GoEast

GoEast is an International Film Festival which has been held annually in the Hessian state capital of Wiesbaden, Germany since its inception in 2001. It's primarily for films with an Eastern European background. It's held by the Deutsches Filminstitut (German Film Institute) for one week every April.

The goEast film festival, launched in 2001, was founded by Claudia Dillmann, the Director of the German Film Institute – DIF. Likewise involved in developing the original festival concept was Swetlana Sikora, who has remained the festival’s Artist Director until 2010. “The time has come to open ourselves to the thoughts, images, myths and stories of our Eastern neighbours. To their culture. To their films,” wrote Claudia Dillmann in her foreword to the first festival catalogue.

From the outset, the state capital Wiesbaden and the Hessian state government showed considerable interest in goEast, and underscored this engagement with substantial support. And it was in Wiesbaden, a city maintaining rich historical ties with Eastern Europe, that the festival found a home in the Caligari-FilmBühne, one of Germany’s finest cinemas. Hilmar Hoffmann accepted the patronage of the festival, which very quickly established its profile within the festival landscape.

In late summer 2010 Gaby Babic took over the post of Festival Director. After Claudia Dillmann, Christine Kopf and Nadja Rademacher she is the fourth front woman of goEast. For the first time Gaby Babic unites the positions of Festival and Artistic Director.

goEast now plays host to some 180 guests annually, among them such renowned directors and stars as Krzysztof Zanussi, Jiří Menzel, István Szabó, Hanna Schygulla, Béla Tarr, Jerzy Stuhr, Kira Muratova, Otar Iosseliani, Maria Schrader, Joachim Król, Sergei Loznitsa, Bohdan Sláma, Cristi Puiu and many more.

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