goEast aims at increasing the international audience’s awareness for film-cultural developments in Central and Eastern Europe, at facilitating international contacts between filmmakers and supporting independent filmmaking in Central and Eastern Europe, raising international dialogue, understanding and cultural integration. 

The 26th goEast Film Festival will take place in Wiesbaden, Germany, from April 21–27, 2026. The festival presents current film productions – feature films, documentaries  as well as hybrid formats – from countries in Central and Eastern Europe (*eligible countries see list below) as well as co-productions with decisive contributions from those countries. The films will be shown in competition, out of competition and in special programmes.

Films must meet the following criteria for entering the competition:

• Formats: 35mm, DCP, minimum length of 60 minutes. Exceptions require an authorization of the festival.
• Production year: 2025 or 2026.
• No cinematic release or TV-broadcasting in Germany before the time of the festival.
• The filmmaker has to have citizenship of one of the eligible countries in Central or Eastern Europe (see list below) and/or must be a permanent resident of one of these countries. 

Deadline for submissions is December 31, 2025.

All information can be found on the website.