I Matter / Eu contez (Romania, Germany, Belgium), the debut feature of Romanian director Alina Şerban, won the Young Talents Competition.

The Audience Award for the Best Long Film went to the Bulgarian documentary In Hell with Ivo by Kristina Nikolova, while another Bulgarian film, Gadjé by Georges Vanev, received the Audience Award for the Best Short Fiction Film.

Georgian/ Russian Fragments of Resistance by Levan Tskhovrebadze and Ani Kiladze won the Audience Award for the Best Short Documentary, while Slovenian/Croatian Fin People by Veronika Hozjan won the Audience Award for the Best Short Animated Film.

CinEast's International Jury, which awarded the Grand Prix and the Special Jury Prize, was made up of Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi (President of the Jury), Bulgarian director Petar Valchanov, Macedonian director Georgi Unkovski, Italian-Luxembourgish director and producer Fabrizio Maltese, and Luxembourgish actress Jeanne Werner.

Apart from the films in the Main Competition and the Young Talents Competition, the programme of the festival included sidebar sections Cinéscop, Cinédocs, Cinécourts, Cinéspecials (special screenings), and East goes West (films produced between East and West).

The festival screened over 65 feature films and 60 short films through over 120 screenings in cinemas, alongside numerous events: concerts at Melusina Club, Rotondes, Neimënster, several film debates, a large photography exhibition, and several special evenings.

This year, the festival highlighted Bulgaria through seven feature films as well as several short films.

For the 15th time, the festival organised the CinEast Pro coproduction meeting, organised in collaboration with the Film Fund Luxembourg, professional associations, and film institutes, which aims to develop CinEast as a platform allowing professionals from Luxembourg and Central and Eastern European countries to meet, present their projects, and foster collaborations.

The 19th edition of CinEast proved once again to be a great success. Festival Director Radek Lipka announced a provisional attendance figure of “well over 8 500 participants”, with the final tally still to include the festival’s last two days, attendance at partner cinemas and school screenings, as well as the online extension. Based on these figures, the festival is very likely to surpass the 11, 000-participant mark for the third time in its history.

CinEast 2026 is organised by CinEast asbl in collaboration with the Kinepolis group, Cinémathèque, Neimënster, Cinextdoor network, Ancien Cinéma and others. Main partners and sponsors: Luxembourg Ministry of Culture, City of Luxembourg, Film Fund Luxembourg, PwC Foundation Luxembourg, Kulczyk Investments and Polish Film Institute. Co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

FULL LIST OF WINNERS:

Main Competition Prizes (awarded by the International Jury):

Grand Prix:
Dua (Kosovo, Switzerland, France)
Directed by Blerta Basholli

Special Jury Prize:
Tell Me What You Feel / Powiedz mi, co czujesz (Poland)
Directed by Łukasz Ronduda

Special Mention:
Only Beautiful Things to Look at / Prameň (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary)
Directed by Ivan Ostrochovský
Produced by Punkchart Films, Negativ
Coproduced by the Slovak Television and Radio, Proton Cinema, the Czech Television
Supported by Czech Audiovisual Fund, Eurimages, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, the National Film Institute – Hungary (NFI), the Hungarian National Film Office, Kultminor

Critics' Prize (awarded by the Press Jury)

Shame and Money (Germany, Kosovo, Slovenia, Albania, North Macedonia, Belgium)
Directed by Visar Morina
Produced by Schuldenberg Films
Coproduced by Vicky Bane, Eagle Eye Film, Vertigo Ljubljana, On Film Production, List Production, Quetzalcoatl
Supported by Eurimages, BKM, Film – und Medienstiftung NRW, DFFF, QKK, the North Macedonia Film Agency, the National Center of Cinematography Albania, the Slovenian Film Centre, Tax Shelter Belgium

Young Talents Competition:

Young Talents Award:
I Matter / Eu contez (Romania, Germany, Belgium)
Directed by Alina Şerban
Produced by microFILM, 2Pilots Filmproduction, Frakas Productions
Coproduced by ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel, Lemming Film Belgium, Avanpost Media, Orange & Be tv, Proximus, Shelter Prod, the Romanian Public Television kkk
Supported by the Romanian Film Centre, the Government of Romania, Creative Europe MEDIA, Film-und Medienstiftung NRW, Film and Audiovisual Centre of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Tax Shelter Programme of the Belgian Federal Government, Tax shelter.be & ING, The Belgian Development Cooperation, in association with ZDF/ARTE 

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Audience Award for the Best Long Film:
In Hell with Ivo (Bulgaria), Documentary
Directed by Kristina Nikolova

Audience Award for the Best Short Fiction Film:
Gadjé (Bulgaria)
Directed by Georges Vanev

Audience Award for the Best Short Documentary:
Fragments of Resistance (Georgia, Russia)
Directed by Levan Tskhovrebadze and Ani Kiladze

Audience Award for the Best Short Animated Film:
Fin People (Slovenia, Croatia)
Directed by Veronika Hozjan

Click HERE for a press release.