023, the honour went to the Latvian film JANUARY (LVA/LTU/POL, 2022), directed by Viesturs Kairišs, which was broadcast on 27 April.

A PICTURE TO REMEMBER (UKR/FRA/DEU, 2023), directed by Olga Chernykh, was honoured with the CEEOL Award for Best Documentary Film – the award, now in its third edition, is sponsored by the Central and Eastern European Online Library and endowed with 4,000 euros in prize money. The essay-like generational portrait takes viewers back on a journey to the Donetsk of the past. In the jury's words: "An essayistic dream-like account of a family's long journey through the war with the use of poetic introspection which conveys the complexities of a country at war, balancing between past and present and confronting private archives with public, collective memory. Through the experiences of three generations of women the film presents the human experience of war with tenderness through a mature and poetic use of found footage and a brilliant filmmaking craft."

A Special Mention went to KIX (HUN, 2023), directed by Dávid Mikulán and Bálint Révész. The coming-of-age story traces the path of young protagonist Sanyi Marku. As the jury commented: "The long-term observation documentary makes us follow the cinematic odyssey of Sanyi and his family, from the careless freedom of childhood – in wild and anarchic sequences, full of love and delicacy towards its young protagonists – to the conformity and grimness of adulthood. Through a personal and political lens, we witness a rarely seen portrait of an impoverished working-class family in modern day Budapest, where social institutions are absent or not efficient and young adults seem to be deprived of hope, their lives following a predictable downward spiral of events, triggered by a lack of a welfare system which provides no hope for a better future."

In the documentary film category, the FIPRESCI jury, composed of Bojidar Manov, Katrin Hillgruber and Catalin Olaru, also chose to honour KIX (HUN, 2023), from the directorial duo of Dávid Mikulán and Bálint Révész. As the jury members shared in their statement: "Ten years ago, a chalk line on the asphalt of Budapest led a film student to the unsupervised boys Sanyi and Viktor. The documentation of their actions between pranks and street art has become a testimony to social sensitivity and anarchic joie de vivre and thus a cinematic stroke of luck. The FIPRESCI Award goes to Dávid Mikulán and Bálint Révész for their documentary 'KIX'."

The FIPRESCI International Film Critic's Award in the category of fiction feature went to PLAGUE (RU/SA, 2024), directed by Dmitrii Davydov. In the jury's words: "For its impeccable framing, the uncompromising view of violence as personal incentive in a male dominated society, and the inventive way in which it applies western movie dynamics to a rural landscape never before associated with this particular genre the FIPRESCI Award for Best Fiction Film goes to PLAGUE."

The RheinMain Short Film Award, sponsored by Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and endowed with 2,500 euros in prize money, went to QIRIM (CZE, 2023) by Kateryna Khramtsova. According to the jury's statement: "We award the RheinMain Short Film Award to a film that experiments with a variety of creative elements to express the very personal situation of its main character. The film does not make it easy for us – it asks relevant questions to which there are no clear answers: how to behave in extreme situations, identity questions, the extent of courage, commitment and solidarity. Another quality of this film is its direct, immediate aesthetics, which draw us in, absorb us. We appreciate that the filmmaker conveys that such a story must be told, now and at any time."

In the East-West Talent Lab, which was realised once again with the generous support of Renovabis and the Deutsch-Tschechischer Zukunftsfonds, the annual Project Market Pitch took place in front of a three-member jury. The jury awarded a Special Mention to the film project SACRED SONGS by Georgian producer Mariam Bitsadze, with the words: "We would like to give a special mention to a project which gives a unique insight in the lives of several women from one family in a male dominated world. Access to the world outside is given to them through their performances of sacred songs of their religion, which are normally sung by men. We would like to support the director's effort to open up their world to us."

The Pitch-the-Doc Award, a non-cash prize package consisting of consulting services valued at 500 euros, went to the project ECHOES OF AVEY by Atanur Nabiyeva from Azerbaijan. In the jury's words: "While an ancient mountain is vanishing the director of this project is trying to capture her childhood memories and the collective memory of her community in a poetic way before it is permanently gone. We feel this project deserves to be developed further and assisted in its genuine quest for its subtle filmic language."

THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER’S FAMILY PORTRAIT from producer Irina Gelashvilli was honoured with the Renovabis Research Grant (endowed with 3,500 euros). As the jury explained: "The jury decided to give the main award to an already awarded project which was founded by a government and taken away from the director. We would like to support his artistic revenge which seems to promise much more than what he started out with. We appreciated that he did not give up and the sense of humour behind the project."

The EEFFN – Eastern European Film Festival Network, which is committed to increasing the visibility and impact of Eastern European cinema throughout Europe and counts goEast as a member festival, presented the "EEFFN Award" for the first time in 2024. The purpose of the award is to honour one film from Central and Eastern Europe annually that has distinguished itself through exceptional artistic merit, innovation and influence on the Eastern European film industry. This year, the festival showed the EFFN Award winning Latvian film JANUARY by director Viesturs Kairišs  (LVA/LTU/POL, 2022).

The 24th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film took place in Wiesbaden, Germany, from 24 to 30 April. 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 and representatives of film institutions. The Symposium, entitled "The 'Other' Queers: Cinematic Images from the Periphery of Europe", was met with a very high degree of enthusiastic participation and sold-out cinema screenings. With the supporting programme Cinema Archipelago, made possible with the generous support of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the festival explored new territory beyond the cinema for the third year in a row, including, among other things, a successful exhibition under the title POLITICAL TEXTILE and panel discussions addressing queer anti-war activism in Ukraine, among other topics. Finally, the festival also featured a special film series devoted to the film nations of Kosovo and Albania.

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

1. Golden Lily for Best Film

SILENCE OF REASON (ŠUTNJA RAZUMA, MKD/BIHP, 2023), director/producer: Kumjana Novakova

2. Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director

STEPNE (UKR/LTU, 2022), director: Maryna Vroda 

3. Special Mention 

1489 (ARM, 2023), director: Shoghakat Vardanyan

4. CEEOL Award for Best Documentary Film

A PICTURE TO REMEMBER (FOTO NA PAMYAT, UKR/FRA/DEU, 2023), director: Olga Chernykh

5. Special Mention of the International Jury

KIX (HUN, 2023), directors: Dávid Mikulán and Bálint Révész 

6. 3sat Broadcast Selection

BAURYNA SALU (KAZ, 2023), director: Ashkat Kuchinchirekov  

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

PLAGUE (CHUMA, RU/SA, 2024) director:  Dmitrii Davydov 

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

KIX (HUN, 2023), directors: Dávid Mikulán and Bálint Révész   

9. RheinMain Short Film Award

QIRIM (CZE, 2023), director: Kateryna Khramtsova 

10. Pitch-the-Doc Award 

ECHOES OF AVEY (AZE) director: Atanur Nabiyeva

11. Renovabis Research Grant

THE AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER’S FAMILY PORTRAIT (AZE/GEO) Producer: Irina Gelashvilli

 

Discovery Campus, an international continuing education programme by Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event with prestigious international partners, opened its call for submissions. This year's programme, taking place from 18-22 November in Tallinn alongside the Black Nights Film Festival and Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event, focuses strongly on presenting new talents to the international film industry and networking among the talents and film industry professionals.  The Discovery Campus programme consists of five strands: Music Meets Film, dedicated to various aspects involving film music; Frame Within the Frame for cinematographers; Black Room, with a focus on art department; Black Nights Stars, developed for actors and actresses; and Script Pool, that highlights five international projects and the team – director, scriptwriter, and producer – behind them. The deadline for sending applications is 15 August. Black Nights Stars is designed for actors and actresses and accepts requests until 15 May 2024. Over the years, Discovery Campus has hosted hundreds of talented film professionals. During the four-day programme in November, the participants will attend masterclasses by renowned experts, workshops and events to upgrade and update their knowledge.

