15-03-2016

A Syrian Love Story Wins One World

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    A Syrian Love Story by Sean McAllister A Syrian Love Story by Sean McAllister

    PRAGUE: A Syrian Love Story by the British director Sean McAllister won Best Film at the 18th One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. The Estonian documentary Out of Fashion by Jaak Kilmi and Lennart Laberenz received the Student Jury Award. The closing ceremony will take place on 16 March 2016.

    The festival screened 123 documentary films divided into 13 programme categories. Two hundred and thirty-one filmmakers and protagonists, human rights activists and organisers of human rights film festivals came to Prague.

    The Grand Jury consisted of: Polish documentary filmmaker Hanna Polak, Swiss director Eric Bergkraut, Syrian independent documentary filmmaker and co-founder of the Berlin-based non-profit association DOX BOX Diana El Jeiroudi, director of the ZeLIG School for Documentary, Television and New Media in Bolzan Heidi Gronauer and Czech documentary filmmaker Bohdan Bláhovec.

    The Václav Havel Jury consisted of: co-founder and co-coordinator of the No Borders project by the Ukrainian NGO Social Action Center Maksym Butkevych, internationally renowned Azeri defender of human rights Emin Huseynov, Austrian Vice-President of the European Parliament Ulrike Lunacek, Cuban human rights activist Rosa María Payá and Vietnamese activist and executive director of the NGO VOICE Hoi Trinh.

    The AVAST Audience Award will be announced at the closing gala.

    Grand Jury Awards:

    Best Film: A Syrian Love Story (UK)
    Directed by Sean McAllister

    Best Director: Zhao Liang for Behemoth (France, China)

    Václav Havel Jury Awards:

    Václav Havel Jury Award: Incorruptible by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (USA, Senegal)

    Special Mention: Hooligan Sparrow by Nanfu Wang (USA, China)

    Czech Radio Jury Award: They Will Have to Kill Us First by Johanna Schwartz (Great Britain)

    Student Jury Award: Out of Fashion by Jaak Kilmi and Lennart Laberenz (Estonia)