In addition to the festival regular awards, Film New Europe awarded its second FNE Visegrad Prix for best Central European documentary coproduction. The prize went to Produkce Radim Prochazka for the film Obscurantist and His Lineage or the Pyramids' Tearful Valleys directed by Karel Vachek.
Festival Director Marek Hovorka celebrated the 15th edition of the festival which he founded while a young gymnasium student in his home town. The festival has grown to become one of the leading Central European festivals and one of the most important stops for documentary filmmakers on the European circuit. Along the way, the festival expanded to encompass respected training programmes and a well-attended documentary film market. With the events outgrowing the town's resources, the festival will refocus its activities beginning with the 2012 edition, Hovorka told FNE. The main training programme will move to Prague, while the Jihlava festival builds on its core activities. They include two new programmes: the second annual meeting of some 20 festival directors on festival identity, which will expand to a two-day event in 2012; and the new Inspiration Forum with intellectuals and experts in non-film related fields interacting with a select group of documentary filmmakers to inspire new approaches to the genre. "Each year we get 2,500 films submitted to the festival, and hundreds of them are terrible. We were asking ourselves why? And why are these films repeating themselves?" Hovorka said. The Inspiration Forum was designed as a means to encourage filmmakers to expand their ways of thinking about documentary filmmaking.
"It was as if there were two separate events going on in Jihlava," Hovorka noted. "We want to get back to the sense of the festival."
The Jihlava IDFF secured a promise from the Czech Ministry of Culture for continued financial support, and the festival closing ceremony was nationally broadcast on public broadcaster Czech TV (www.ceskatelevize.cz).
A complete list of prize-winners follows:
CZECH JOY
2011 Best Czech Documentary Film
The jury recognized the film Solar Eclipse (Czech Republic, 2011) by Martin Mareček for "its surprising and impressive capturing of the Czech development help to Zambian people".
The jury also gave a special mention to the film 31 Beginnings / 31 Endings (Czech Republic, 2011) by Rafani for "the innovative approach to the documentary film".
OPUS BONUM
2011 Best International Documentary Film
James T. Hong as the single jury of this section chose the film Lost Land (Territoire perdu, Belgium, 2011) by Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd.
BETWEEN THE SEAS
2011 Best Central and Eastern European Documentary Film
The jury of the Between the Seas section awarded the film Bakhmaro (Bakhmaro, Georgia, 2011) by Salome Rashi for its respect, artistry and quest for surprise.
Film New Europe Visegrad Prix 2011
For its rhapsodic effort to expand the responsibilities of filmmaking the award for Best Central & Eastern Co-production goes to Obscurantist and His Lineage or the Pyramids' Tearful Valleys (Tmář a jeho rod aneb Slzavé údolí pyramid, Czech Republic, 2011) by Karel Vachek.
FASCINATIONS
2011 Best Experimental Documentary Film
The jury recognized the film Endeavour (Endeavour, Austria, 2010) by Johann Lurf.
AUDIENCE AWARD
The Audience Award (awarded under the auspices of the general manager of Czech Television) was presented by Czech Television's programming director Martin Fridrich to Solar Eclipse (Czech Republic, 2011) by Martin Mareček.
CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD CINEMA AWARD
The Contribution to World Cinema Award went to Vittorio de Seta, one of the Italian cinema's great imaginative realists of the sixties.
Most beautiful 2011 festival poster
Toronto Hot docs festival's poster from 2010 was chosen by the participants of the workshop Festival Identity.
Spectators' Prize for most beautiful 2011 festival poster
Brno 16 was selected by visitors for the prize of The Most Beautiful 2011 Festival Poster.
THE INDUSTRY PROGRAMME IN JIHLAVA ORGANIZED BY INSTITUTE OF DOCUMENTARY FILM
The awards to the documentaries presented in Jihlava by the Institute of
Documentary Film were announced at the festival closing ceremony.
Silver Eye Award for the best documentary from Central and Eastern Europe finished in 2010 or 2011 was obtained by three out of 250 films from East Silver Market.
The winners are: the feature-length Solar Eclipse (Pod sluncem tma), Martin Mareček, Czech Republic 2011, the mid-length Crulic - the Path to Beyond (Crulic - Drumul spre dincolo), Anca Damian, Rumania, Poland 2011 and the short documentary I Will Forget This Day (Ya zabudu etot den), Alina Rudnitskaya, Russia 2011. All three of them are getting 1 500 Euro and the East Silver Caravan festival service - an assistance with the submission to prestigious documentary festivals and markets throughout the year.
Awards also go to unfinished documentaries. The IDFA Award and the
submission to the Amsterdam pitching in November goes to Croatian - Rumanian
project Gangster of Love. "It's
real surprise. We didn't succeed ourselves getting to Amsterdam. And now we
will be there anyway," said the director Nebojša Slijepčevič.
Golden Funnel Award for the best-developing project goes to Bells of
Happiness from Marek Šulík and Jana Bučka, Slovak Republic. It's a story
from a poor Roma settlement in Eastern Slovakia. Pregnant Mariena and her
cousin remake a famous song from Czechoslovak pop stars Karel Gott and Dara
Rolins. The two filmmakers will get a special service from the Institute of
Documentary Film throughout the year.
