The international jury of the 7^th edition of CinEast (Central and Eastern European Film Festival Luxembourg, 9-26 October 2014, www.cineast.lu) presided by the Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa awarded the Grand Prix to the film The Way Out by the Czech director Petr Václav and the Special Jury Prize to the film Viktoria by the Bulgarian director Maya Vitkova. The Audience Award went to Life Feels Good by the Polish director Maciej Pieprzyca. The winners of the awards were announced at the Awards Ceremony held on Friday 24 October at the Cinémathèque de la Ville de Luxembourg. The festival jury: Sergei Loznitsa (president), Christophe Wagner (director), Karolina Markiewicz (journalist), Claude Waringo (producer) and Gintare Parulyte (actor). Photos from the Awards Ceremony are available here and stills from the awarded films here.

The Grand Prix CinEast 2014 was awarded to the film The Way Out directed by Petr Václav. The president of the jury Sergei Loznitsa commented the verdict as follows: “We all agreed that this film is a great portrayal of the desperate fight of a smart and loving woman who is driven by her needs for independence and justice. We appreciated the direct and realistic way of filming, as well as the nuanced precision of the acting.”

The Jury also awarded the Special Jury Prize to Viktoria by Maya Vitkova: “We would like to humbly encourage Maya Vitkova, who is writer, director and producer of her first feature film. We have chosen this film for its unique, colourful and poetic depiction of an original story as well as the sublime acting that accompanied the rather unconventional way to portray a historical period.”

The Audience Award based on the votes of the festival-goers went to the film Life Feels Good by Maciej Pieprzyca.

Moreover, Audience Awards for Best Short Films in the three categories (fiction, animated, documentary) were awarded during the ceremony:

Audience Award for Best Short Fiction Film: Little Secret by Martin Krejčí (CZ)

Audience Award for Best Short Animated Film: Baths by Tomasz Duczki (PL)

Audience Award for Best Short Documentary Film: Down on the Corner by Nikola Ilić and Corina Schwingruber Ilić (RS/CH)

The Awards Ceremony was followed by the screening of the film Maidan by Sergei Loznitsa.

The CinEast film festival runs until Sunday 26 October. Over 50 features and 40 short films from 18 post-communist countries as well as many accompanying events were on the programme of the festival, which attracted over 6500 spectators.