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Newsletter III

Once again this year in spring, the international film festival's flair breezes in to Wiesbaden. For the fourth time goEast - Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, organised by the Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF, takes place at Hesse’s state capital. With its sections Competition, Symposium, Students' Programme, Highlights and Specials, 103 films from 16 countries are presented in an extensive programme, screening 14 German and three international premieres.

In the Competition Section 9 full-length feature and 6 documentary films from countries such as Armenia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Hungary and Uzbekistan compete for the following prizes: The festival's highest accolade "Die goldene Lilie" (The golden Lily, 10.000 Euro), the prize of the town of Wiesbaden for the Best Direction (7.500 Euro), and the Hertie-Foundation Documentary Award (10.000 Euro). An international jury, presided by the Hungarian director Ibolya Fekete, decides on the winner. Furthermore, for the second time, the FIPRESCI jury awards the Prize of the International Critics.

At the Symposium (25th - 27th of April), a few days before the EU-enlargement, topics relating to "Identities in the Post-Communist Era" in connection to the current cinematographic trends from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia are discussed by scientists and film-makers.

The Students' Programme offers this year, next to the competition with 39 works of Sofia, Zagreb, Weimar, Hamburg, Kassel, Offenbach, Mainz und Wiesbaden, a Forum "Meet the Filmschools" and the "Next Generation Reel" from the German Film Export Union. The goEast party takes place on Friday, April 23rd 2004 at 11 p.m. in the Schlachthof Wiesbaden with a Bucovina-Dj-Session by Dj shantel from Frankfurt.

A series of Specials are included in the programme: The Sunday matinee with a lecture by Marina Tarkowskaja, two films and an exhibition with polaroids by Andrej Tarkovskij, a film programme "A Look to the East" in collaboration with the ZDF/Das kleine Fernsehspiel, a panel titled "The EU-Enlargement and the Potentials of Film Co-Productions", and the school film days with the support of the Federal Centre for Political Education.