Remember to Blink impresses both the international and critics’ juries at goEast
- Austėja Urbaitė’s Lithuanian psychological drama has won the Golden Lily, endowed with €10,000, as well as the FIPRESCI Prize
An awards ceremony at the historic art-nouveau Caligari film theatre wrapped up the 23rd edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film in Wiesbaden, which featured screenings of 110 films together with virtual-reality showcases, workshops, talks and exhibitions in the presence of more than 350 guests from the international film industry. The main jury, led by festival programmer and critic Rada Šešić, explained their decision to crown Austėja Urbaitė’s Remember to Blink [+see also:
film review
interview: Austėja Urbaitė
film profile] as this year’s best film with the following statement: “This movie re-examines adoption and motherhood through complex power dynamics between two women and ideas of East and West, reminding us that the colonial practices we have inherited often resurface to affect contemporary life.”
Additionally, the members of the FIPRESCI jury, Davide Magnisi (Italy), Živa Emeršič (Slovenia) and Tina Waldeck (Germany), emphasised “the careful and intense way of describing a subject as delicate as the fulfilment of female desire for motherhood and family” as well as the dramatic interpretation of “the confrontation between cultures and the problems of international child adoptions” in their justification for rewarding the same film.
Director Titas Laucius won the Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director (worth €7,500) for his film Parade [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Titas Laucius
film profile], praised “for its acute sense of the humour to be found in failed relationships” as well as for the “phenomenal lead female performance by Rasa Samuolyte”.
Alisa Kovalenko’s We Will Not Fade Away [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] was honoured with the CEEOL Award for Best Documentary Film (€4,000), presented for the second time by the Central and Eastern European Online Library. The jury observed: “Bringing to the screen the vivid dreams and ambitions of small-town teenagers caught in a brutal environment of dashed hopes and trapped lives, this cinéma vérité documentary shows a remarkable ability to engage with, understand and bring us close to their stories and aspirations.”
The FIPRESCI jury’s documentary choice was Motherland [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Alexander Mihalkovich and Hanna Badziaka, for “the brave revelation of the violence and corruption in the Belarusian Army through the story of mothers trying to bring the culprits to justice”. A Special Mention went to Aktan Arym Kubat’s This Is What I Remember [+see also:
interview: Aktan Arym Kubat
film profile], described by the international jury as “a seemingly silent yet visually powerful film that roars from within, touching on the power of love in the divine sense to revive waning social values, and traditional roots”.
The main RheinMain Short Film Award went to Vladlena Sandu’s No Nation Without Culture, while Daniel Asadi Faezi and Mila Zhluktenko were deserving of a Special Mention with Aralkum. Within the East-West Talent Lab, Intizor Otaniyozaova’s Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Side Chicks won the Pitch-the-Doc Award, and Gulzat Egemberdieva received the Renovabis Research Grant for Projects with a Human Rights Focus for her project The Sigh of Memory. Finally, Viesturs Kairišs’s January [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] was selected for TV broadcasting by goEast’s long-term media partner 3sat.
Here is the full list of prizewinners:
Golden Lily for Best Film
Remember to Blink [+see also:
film review
interview: Austėja Urbaitė
film profile] - Austėja Urbaitė (Lithuania)
Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director
Titus Lucius – Parade [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Titas Laucius
film profile] (Lithuania)
CEEOL Award for Best Documentary Film
We Will Not Fade Away [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Alisa Kovalenko (Ukraine/France/Poland)
Special Mention of the International Jury
This Is What I Remember [+see also:
interview: Aktan Arym Kubat
film profile] – Aktan Arym Kubat (Kyrgyzstan/Japan/Netherlands/France)
FIPRESCI Award for Fiction Feature
Remember to Blink - Austėja Urbaitė
FIPRESCI Award for Documentary Film
Motherland [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Aleksander Mihalkovich, Hanna Badziaka (Sweden/Ukraine/Norway)
RheinMain Short Film Award
No Nation Without Culture – Vladlena Sandu (Chechnya)
Special Mention
Aralkum – Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhluktenko (Uzbekistan)
Renovabis Research Grant
The Sigh of Memory – Gulzat Egemberdieva (Kyrgyzstan)
Pitch-the-Doc Award
Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Side Chicks – Intizor Otaniyozaova (Kazakhstan)
3sat Broadcasting Deal
January [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Viesturs Kairišs (Latvia/Lithuania/Poland)
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