08-06-2008

Zlin 2008 Final Press Release

    ZLÍN 2008 - 48th International Film Festival for Children and Youth

    June 1 - 8, ZLÍN

    FINAL PRESS RELEASE, 7 JUNE 2008

    The 48th International Film Festival for Children and Youth is coming to its end. A total of 570 films

    from 52 countries have been screened during the festival.

    A total of 95 films were screened in 5 competition sections - International Competition of Feature

    Films for Children, International Competition of Feature Films for Youth, Competition of Short

    Animated Films for Children and Youth, Competition of Films from Visegrad Countries, and

    Competition of European Debuts. Two films will be awarded the Golden Apple Viewer Award. Films

    were judged by 43 jurors in 8 juries. The competition categories were complemented by the

    Panorama, Documentary Film, and Days of British Cinema sections, which mingled with all

    competitive and non-competitive sections, and by the very successful new sections of this year's

    festival - the Anime section, Night Horizons, and Israel in Film, Film in Israel. A total of 16 awards will

    be awarded during the closing gala evening.

    The International Film Festival for Children and Youth was complemented by the 5th International

    Student Film Festival Zlín Dog and by the Rainbow Marble International Advertising Awards.

    FESTIVAL PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS

    For ten years now, Allianz pojišťovna, a. s. has supported Zlín's festival as its general partner. Co-organizers include the City of Zlín and Tomas Bata University. Once again, its main partners are ŠKODA AUTO a. s., BAWAG Bank CZ a.s , IMPROMAT, DHL Express (Czech Republic) s. r o. andthe Zlín Region.

    Other partners supporting mainly important accompanying programs are Metrostav a.s., Lesy České

    republiky, s. p: and České dráhy, a. s. Also providing significant support this year is the Foundation

    Children- Culture - Sports. New partners have joined this 48thannual festival, mainly including

    Všeobecná zdravotní pojišťovna ČR, sponsoring a part of the festival entitled Days of Heath in Partner

    Cities, and Synot LOTTO, a. s., as the main supporter of the project Minisalon - Film Clapperboards.

    The traditional main media partners are Czech Television, Czech Radio, the newspaper Právo and the

    company Burda Praha. The project is being held under the financial support of the Ministry of Culture

    of the Czech Republic, the European Union program MEDIA, the Czech Republic State Fund for

    Support and Development of Cinematography and the International Visegrad Fund.

    Assuming patronage over the festival were Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek, Czech Minister of

    Culture Václav Jehlička, Governor of the Zlín Region Libor Lukáš, Mayor of the City of Zlín Irena

    Ondrová, Mrs. Livia Klausová, British Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Her Excellency Linda Joy

    Duffield and the Czech Committee for UNICEF. The festival is held with full moral support of the

    Czech Committee for UNESCO.

    Word of thanks also goes to the PRECIOSA Company that produced some of the festival awards

    FESTIVAL GUESTS

    This year, just like the previous one, the Zlín film festival was host to a number of celebrities, both from

    the Czech Republic and aborad. Let us mention some of them: Dakota Blue Richards, Daniel Clark,

    Randal Kleiser, Vojtěch Jasný, Christopher Miles, Aiturgan Temirova, Jeff Ballard, Sukie Smith,

    Michael Jay, Bea Appels, Dick de Jonge, Markéta Hrubešová, Klára Issová, Iva Jan