In this report, we present a detailed rundown of the winners of East Doc Platform 2026, the largest industry platform for Central and Eastern European documentaries, which took place from 19-25 March in Prague.

Children of the Moon Land by Roman Ďuriš

The Golden Funnel (for features)
Children of the Moon Land - Roman Ďuriš (Slovakia/Czech Republic)
The story takes place in Jelšava, a small town in eastern Slovakia, one of Europe’s most polluted settlements, where a nearby magnesite mine has created a “barren moonscape”. The film focuses on six Roma children who try to keep their childhood friendships and feelings alive despite the challenging environment. For these characters, the post-apocalyptic setting serves as a large playground where they hunt for treasures, tell ghost stories and pretend to be astronauts. The film intends to portray their struggle through their will, energy and dreams, which are presented as forms of resistance.

The Golden Funnel (for series)
World Divided - Soňa Nôtová, Štefan Straka (Slovakia)
This 6x26-minute docuseries explores how borders protect but also wound, leaving scars on streets, rivers, families and souls. It features six separate stories by six different storytellers. Locations include Belfast, Nicosia, Mostar, Western Sahara and South Africa. The film meets those living on the fault lines of conflict – resilient singers, wary fighters and dreamers defying walls – asking if ancestors' sins can be forgiven to build bridges. Scripts have been developed for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Western Sahara, with development recently starting for the South African episode.

I Had a Dream About an Elephant by Štefan Straka

Ex Oriente Fine Cut Award
I Had a Dream About an Elephant - Štefan Straka (Slovakia)
Director Straka was inspired by the local perception of Wareha, a man who stole millions through tax fraud, as a legend in his remote Eastern Slovakian village. The film aims to deconstruct how a criminal can become a hero, attributing it to the chaotic system of the newly established Slovak state in the 1990s, which allowed Wareha to establish a “state within the state”. The film is a documentary tragicomedy about the anatomy of a fall, exploring what happens when a populist leader falls from power, leaving behind a kingdom that no longer exists.

Cut Thru the Noise Award and Pitch the Doc Prize
I Was Told to Save the World - Hana Piscevic, Nebojša Resanović (Serbia/Croatia)
The film is set in a small village in rural Serbia and follows Vesna, a 22-year-old girl living in a shelter with 300 rescued animals and her grandmother. Vesna, who was abandoned as a child and adopted by her grandmother, is caught between the need to save others and the desire to save herself. The filmmakers have known the protagonists for 11 years, having first met them as volunteers in 2015, and have been shooting for three years, documenting Vesna's transformation. The core question of the film is what drives people like Vesna to keep saving others – whether it's the need to belong or to be loved.

Not So Far Away Places by Renato Borrayo Serrano and Yulia Vishnevets

Czech Television Award
Not So Far Away Places - Renato Borrayo Serrano, Yulia Vishnevets (France)
The film focuses on Russian prisons, described as a “factory of war” and an “engine of fear”. The movie is 80% based on footage documenting six years’ worth of work undertaken by a human rights activist working undercover inside Moscow prisons. Stories include those of Islam, who would have died without medical care if she hadn't intervened, and Sasha, a victim of extortion who committed suicide before she could help. These individual stories contribute to a larger narrative of the activist's personal journey after her persecution and exile in France.

HBO Award
nava mama - Ana Vijdea (Romania/France)
Denis, a 15-year-old trans boy, returns briefly to his native Romanian village, where his childhood was marked by his father’s abuse and alcoholism. The film follows his return and his encounters with the place, its people and the other beings that once sheltered him or to whom he now offers care. The final part shifts to his present-day life in the city, inside a public institution, where a different threat emerges: stigma.

EL DORADO by Rati Oneli

DocsBarcelona Pro Award
EL DORADO - Rati Oneli (Georgia/France/Estonia)
EL DORADO is the final chapter in a decade-long journey set in Chiatura, Georgia, a mining town caught between collapse and transformation. It traces manganese from global supply chains into the intimate space of the home, where poisonous black dust settles on windowsills, laundry and food. Protests were suppressed and miners sentenced. EL DORADO blends fiction and reality, turning the past into material for a persistent future.

