Wiesbaden/Frankfurt, 26 April 2026
The Awards
CLOUDS MOVE WITH GREAT SPEED (UKR 2025), directed by Roman Ostrovskyi and produced by Iryna Kyporenko for MONS Production, has been honoured with the Golden Lily for Best Film (endowed with prize money in the amount of 10,000 euros) at the 26th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film in Wiesbaden. The International Jury, chaired by Salomé Alexi, explained its selection with the following statement: “From the entire competition, one film stood out with unquestionable urgency. It highlights the importance of documenting Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Created by a filmmaker who became a soldier out of necessity and personal responsibility, it bears witness to the unbearable and portrays humanity under inhuman circumstances. For their courage as director and producer, the jury awards the Golden Lily for Best Film to Roman Ostrovskyi and Iryna Kyporenko for CLOUDS MOVE WITH GREAT SPEED. We hope the clouds will move with great speed towards the sky of a peaceful and free Ukraine.”
The awards ceremony at Caligari FilmBühne represented the grand finale for an emotional and eventful festival week at goEast in the festival’s 26th year. It was the first edition under the direction of Rebecca Heiler, who succeeded Heleen Gerritsen in the role of Festival Director in June 2025. After seven days full of cinematic art, workshops, numerous discussions, lectures, film talks and exhibitions, featuring screenings of 76 films and with more than 120 guests from the international film industry present in Wiesbaden, the winning films of the Competition and the RheinMain Short Film Competition, as well as the winning projects of the East-West Talent Lab, were honoured and presented with prizes valued at a total of 26,000 euros.
Director Ivana Mladenović won the Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director (endowed with 7,500 euros) with SORELLA DI CLAUSURA (ROU, SRB, ESP, ITA 2025). The grotesque comedy follows a well-educated, unemployed woman on her journey through life. In the words of the jury: “Tonight, we want to award a director’s talent for revealing the absurdity of everyday life by skilfully juggling contrasts. A director with a surprising and refreshing female gaze. For her ability to use dark humour to encourage us to rethink the role of women on the margins of society, and for the risks she takes in her search for a cinematic language, the jury awards Ivana Mladenović the Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director for her film SORELLA DI CLAUSURA.” The film was co-produced by goEast Portrait guest Ada Solomon and the director herself.
OUTLIVING SHAKESPEARE (ARM, NLD 2025), directed by Inna Sahakyan and Ruben Ghazaryan, was honoured with the goEast Award for Best Documentary Film, endowed with 1,000 euros in prize money. The documentary tragicomedy depicts everyday life in an Armenian home for seniors as residents rehearse for a theatre performance. As the jury explained: “The film we have chosen to award approaches each of its protagonists with great patience, tenderness and honesty. Following the rehearsal process of a play in a retirement home, the filmmakers succeed in portraying each character with love and humanity, creating space for their free expression and shattering stereotypes about aging. The goEast Documentary Award goes to OUTLIVING SHAKESPEARE, directed by Inna Sahakyan and Ruben Ghazaryan and produced by Agasi Azarian.”
A Special Mention went to THE QUEEN AND THE SMOKEHOUSE (POL 2025), directed by Iga Lis. This portrait of a hard-working woman takes the viewer along to Poland, where, amid the hustle and bustle of tourists on the Baltic coast, Miecia, the “Queen of Łeba”, has been running her smokehouse with humour, rigour and unwavering standards for forty years. According to the jury’s statement: “For its fresh, intimate and empathetic portrayal of a generation drifting away, with careful attention to both place and character, we decided to award a Special Mention to a promising young voice of Polish cinema. The Special Mention goes to Iga Lis for THE QUEEN AND THE SMOKEHOUSE.”
3sat Feature Film Broadcast Selection: THE BEAUTY OF THE DONKEY
As part of its long-standing media partnership with goEast, 3sat selects a film from the festival’s Competition program each year. The chosen film is then presented in the 3sat program the following year in connection with the goEast festival week.
This year, the selection team from 3sat chose the hybrid documentary film THE BEAUTY OF THE DONKEY (CHE, KOS, FRA, USA 2025) by Dea Gjinovci. In the words of the selection committee: “A father-daughter journey of a special kind. She delves into the past of a small village in Kosovo and into her own family’s history. Dea Gjinovci artfully blends layers of memory, mixing documentary observation with the theatrical stage. Her film offers a rich tapestry: peaceful village scenes alternate with periods of violence when the Albanian minority was driven out and Kosovo was engulfed in war. In doing so, THE BEAUTY OF THE DONKEY succeeds in telling a touching story that is personal and universal at the same time. We get a glimpse of the possibility of reconciliation, and we see the impossibility of forgetting across generations.”
The film is slated to celebrate its television premiere on 3sat during the 2027 edition of goEast. The festival is delighted to see this media partnership with 3sat continue and treasures the opportunity it presents for bringing cinematic art from Central and Eastern Europe to a television audience moving forward.
FIPRESCI Awards
For the FIPRESCI International Film Critic’s Award in the fiction feature category, the FIPRESCI jury, composed of Silvia Bahl, Stojan Sinadinov and Mariola Wiktor, chose to honour CAT ON MY MIND (LVA 2025), directed by Laila Pakalniņa. The jury explained its selection with the following statement: “Everything that happens on screen is fiction, because everything was created as inspired by photo negatives from the 1960s to the early 1980s found in a dustbin. CAT ON MY MIND by Laila Pakalniņa is not a traditional narrative but a visual poetic exploration and an original film essay on the memories and emotions of the people in the photos. It is also a deep reflection on human perception and the nature of cinema.”
The FIPRESCI International Film Critic’s Award in the documentary film category in 2026 went to OUTLIVING SHAKESPEARE (ARM, NED 2025), directed by Inna Sahakyan and Ruben Ghazaryan. In the words of the FIPRESCI jury: “OUTLIVING SHAKESPEARE by Inna Sahakyan and Ruben Ghazaryan is more than an ordinary portrait of elderly residents in a post-Soviet-era Armenian retirement home. It depicts with subtle humour and sensitivity how art therapy transforms loneliness and losses in their lives. Protagonists in this movie still resist the uncertainty of a world full of brutal political conflicts and tensions.”
RheinMain Short Film Award
The RheinMain Short Film Award, sponsored by Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and endowed with 2,500 euros in prize money, went to KISMET (SVN, HRV 2024) by Žiga Virc. According to a statement from jury members Marie-Hélène Gutberlet, Dascha Petuchow and Pavel Schnabel: “A revolution rarely starts loud. It begins quietly, deep inside a human being, with the decision to take a different path. In a whirlwind of traditions and expectations, the film consistently tells its story through a dense, almost documentary-like cinematography, from the perspective of a young girl, and negotiates the question of fate and the possibilities that are actually available to her. The result is a vivid picture, condensed into 15 minutes: a moment of self-presentation, of questioning the roles that the actresses consciously reproduce, adopt, or reject. For his compelling film KISMET, we congratulate Žiga Virc on winning the RheinMain Short Film Award.”
East-West Talent Lab Awards for Up-and-Coming Film Professionals
In the East-West Talent Lab, realised once again with the generous support of Renovabis, the annual Project Market Pitch took place in front of a three-member jury, consisting of Bettina Brokemper, Veronika Janatková and Aliaksei Paluyan, and a large audience featuring numerous industry representatives.
The Pitch-the-Doc Award, a non-cash prize package consisting of consulting services valued at 500 euros, went to the project DREAMS COVERED IN CHROME from director/producer Trëndelina Halili from Kosovo. According to the jury: “In a town where the mountains are eaten from within, where the tunnels swallow the men, it is the women who remain. Through the collective female voice, the filmmaker moves with poetic precision between the daily harsh reality and the night, where dreams can articulate what daily life cannot.”
I ONLY PRAY TO SARA KALI (ROU) from Romanian director Mihaela Drãgan was awarded the Renovabis Research Grant (endowed with 3,500 euros). As the jury explained: “In the spirit of her saint, embodying endurance and power, the filmmaker takes us on her personal quest to find belonging. Reclaiming her own community narrative, the filmmaker gives a voice to an underrepresented part of society and sets out to fight the institutional power and to save their sacred tradition against cultural voyeurism.”
The jury awarded a Special Mention to the film project ROUND GLASSES (UKR) from director Kyrylo Naumko, commenting: “We are delighted that the filmmaker, with charming humour and in a unique way, raises the moral questions that our society in Europe is currently grappling with. We encourage the filmmaker to find an answer to this existential question, even if the men with round glasses are silent.”
DFF Patrons’ Circle Audience Award
The new goEast Audience Award, sponsored by the DFF Patrons’ Circle and endowed with 1,000 euros in prize money, went to the documentary film THE QUEEN AND THE SMOKEHOUSE (POL 2025) by Iga Lis.
The 26th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film took place in Wiesbaden, Germany, from 21 to 27 April. In addition to a wide-ranging 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. This year’s Symposium, entitled “Cinematic Strategies of Resistance”, was met with a very high degree of enthusiastic participation and sold-out cinema screenings. The 2026 goEast Portrait, devoted to the work of esteemed Romanian producer and chair of the European Film Academy Ada Solomon, featured films drawn from the past 20 years of her illustrious career. With the thematic focus program on “Revolution”, made possible with the generous support of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the festival explored new territory and facilitated socially relevant panel discussions and in-depth reflections on the significance of film and cinema for society.
Here is a full overview of this year’s award winners:
- Golden Lily for Best Film
CLOUDS MOVE WITH GREAT SPEED (UKR 2025), director: Roman Ostrovskyi
- Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director
SORELLA DI CLAUSURA (ROU, SRB, ITA, ESP 2025), director: Ivana Mladenović
- goEast Award for Best Documentary Film
OUTLIVING SHAKESPEARE (ARM, NLD 2025), directors: Inna Sahakyan and Ruben Ghazaryan
- Special Mention of the International Jury
THE QUEEN AND THE SMOKEHOUSE (POL 2025), director: Iga Lis
- 3sat Broadcast Selection
THE BEAUTY OF THE DONKEY (CHE, KOS, FRA, USA 2025), director: Dea Gjinovci
- FIPRESCI International Film Critic’s Award (fiction feature)
CAT ON MY MIND (LVA 2025), director: Laila Pakalniņa
- FIPRESCI International Film Critic’s Award (documentary film)
OUTLIVING SHAKESPEARE (ARM, NED 2025), directors: Inna Sahakyan and Ruben Ghazaryan
- RheinMain Short Film Award
KISMET (SVN, HRV 2024), director: Žiga Virc
- Pitch-the-Doc Award
DREAMS COVERED IN CHROME (KOS), director/producer: Trëndelina Halili
- Renovabis Research Grant
I ONLY PRAY TO SARA KALI (ROU), director: Mihaela Drãgan
- Special Mention East-West Talent Lab
ROUND GLASSES (UKR), director: Kyrylo Naumko
- Audience Award
THE QUEEN AND THE SMOKEHOUSE (POL 2025), director: Iga Lis
The goEast catalog is now available in the download section of our website. You can also find images related to the festival there.
goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and made possible with the support of numerous partners. Primary funding partners are HessenFilm und Medien GmbH, the State Capital Wiesbaden, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany and the solidarity initiative of the German Catholics with the people of Central and Eastern Europe Renovabis.
Primary media partners include 3sat, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
