goEast announces prize-winners

by B.P.

28/04/2010 - The closing ceremony of the 10th goEast Film Festival took place yesterday evening in Wiesbaden. The seven-day event hosted 300 guests from Germany and beyond and presented 121 films from 35 countries, including 48 avant-premieres.

Among the ten narrative features and six documentaries vying in competition (see news) for prizes worth a total of €29,500, the Golden Lily/Škoda Award for Best Film (€10,000) went to Georgian director Levan Koguashvili’s neo-realist title Street Days.

The City of Wiesbaden Award for Best Director (€7,500) was handed to Hungary’s József Pacskovszky for Days of Desire. The film’s portrait of an individual struggling against the expectations of a changing society won over the jury presided by Russian critic Andrey Plakhov.

The Remembrance and Future Award for Best Documentary (€10,000) went to Israeli film Oy Mama. Meanwhile, Alexey Popogrebskiy’s Russian title How I Ended This Summer (winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Achievement at the latest Berlin Film Festival), received two accolades: the Foreign Office Award and the FIPRESCI Jury Prize.

The jury also awarded honorary mentions to actor Victor Rebengiuc for his performance in Peter Calin Netzer’s German/Romanian co-production Medal of Honor [trailer] and to Evgeniy Solomin’s Russian documentary Countryside 35 x 45.

Other distinctions include the Co-production Prize aimed at financing three projects by young directors (one short, one animated film and one documentary for a total of €210,000) and the Student Award.

Finally, the goEast Reinhard Kämpf Memorial Prize was awarded to Marko Škop’s Czech/Slovakian documentary Osadné.

(Translated from French)