Looking back at goEast 2005

For six days, 118 long and short films could be seen on the screen – accompanied by film-talks, panel-discussions and an extensive number of special events. Ten feature films and six documentaries were in competition. The head of the jury, Robert Glinski, handed out the awards with a total endowment of € 27,500: the Golden Lily or Škoda-Award for the Best Film; the Award for the Best Director, endowed by the city of Wiesbaden; as well as the non-profit Hertie-foundation’s Award for the Best Documentary.

Some of the festival-highlights were Sunday’s matinee with Hanna Schygulla, the Students’ Film Competition, the reading and party with "Russendisko"-author Wladimir Kaminer and the first instalment of our new film-series “Portrait”, which this year focused on Slovakian director Martin Šulik. Many of the special events, like the political panel-discussion about the future of the Balkans and the reading by Croatian author Marica Bodrožic, proved to be audience favourites. The many film-talks and other special events allowed more than 150 international guests an opportunity for discussion and networking. „Countries now have faces – geographical boundaries have been replaced by visual impressions, stories and individuals”, said festival director Christine Kopf during the award ceremony.

The numbers prove that goEast has become a permanent fixture in the calendars of the audience in and around Wiesbaden and that the festival has established itself on the international festival-circuit. In 2005 goEast had a total of 6500 cinema-admissions, . The number of films submitted rose by 20 percent. More than 150 international guests and film-professionals, as well as 80 German and international journalists, came to Wiesbaden for the fifth instalment of the festival for Central and Eastern European films. More than 350 highschool-students from Wiesbaden attended the goEast School Film Days.

Website goEast 2005