According to Triin Tramberg, the managing director of Discovery Campus, in 2024, the programme will bring together talents from different fields of film and creative industries. “Last year we had over 40 talents – actors, composers, directors, screenwriters, producers, cinematographers, from all over the world  attending and it was vibrant and inspiring! They were eager to learn from their mentors and to exchange experiences. Many of them continue to stay in touch and collaborate, a testament to the programme's lasting impact.”  In the highly competitive and global film industry, a strong network can be a game-changer. "The Discovery Campus offers an ideal platform for young talents to start building their international network. Who knows , in a few years, we might witness joint film projects by Discovery Campus participants." Tramberg adds. In recent years Discovery Campus programme has included masterclasses and workshops with renowned masters such as director Sahar Rozen, director, producer and BAFTA-winner Mike Newell, cinematographers Philippe Ros and Dante Spinotti, production designers Jacqueline Abrahams, Maria Djurkovic, Simon Weisse, Sabine Hviid, Christian Olander, Kave Quinn, acclaimed composer, arranger and songwriter John Altman, internationally known casting directors Cassandra Han, Frank Moisell, and Julia Short from International Screen Institute among many others. The Discovery Campus 2024 programme and mentors will be announced in autumn. The programme is conducted in cooperation with international partners, including the International Screen Institute, the online platform T-Port, High Voltage, ARRI, Tallinn City, and Orchestral Tools. Watch the aftermovie in Discovery Campus 2023 Learn more about the submissions: https://industry.poff.ee/about/discovery-campus-submissions-2024/ PHOTOS Discovery Campus 2023 opening panel (1) Discovery Campus 2023 opening panel (2) Triin Tramberg, the managing director of Discovery Campus

 

In 2024, the Baltic Event Co-Production Market, the largest international co-production market in Northern Europe and a part of Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event reintroduces the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award and launches a new section for children and youth film projects.Baltic Event Co-Production Market, held since 2005, has always aimed to foster fruitful meetings. This year, the market welcomes back the Eurimages Co-production Development Award for the 2024-2026 period. “We are proud to present this award, as it not only increases the visibility of the winning project but also allows it to develop with greater financial freedom, embodying the spirit of a true European co-production,” says Marge Liiske, the head of Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event.The Eurimages Co-production Development Award includes a non-reimbursable subsidy of €20,000 for feature-length fiction, animation and documentary films, which must be used exclusively to cover the development expenses of the co-production project. As before, the Baltic Event Co-Production Market welcomes feature film projects from a range of countries, particularly by the small and medium-sized film enterprises from low and medium production capacity countries, including Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, North Macedonia, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, and this year’s Focus Country, Germany. Projects from other countries are also eligible if they seek co-production partners from the aforementioned countries.

New category – children and youth film projects Keeping an eye on the industry's needs and trends has always been an essential trait of Industry@Tallinn &; Baltic Event. Therefore, the co-production market’s 23rd edition adds children and youth film projects to the selection. The strategic expansion is designed to spotlight the children’s and youth cinema, offering an opportunity for projects that cater to these demographics.  As the market overall welcomes feature film projects, the children and youth film category will focus on full-length fiction films, documentaries, and animations for younger audiences. Projects that intend to use AI in the process will gain special attention.Since 2002, the Baltic Event Co-Production Market has showcased over 400 film projects, many of which have reached the silver screens across the globe and enjoyed successful festival runs. The presented projects have later been selected for Cannes, Berlinale, Venice, Karlovy Vary, Warsaw, Cairo, Tribeca, and more and earned Golden Globes and Oscar nominations.In 2024, Baltic Event Co-Production Market will take place on 20–22  November, whereas all the industry events run 18–22 November.The submissions for the 2024 edition are open until 15 July, 2024.Read more

INFORMATIONFor additional information please contact:Egle LoorIndustry@Tallinn & Baltic Event communications coordinatorThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.+372 56 906 376More information: Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event webpage.

 

What's cooking? TV Beats Co-Financing Market opens the submissions and calls introduces the €50,000 Series Co-Production Development Award Baltic Event Co-Production Market calls for projects and presents Eurimages Co-Production Development Award Discovery Campus calls for talents Meet us in Cannes Film Festival Petri Kemppinen and Roosa Toivonen join the team

TV BEATS CO-FINANCING MARKET INTRODUCES THE €50,000 SERIES CO-PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT AWARD

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PETRI KEMPPINEN AND ROOSA TOIVONEN JOIN THE TEAM!

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Every year, on 9 May we celebrate Europe Day - the anniversary of the historic Schuman Declaration in 1950, but also the first official step in the creation of the European Union. Numerous events are being held on that day throughout Europe focusing on content that shows the diversity in the Old Continent and promotes European values.

New Edition: AUDIOVISUAL WOMAN 2024
Applications for AUDIOVISUAL WOMEN 2024 open today!
Are you a woman working in the media industry and wondering how to take your career to the next level? Then AUDIOVISUAL WOMEN is the program for you!