The Docs Up Fund Award
Crossing Oxus - Svitlana Lishchynska (Ukraine/Sweden)
This is a story about what remains in people in the wake of totalitarian regimes, even if they haven't experienced them directly. The film follows two strangers from different generations shaped by the Soviet system: Marina, in her thirties, who fears closeness with men owing to her father's experience in the Soviet-Afghan War; and Vyacheslav, the last Soviet soldier to leave Afghanistan. The film intertwines Vyacheslav's story of disillusionment during the Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan with Marina's journey from judging him to receiving support. The project has strong access to both protagonists, unique archives and over 20 hours of original material.

Two of Us by Juratė Samulionytė

DOK Leipzig DOK Co-Pro Market Award
Two of Us - Juratė Samulionytė (Lithuania)
The project is based on an audio documentary that resonated with audiences in Lithuania and won the Prix Europa for Best Audio Documentary. It tells the story of Vytautas and Albinas, two men in a small Lithuanian village who presented themselves as father and son, but who were actually lovers. They hid their true relationship for more than half a century. Two years ago, Vytautas and Albinas came out on a public radio programme; this gave them the courage to fight for legal recognition of their family status. Two months after receiving partnership status, Albinas, the older man, passed away. The team filmed the couple for the last year, capturing their relationship, their tenderness and their closeness.

DAE Talent Encouragement Award and Baltic Sea Docs Award
House in a Bottle - Anna Morawiec (Poland)
The debut by writer-director Ania Morawiec is a personal gesture of overcoming shame and saying goodbye to the past, aiming to give people hope. It focuses on the adult children of alcoholics, who are stuck in roles that once helped them survive but now prevent them from living life fully. The director notes that there are four million such people in Poland, struggling with low self-esteem, a need for constant control, lack of trust, fear of intimacy and enormous shame. Producer Agata Jujeczka highlights the fact that the topic, though deeply personal, is shockingly common, and the film already has an audience waiting for it.

Dance with Me by Leila Basma

East-West Talent Lab Award
Dance with Me - Leila Basma (Czech Republic/France/Germany/Lebanon)
The film follows Leila's journey to learn about her uncle Adam, who left Lebanon during the civil war in the 1970s to live with a foster family in the USA and later became a successful male solo belly dancer. Adam never returned to Lebanon, and he and Leila's father stopped talking for years. Upon meeting her uncle for the first time, it becomes clear that Adam belongs neither to the Lebanese society he fled nor the US society he lives in, a feeling Leila also shares as an immigrant. The film aims to speak to Arab communities and all people who have left their homes behind or feel they belong nowhere, focusing on long-lost family connections, reconciliation and acceptance.

Stitch by Stitch by Alina Baitokova

Sheffield DocFest Networking Award
Stitch by Stitch - Alina Baitokova (Estonia/Kyrgyzstan)
The film explores the reality of families in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, shaped by separation due to economic pressure, with men working abroad, women toiling in city sewing factories, and children raised by grandparents in villages. The main characters are Elmira, a single mother working and living in a sewing factory; her son, who works in Russia; and her 13-year-old daughter, Nursulu, who has come to live with her for the first time after being raised by a grandmother. The film's theme is how love can exist without words and how family relationships can be built slowly, “stitch by stitch”.

Silver Eye Award
Inside - Dorota Vlnová (Slovakia/Croatia, short film)
Inside is a poetic exploration of abortion rights and offers an insight into the lives of women who have been in such a situation. The film transforms fragments of their testimonies into a poem that conveys their thoughts, emotions or fears. Incorporating archival footage and abstract visuals, it reveals the women’s inner world, while the soundscape represents the outside world and the societal pressures they have to face.