The accreditation phase for the 26. Festival Edition is now running! It will take place from 21 – 27. April 2026 in Wiesbaden and other venues in the Rhine-Main region. 

Your festival badge grants entrance to the screenings of festival films in Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Mainz, and Giessen, as well as to most of the events in the supporting programme. The prerequisite in each case is that the events are not yet sold out. Some events from the “Kaleidoskop” section may not be included. Your accreditation also gives you access to the goEast online media library containing a selection of our festival films. 

Further information on the current accreditation procedure can be found in our FAQ section. 

You can apply for accreditation exclusively via Eventival, or at short notice during the festival week at our info counter (you may have to expect waiting times). Please also note that we will charge an additional late accreditation fee from April 17. 

In 2026, goEast is once again supporting up-and-coming film professionals and emerging talents from Central and Eastern Europe and helping them to forge connections with like-minded peers from Germany. A multi-faceted educational program has been created again for the East-West Talent Lab, one which offers participants the opportunity to interact with industry representatives from television broadcasting and funding institutions and the chance to present their project ideas and develop potential partnerships for co-productions. 

Among other items, the program encompasses pitching training and one-on-one mentoring sessions with filmmaker Cathy de Haan and industry and documentary film expert Brigid O’Shea. Curator and film expert Nikolai Niktin will share effective strategies for choosing the right film festivals and jury member Veronika Janatková will present a lecture about filming in countries where the state controls the cameras, the legal system and the definition of reality itself. Finally, Portrait guest Ada Solomon will present a case study on financing and distributing a co-production. 

PROJECT MARKET PITCH 

The twelve participants in the East-West Talent Lab present their project ideas with a focus on non-fiction and documentary formats to a three-member expert jury in front of a live audience. The young talents come from Central and Eastern Europe. Each pitch is limited to a maximum of seven minutes, to be immediately followed by direct feedback and questions from the expert jury, which consists this year of members Bettina Brokemper, Veronika Janatková and Aliaksei Paluyan.  

The most convincing pitches have the chance to win a Renovabis Research Grant (endowed with 3,500 euros), for a documentary film project with a focus on human rights, and the Pitch-the-Doc Award, which features a non-cash educational prize package valued at 500 euros. The award winners will be revealed by the jury in the scope of the annual goEast Award Ceremony. 

The Project Market Pitch, in which the nominated projects are presented is public and takes place on Monday, April 27 in the Heimathafen in the Altes Gericht at 10:00 am. 

Participating Producers  

Fritzie Benesch (Germany) 

Margarita Dreiling (Germany) 

Till Gombert (Germany) 

Glib Lukianets (Ukraine) 

Katharina Schwarz (Germany) 

Laurian Luis Schymura (Germany) 

Michelle Traurig (Germany) 

Nils Woitschach (Germany) 

NOMINATED PROJECTS 

BEAST 
(Feature Documentary)
by director Dawid Nickel, Poland 

A burned-out 40-year-old gay porn actor recruits fellow performers to restage the worst day of his life. But when the project spirals out of control, Dominik is forced to confront one question: “Who am I?”  

CHAHID’S HOME 
(Feature Documentary)
by director Adem Tutić, Serbia  

After being brutally beaten by the police on the Balkan migrant route, young Moroccan Chahid Bojadi loses his legs, but not his hope to return home.  

DANCE WITH ME
(Feature Documentary) 
by director Leila Basma, Lebanon  

My uncle Adam fled our Muslim Lebanese family during the 1970s civil war to become the first male solo belly dancer in LA. Years later, I set out to reconnect with him in a search for identity, belonging, and acceptance.  

DREAMS COVERED IN CHROME 
(Feature Documentary)
by director Trëndelina Halili, Kosovo 

A documentary about a mining town ruled by chrome, observed through its labor and daily life, while its inner world – fear, rage, and relentless repetition, is narrated solely through women’s night dreams.  

GET LOST
(Feature Documentary)
by director Valeria Starovoit, Russia 

What do you do when saying no to war makes you a criminal? In Russia, one underground network helps men vanish before the state can send them to the front—at the risk of everything.  

HAZE
(Feature Documentary)
by director Blaž Završnik, Slovenia 

On a remote Slovenian plateau, a former online poker prodigy obsessively documents the sky to prove a global poisoning conspiracy—while his search reveals a deeper story about an epidemic of mistrust and the human need to understand a world we can’t control.  

I ONLY PRAY TO SARA KALI
(Feature Documentary) 
by director Mihaela Drăgan, Romania 

Artist, Mihaela Drăgan travels from Bucharest to the South of France to document the annual Roma pilgrimage to Saint Sara Kali, a saint unrecognized by the Catholic Church. As authorities impose tighter controls and tourism turns devotion into spectacle, the pilgrimage becomes a site of tension and cultural resistance.  

MACHAON
(Short Documentary)
by director Kateryna Khramtsova, Ukraine 

In the summer of 2024, Vadym and his brothers-in-arms were killed in action. This film is a portrait of an outstanding photographer who gave his life for the independence of Ukraine. Through his photographic archive and conversations with friends, I aim to share Vadym’s story with the world.  

ROUND GLASSES
(Feature Documentary)
by director Kyrylo Naumko, Ukraine 

Like many Ukrainians, Kyrylo grew up believing in Western worldview shaped by reason. When war begins, reason no longer offers clear answers.  

SOFT EJECT IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN 
(Feature Documentary)
by director Nikoloz Chikovani, Georgia 

Born under Soviet censorship and raised on forbidden Western music, five young Georgian dreamers form the band Soft Eject. As their homeland collapses into chaos, they set out into the unknown West. Not to escape, but to find freedom, adventure, and ultimately, themselves.  

THE KARATE KIDS
(Short Documentary)
by co-directors Agasi Azarian and Ani Kapzmalyan, presented by Agasi Azarian, Armenia 

Four boys with Down syndrome train for an international karate tournament, facing a society that handed them defeat before they stepped into the ring.  

YESTERDAY
(Feature Documentary)
by director Betija Zvejniece, Latvia 

At 80, artist Andris Grinbergs, former enfant terrible of the Soviet underground, prepares for his death as his final performance.