Here you’ll find our program highlights, which are featured throughout the year outside of the festival week.
goEast 365
goEast x ADFC Wiesbaden / Rheingau-Taunus Short Film Bike Tour
The cinematic bike tour through Wiesbaden is back!
On Saturday, August 29, goEast and the ADFC will once again present this year’s goShorts short film competition in a very special way!
The event combines open-air short film screenings projected onto building walls at various locations, linked together by short bike segments that participants ride together to form a cinematic bike tour.
START: 8:00 p.m.
Starting point: Platz der Deutschen Einheit (Quartiersplatz/Bertramstraße)
END: approx. 10:00 p.m.
Participation is free and no registration is required.
The following films will be shown:
Start: Platz der Deutschen Einheit (Quartiersplatz/Bertramstraße)
THE EXHIBTION
HUN, NOR, GBR 2026 / 23 min / OV + eng SUB
Language: Hungarian
Director: Dáša Raimanová, Béla Váradi
25 years after leaving, queer Romani photographer Béla Váradi returns to his rural Hungarian home. In spite of deep self-doubt and external resistance, he organises an exhibition of his work, an act akin to an intervention in a country where Béla’s identity is subject to state repression.
2. Stop: Hochschule Rhein-Main
HOW TO LISTEN TO FOUNTAINS
AKO POČÚVAŤ’ FONTÁNY
SVK 2025 / 10 min / OV + eng SUB
Language: Slovak
Director: Eva Sajanová
What can we learn from the endangered fountains of Bratislava when we make an effort to listen to them? A haunting memorial to that which is lost when public space is replaced by parking lots, shopping centres and empty office buildings, and everyday meeting places disappear.
THE CARE PACKAGE
PERADACHKA
BLR, DNK 2025 / 7 min / OV + eng SUB
Language: Belarusian, English
Director: Vera Shysh
There are currently over 1,000 political prisoners being held in Belarusian jails. For the most part, they are denied any right to visitations or phone calls. With a fairy-tale touch, a care package comes to life here, an object which often represents the only contact the imprisoned have with the outside world.
3. Stop: Gymnasium Mosbacher Berg
KISMET
HRV, SVN 2024 / 15 min / OV + eng SUB
Language: Slovenian, Romany
Director: Žiga Virc
While her big sister sees the wedding as a liberation, 11-year-old Milena rebels against her preordained fate – kismet – and attempts to convince her sister that what she clings to is a myth.
4. and last Stop:
Zoll’s Biergarten at Zollspeicher at Biebricher Rheinufer
FRAGMENTS ON RESISTANCE
FRAGMENTEBI TSINAAGHMDEGOBAZE
GEO, SRB 2025 / 24 min / OV + eng SUB
Language: Georgian, Serbian
Director: Levan Tskhovrebadze, Ani Kiladze
The lives of Serbian film journalist Pavla and Georgian short-film creator Levan are marked by unrest. In Novi Sad, crowds protest against corruption and authoritarianism, in Georgia they demonstrate against Russian influence and rigged elections. Via messages, the two share their thoughts, hopes and fears.
goShorts on the road
goShorts on the road
As last year, our short film competition, goShorts, will be touring cinemas in the region throughout the year.
This year’s programme, goShorts – Revolutions per Minute, was part of the festival focus on ‘Revolution!’ and brings together six films that illuminate the diverse and complex forms of revolutionary action. From real political protest to artistic intervention and covert rectification of unjust processes, the short films open up a space for questions of power and empowerment – of collectives and individuals, thoughts and ideas.
Alle movies will be shown in their original version with English and German subtitles.
Screening Date: 29.08.2026, 20.00 Uhr – Short film bicycle tour in cooperation with ADFC
Starting point: Platz der Deutschen Einheit / Bertramstraße, Wiesbaden
Participation is also possible without registration.
Further screening dates will be announced soon.
The following films will be screened:
FRAGMENTS ON RESISTANCE by Levan Tskhovrebadze, Ani Kiladze
THE CARE PACKAGE by Vera Shysh
SLET 1988 by Marta Popidova
KISMET by Žiga Virc
HOW TO LISTEN TO FOUNTAINS by Eva Sajanová
THE EXHIBITION by Dáša Raimanová, Béla Váradi
Curated by Sophie Brakemeier (media scholar, film critic, and long-time goEast program coordinator)
goEast presents at the Caligari
Once a month, goEast presents an Eastern European film in the Caligari Cinema.
Next dates:
8. September, at 20.00: TRAINS by Maciej Drygas (PL/LT, 2025).
Festival Travels - TIFF
From 17–21 June, Programme Coordinator Charlotte Heusler and EWTL Coordinator Andrea Wink attended the Transylvania International Film Festival in Cluj, which this year celebrated its 25th anniversary edition. Spreading across Cluj’s centre with indoor and outdoor screenings, the festival creates a special atmosphere in the city, bringing together a large local audience.
Next to the international competition and industry programme, the sections dedicated to current Hungarian and Romanian cinema were a wonderful opportunity to delve deeper into the cinema of the region. Part of the jury for the international competition was a familiar face: Ivana Mladenović, winner of the Best Director Award for Sorella di Clausura at goEast in April.
Passed events
INTERVIEW WITH CLAUDIA DILLMANN
As part of the anniversary edition, an interview was conducted at the Caligari Filmbühne with Claudia Dillmann, the former director of the German Film Institute and Film Museum and co-founder of goEast. Marta Moneva-Enchev spoke with Claudia Dillmann about the festival’s past 25 years and the next 25:
