Aga’s House in the competition programme of the 54th edition of the festival in Karlovy Vary

Aga's House was directed by the Kosovar Lendita Zeqiraj and the production house Woof Films was the Croatian co-producer. This debut feature film will be presented at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the East of the West Competition section with 11 other titles.

More information here.

At the 43rd Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Mifa, Czech Republic will be represented by 14 Czech producers and animation professionals. Czech Film Center, a division of the Czech Film Fund, is once again heading to the festival. You can find us in the Creative Europe MEDIA Stand (No 7.001). Three shorts – Apart, Daughter and The Kite – will be screened as a part of this year's official programme. At Mifa, Even Mice Belong in Heaven will be presented in Works in Progress, and My Sunny Maad in Gap Financing: Meet the Producers.

Official Selection

Apart | Spolu sami

Graduation Short Films in Competition

by Diana CamVan Nguyen

CZ 2018 / 10 min.

Dealing with life after the loss of a loved one is a difficult topic.
The film uses techniques of both live-action and animated film – the real experiences of the narrators are combined with animated sequences reconstructing painful situations, looking into the thoughts of three young people prematurely exposed to death.

Daughter | Dcera

Graduation Short Films in Competition

by Daria Kashcheeva
CZ 2019 / 15 min.

A girl was hurt as a child and keeps alive the memory of it. She lacked love and empathy from her father and now she is not able to share her feelings with him. She can’t get rid of the painful memories taking her back to when she brought home a little dead bird and her father didn’t support her. Sometimes it's too hard to open your feelings and share it with a close one. Sometimes it's too late. Let your painful memory fly away like a free little bird.

The Kite | Pouštět draka

Young Audiences Short Films in Competition

by Martin Smatana
CZ, SK, PL 2019 / 13 min.

The Kite deals with the issue of death, but it does so in a simple metaphorical and symbolic way using the relationship between the little boy and his grandpa. It explains that none of us are here forever and that all living creatures must die, but also shows that death doesn’t mean the end of our journey.
Read more about the film HERE.

Mifa

Even Mice Belong in Heaven | Myši patří do nebe

Works in Progress

by Denisa Grimmová, Jan Bubeníček
CZ, FR, PL, SK / 80 min.

A story about two outsiders, who, combining their very different personalities and ways of thinking, are able to overcome tremendous obstacles. After an unfortunate accident, two mortal enemies - a little Mouse and a Fox - meet in animal heaven. They lose their natural instincts and become best friends. Their wish to stay together after they return to earth comes true, but they are reborn into opposite roles. Thanks to the power of friendship they can overcome what seems to be impossible. The film about hope, a quest for love and courage, and about overcoming prejudices and old pains.

Read more about the upcoming film HERE.

PRESENTATION

THU 13 JUN at 11:30, Hall Pierre Lamy

My Sunny Maad | Moje slunce Maad

Gap Financing: Meet the Producers

by Michaela Pavlátová
CZ, FR, SK / 80 min.

When Herra, a Czech woman, falls in love with Nazir, an Afghan, she has no idea about the life that awaits her in post-Taliban Afghanistan, nor about the family she is about to join. A grandfather who is a feminist, an adopted young boy who astounds with his intellect, and Freshta, who will do anything to run away from her abusive husband. Like the other women in the family, Herra wears a burka and hides in a closet when guests arrive. She soon starts a new job with an American woman, Heidi, who has little understanding of the way women live in Afghanistan, and even less that not everybody wants to be saved by Westerners.

Read more about the upcoming film HERE.

PRESENTATION

TUE 11 JUN at 9:00, Impérial Palace Ravel

In Annecy, Czech animation will be represented by a number of Czech animation professionals.

Find out more about production companies present in Annecy in our brochure HERE ONLINE.

Or stop by to get one at the Creative Europe MEDIA Stand (No 7.001)!

The 9th edition of the Mazovia Warsaw Film Fund competition was adjudicated on May 27, 2019.

Film productions funded by the Mazovia Film Fund in 2019

EFP Presents a New Generation of European Filmmakers including two Student Academy Award Winners at KVIFF 2019

EFP FUTURE FRAMES - Generation NEXT of European Cinema highlights outstanding, emerging directing talents by presenting ten film students and graduates and their often award-winning work at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) in the Czech Republic (June 28 - July 6, 2019). With its special attention to a young cinema, the festival is the perfect place for EFP to promote the directors and their work. Thanks to the national film promotion institutes, who nominated their most interesting young talents, and the final selection undertaken by KVIFF's artistic director Karel Och and program coordinator Anna Purkrabkova, the initiative has established itself as an important platform for discovering exciting new European directors. EFP FUTURE FRAMES is supported by the Creative Europe – Media Programme of the European Union and the respective EFP member organisations.

The fifth edition of EFP's fruitful cooperation with the festival introduces the filmmakers and their films to the public, film industry and press during the four-day event which runs from June 30 – July 3. The participants will take part in a master class and meetings with industry experts from various fields in order to build up their international network, receiving further support for their careers thanks to EFP's new cooperation with Festival Scope and the long-term partnership with the main media partner Variety and partners Cineuropa, Film New Europe and Fred Film Radio.

The two filmmakers, who had already been awarded with a Student Academy Award in 2018, are the Swedish director Jonatan Etzler who received the Student Oscar in Gold for his refreshingly unpredictable thriller about teen angst, social media and fame, Get Ready with Me. His Hungarian colleague István Kovács received the Bronze award for his drama about war- torn Sarajevo, A Siege. Also garnering many awards is Precious by Irfan Avdić from Bosnia & Herzegovina, telling the story of teenager Alem, who is torn between a life of crime and taking care of his grandmother. Celebrating its world premiere at KVIFF is Playing by Czech filmmaker Lun Sevnik (born in Slovenia) whose protagonists – 16-year-old friends Boris and Hugo – set up a livestream video and announce that they will commit suicide in an hour's time. Siblings Leah (14) and Theo (10) – The Last Children of Paradise – live alone with their grandmother in a remote farmhouse. A sad incident turns the kids' life upside down in German director Anna Roller’s drama.

Signe Birkova from Latvia uses a futuristic set-up and experimental elements for her film He Was Called Chaos Bērziņš about an alien abduction and UFO experts. Eileen Byrne – born in Luxembourg – has studied Film in the UK and Luxembourg. With Touch Me, she explores the pressures a cancerous disease puts on a relationship. Slovak filmmaker Gregor Valentovič presents his graduation film Kid about keeping friendships even when life goes separate ways. Colombian-born Jorge Cadena studied film in Buenos Aires and Geneva and has presented all his films at festivals, including The Jarariju Sisters at the Berlin International Film Festival. Using recollections from his childhood, he uses a fictional story about two sisters to show the environmental devastation caused by a coal mine. Also taking on environmental issues is UK filmmaker Natalie Cubides-Brady in Beyond the North Win: A Post Nuclear Reverie, a hybrid documentary about the decommissioning of a nuclear plant in Scotland.

The following national film promotion institutes (EFP member organisations) support EFP FUTURE FRAMES - Generation NEXT of European Cinema: Association of Filmmakers of Bosnia & Herzegovina, British Council , Czech Film Center, German Films, Film Fund Luxembourg, Hungarian National Film Fund, National Film Centre of Latvia, Slovak Film Institute, Swedish Film Institute, and Swiss Films.

Films and their directors presented in FUTURE FRAMES 2019 you can find here.

EFP FUTURE FRAMES - Generation NEXT of European Cinema highlights outstanding, emerging directing talents by presenting ten film students and graduates and their often award-winning work at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival(KVIFF) in the Czech Republic (June 28 - July 6, 2019). With its special attention to a young cinema, the festival is the perfect place for EFP to promote the directors and their work. Thanks to the national film promotion institutes, who nominated their most interesting young talents, and the final selection undertaken by KVIFF's artistic director Karel Och and program coordinator Anna Purkrabkova, the initiative has established itself as an important platform for discovering exciting new European directors. EFP FUTURE FRAMES is supported by the Creative Europe - Media Programme of the European Union and the respective EFP member organisations.

The fifth edition of EFP's fruitful cooperation with the festival introduces the filmmakers and their films to the public, film industry and press during the four-day event which runs from June 30 - July 3. The participants will take part in a master class and meetings with industry experts from various fields in order to build up their international network, receiving further support for their careers thanks to EFP's new cooperation with Festival Scope and the long-term partnership with the main media partner Variety and partners Cineuropa, Film New Europe and Fred Film Radio. The two filmmakers, who had already been awarded with a Student Academy Award in 2018, are the Swedish director Jonatan Etzler who received the Student Oscar in Gold for his refreshingly unpredictable thriller about teen angst, social media and fame, Get Ready with Me. His Hungarian colleague István Kovácsreceived the Bronze award for his drama about war-torn Sarajevo, A Siege. Also garnering many awards is Precious by Irfan Avdic from Bosnia & Herzegovina, telling the story of teenager Alem, who is torn between a life of crime and taking care of his grandmother. Celebrating its world premiere at KVIFF is Playing by Czech filmmaker Lun Sevnik (born in Slovenia) whose protagonists - 16-year-old friends Boris and Hugo - set up a livestream video and announce that they will commit suicide in an hour's time. Siblings Leah (14) and Theo (10) - The Last Children of Paradise - live alone with their grandmother in a remote farmhouse. A sad incident turns the kids' life upside down in German director Anna Roller's drama. 
Signe Birkova from Latvia uses a futuristic set-up and experimental elements for her film He Was Called Chaos Berzins about an alien abduction and UFO experts. Eileen Byrne - born in Luxembourg - has studied Film in the UK and Luxembourg. With Touch Me, she explores the pressures a cancerous disease puts on a relationship. Slovak filmmaker Gregor Valentovic presents his graduation film Kid about keeping friendships even when life goes separate ways. Colombian-born Jorge Cadena studied film in Buenos Aires and Geneva and has presented all his films at festivals, including The Jarariju Sisters at the Berlin International Film Festival. Using recollections from his childhood, he uses a fictional story about two sisters to show the environmental devastation caused by a coal mine. Also taking on environmental issues is UK filmmaker Natalie Cubides-Brady in Beyond the North Winds: A Post Nuclear Reverie, a hybrid documentary about the decommissioning of a nuclear plant in Scotland. The following national film promotion institutes (EFP member organisations) support EFP FUTURE FRAMES - Generation NEXT of European Cinema: Association of Filmmakers of Bosnia & Herzegovina, British Council , Czech Film Center, German Films, Film Fund Luxembourg, Hungarian National Film Fund, National Film Centre of Latvia, Slovak Film Institute, Swedish Film Institute, and Swiss Films.

For detailed information on FUTURE FRAMES 2019, the directors and their films please click here.Further partners of FUTURE FRAMES 2019 are AMC Networks and Nespresso.

The Czech version of the press release can be found at www.kviff.com

EFP (European Film Promotion) is an international network of film promotion institutes from 37 countries from throughout Europe, each representing their national films and talent abroad. Under the EFP banner, these organisations come together to jointly promote the diversity and spirit of European cinema and talent at key film festivals and markets, in particular outside of Europe. EFP is financially supported by the Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme of the European Union and by its member organisations. 
The Hamburg-based office is backed by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, and the Ministry of Culture of the City of Hamburg.The EFP Future Frames programme partners: 
Creative Europe - MEDIA Programm, AMC Networks, Nespresso, Festival Scope, main media partner Variety, media partners Cineuropa,, Film New Europe and Fred Film Radio.

"Advocate", "Portrait of Suzanne", "My Country So Beautiful" and "Once Aurora" are the golden winners of the 59th Krakow Film Festival. On Saturday, June 1, in the Kijów.Center, in a room that was filled to the brim, the international jury awarded prizes to the best documentary, short and animated films that competed for the praise of experts and audience in Krakow cinemas throughout the whole festival week.

- The evening that we have before us will be full of joy, emotions and surprises - said Patrycja Wanat, who is the host of the closing gala of the 59th Krakow Film Festival while launching the evening. The award ceremony was attended by representatives of the film industry and cinema lovers from around the world. The evening was graced with a recital by Mikołaj Trzaska, who was also a member of the jury of the DocFilmMusic competition.

