26/04/2022 - Prizes worth a total of €30,500 have been awarded to works in the main competition, the East-West Talent Lab and the Work-in-Progress Competition for XR

Director Kaltrina Krasniqi (left) receiving the Golden Lily for Best Film for Vera Dreams of the Sea

An awards ceremony held at the Caligari FilmBühne in Wiesbaden marked the end of the 2022 edition of goEast (19-25 April), which featured screenings of 87 films, discussions, lectures, exhibitions and appearances by more than 200 guests from the international film scene. The international jury, chaired by Serbian actress Jasna Đuričić, opted to hand the main prize to Kaltrina Krasniqi’s Vera Dreams of the Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kaltrina Krasniqi
film profile], explaining its decision as follows: “The Award for Best Film goes to a film about a woman’s fight against a primitive male world, against a degraded form of masculinity which, unfortunately, still wields the power.” The prize’s financial value is €10,000.

Taras Tomenko’s Boney Piles [+see also:
film review
interview: Taras Tomenko
film profile] was honoured with the inaugural CEEOL Award for Best Documentary Film, endowed by the Central and Eastern European Online Library with €4,000 in prize money. The documentary was shot on the Ukrainian-Russian front line and focuses on a 14-year-old girl who lives her daily life among the horrors of war. The jury stated that the film is “a tribute to the young people living in the ruins of our world”. Boney Piles also received the FIPRESCI Prize, as the jury found it to be “convincing on all levels: artistic, cinematic, human, personal and political”. The same award in the fiction-feature category went to Pilgrims [+see also:
film review
interview: Laurynas Bareisa
film profile] by Laurynas Bareiša, which, as the jury members stated, “works on many different levels and resonates in many different ways with the terrible war happening right now”.

The directors of Gentle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: László Csuja and Anna Nemes
film profile], Anna Nemes and László Csuja, won the Best Director Award of the City of Wiesbaden (worth €7,500) for having built “a story with a delicate attention to detail and [for having] created a portrait of a woman with dignity, of a woman longing for appreciation and love”, according to the jury. In addition, Stefan Arsenijević’s As Far as I Can Walk [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefan Arsenijević
film profile], described by the jury as “a refugee road movie that reminds us that war is everywhere”, received a Special Mention in the competition. Meanwhile, goEast’s media partner 3sat, which has offered an annual broadcasting deal to one film from the programme ever since the festival was founded, chose the competition film Klondike [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maryna Er Gorbach
film profile] by Maryna Er Gorbach, which is slated to celebrate its television premiere during the goEast festival week in 2023.

In the Work-in-Progress Competition, featuring eight participating projects, the jury presented the Merck Innovation Award for XR (€3,500) to the Russian project Arctic Recall, directed by Anna Tolkacheva, for its “large-scale, poetic fantasy of the Arctic”. The Special Mention went to If These Streets Could Talk by Barna Szász from Hungary, focusing on the invisible history of Budapest’s Jewish district.

Within the East-West Talent Lab, the project I Don’t Want by Hanis Bagashov, from North Macedonia, won the Renovabis Research Grant (€3,500) for a planned documentary project with a thematic focus on human and minority rights, as well as the Current Time TV Award (€1,500). The Pitch-the-Doc Award, valued at €500, was presented to the “very promising social drama” Elena in Deleyna by Elena Stoycheva, from Bulgaria.

Here is the full list of prizewinners at goEast 2022:

Golden Lily for Best Film
Vera Dreams of the Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kaltrina Krasniqi
film profile] - Kaltrina Krasniqi (Kosovo/Albania/North Macedonia)

Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director
Anna Nemes and László Csuja – Gentle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: László Csuja and Anna Nemes
film profile] (Hungary/Germany)

CEEOL Award for Best Documentary Film
Boney Piles [+see also:
film review
interview: Taras Tomenko
film profile] – Taras Tomenko (Ukraine)

Special Mention of the International Jury
As Far as I Can Walk [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefan Arsenijević
film profile] – Stefan Arsenijević (Serbia/Luxembourg/France/Bulgaria/Lithuania)

FIPRESCI Award for Fiction Feature
Pilgrims [+see also:
film review
interview: Laurynas Bareisa
film profile] – Laurynas Bareiša (Lithuania)

FIPRESCI Award for Documentary Film
Boney Piles – Taras Tomenko

3sat Broadcasting Deal
Klondike [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maryna Er Gorbach
film profile] – Maryna Er Gorbach (Ukraine/Turkey)

Industry awards

Merck Innovation Award for XR
Arctic Recall – Anna Tolkacheva (Russia)
Special Mention for XR
If These Streets Could Talk – Barna Szász (Hungary)

Renovabis Research Grant
I Don’t Want – Hanis Bagashov (North Macedonia)

Current Time TV Award
I Don’t Want – Hanis Bagashov

Pitch-the-Doc Award
Elena in Deleyna – Elena Stoycheva (Bulgaria)