The documentary film "Advocate" (directed by Rachel Leah Jones, Philippe Bellaiche) secured the victory in the International documentary film competition, and thus the opportunity to apply for an Oscar nomination. Leah Tsemel, the protagonist of the film, has been defending cases deemed for failure for fifty years. Being an Israeli activist for human rights, she became famous mainly as a judicial defender of the Palestinians, including those accused of terrorism. The jury, chaired by Jacek Petrycki, which also included Talal Derki (Germany), Marja Pallassalo (Finland), Shane Smith (Canada) and Ágnes Sós (Hungary), recognized that this film was created with precision, insight and humor, that not only shows a heroic woman struggling against adversities, but also a person who inspires us with her unwavering conviction that justice can and ultimately will win. The film also received the KFF recommendation for the European Film Award.

The Silver Horn for the medium-length documentary was given to David Ofek and Tal Michael for the film " Around the Bed of a Dying Collaborator" (Israel), while the second Silver Horn, for the best full-length documentary, went to Adán Aliagi and Àlex Lora for "The Fourth Kingdom" (Spain, USA) , Mexico). The documentary has also received the award of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI).

The winner of the oldest festival competition - International Short Film Competition - was Izabela Plucińska for the film "Portrait of Suzanne" (Poland, Germany, France). The jury, led by Polish director Xawery Żuławski, awarded the director with the Golden Dragon award for mastery in shaping matter and a brilliant balancing between surrealistic vision and reality. According to the jury, this work is complete and delightful.

Silver Dragons are prizes awarded to the best short films representing all film genres of the competition. The Silver Dragon for the best documentary was awarded to Aleksandra Maciejczyk for the production of "Connected" (Poland). The best animated film has been recognized as the French-Belgian “Under The Rib Cage" (directed by Bruno Tondeur), and the Silver Dragon for best short feature film went to Dekel Berenson for the film "Ashmina" (Great Britain, Nepal). The Macedonian animation "Edna" directed by Vuk Mitevski has been chosen the KFF candidate for the European Film Award in the short film category.

The Norwegian documentary "Once Aurora" (directed by Stian Servoss, Benjamin Langeland) was chosen by the Jury chaired by Brett Morgen as the best documentary musical film and at the same time the laureate Golden Heynal.

The main character of the film Aurora Aksens is called the wonderful child of Björk and is one of the most charismatic singers of the young generation. In the film, the artist opens the door to her magical world . The jury awarded the film for raising the genre, which is a musical document, to a higher level. The film also received the student jury award.

The Golden Hobby-Horse in the Polish Competition was awarded to Grzegorz Paprzycki's "My Country So Beautiful". The jury, under the leadership of Maciej Karpiński, awarded the prize for taking up the current topic, following the tradition of the Polish documentary film participating in public life.

The best Polish animated film was "Acid Rain" by Tomasz Popakul. This is the second Silver Hobby-Horse in the artist's career - the first one he received for the film "Ziegenort" in 2013. This time, the jury appreciated the director for proving that the visually attractive animation language can be a tool for understanding important phenomena of the present day.

The Silver Hobby-Horse for the director of the best documentary film went to Andrea Kutsila for the film "Summa", which according to the jury  has a humanistic message, expressed in a mature, harmonious form.

The third Silver Hobby-Horse, for the best feature film, went to Helena Oborska for the film "Bitten" for a different approach to interpersonal relationships and for the search for the original language in film.

The Norwegian documentary "The Men’s Room" directed by Petter Sommer and Jo Vemud Svendsen was recognized by the festival audience as the best film of  59.KFF.

At the end of the Krakow Film Festival, the awards of KFF Industry and DOC LAB POLAND were also presented.

The screenings of the awarded films will take place on Sunday, June 2 in the Małopolska Garden of Arts starting from 12:00.

A detailed program can be found at: www.krakowfilmfestival.pl

The 60th Krakow Film Festival will take place from May 31 to June 7, 2020.