Cousins romped onto the Karlovy Vary stage in a kilt to collect his award drawing cheers from the closing night crowd. Another big favourite with the audience was actor Clive Owen, who received the Festival President’s Award on the closing night, which he insisted should be shared by festival President Jiří Bartoška, who celebrated 30 years as president of the festival this year.
The festival has established a reputation for its innovative opening and closing ceremony shows, and this year became a nostalgic look back at all the shows since 1994 with video clips and costumes from all the various years on stage.
Czech actor Ivan Trojan received the President’s Award for Contribution to Czech Cinematography and during a moving speech he also praised the work of Bartoška.
The Proxima Grand Prix went to Stranger / Ju wai ren (USA, China, the Netherlands, Norway, France) directed by Zhengfan Yang, while Night Has Come / Vino la noche (Peru, Spain, Mexico) by Paolo Tizón received the Proxima Special Jury Prize.
The 2024 edition was attended by 10,769 accredited visitors of whom 411 were filmmakers, 1,097 accredited film professionals and 535 journalists.There were a total of 453 film screenings and a total of 127,325 tickets were sold. A total of 177 films were screened,
FNE Critics Ratings of the films in the Crystal Globe and Proxima Competitions took place in cooperation with FIPRESCI for the ninth time at the festival. You can see the final results HERE.
The 59th Karlovy Vary IFF will be held 4 to 12 July 2025
WINNERS:
Crystal Globe Competition:
Grand Prix – Crystal Globe:
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things (United Kingdom)
Directed by Mark Cousins
Special Jury Prize:
Loveable / Elskling (Norway)
Directed by Lilja Ingolfsdottir
Best Director Award:
Nelicia Low for Pierce / Cì xīn qiè gŭ (Singapore, Taiwan, Poland)
Best Actress Award:
Helga Guren in Loveable / Elskling (Norway)
Best Actor Award ex-aequo:
Ton Kas and Guido Pollemans in Three Days of Fish / Drie dagen vis (the Netherlands, Belgium)
Directed by Peter Hoogendoorn
Special Jury Mentions:
Xoftex (Germany, France)
Directed by Noaz Deshe
Our Lovely Pig Slaughter / Mord (Czech Republic, Slovakia)
Directed by Adam Martinec
Produced by Breathless Films
Coproduced by filmsomnia
Supported by the Czech Film Fund, the Moravian-Silesian Region Film Foundation, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund
Právo Audience Award:
Waves / Vlny (Czech Republic, Slovakia)
Directed by Jiří Mádl
Produced by Dawson Production
Coproduced by the Czech Television, RTVS, Barrandov Studios
Supported by the Czech Film Fund, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund
Proxima Competition:
Proxima Grand Prix:
Stranger / Ju wai ren (USA, China, the Netherlands, Norway, France)
Directed by Zhengfan Yang
Proxima Special Jury Prize:
Night Has Come / Vino la noche (Peru, Spain, Mexico)
Directed by Paolo Tizón
Special Mention:
March to May / Od marca do mája (Czech Republic)
Directed by Martin Pavol Repka
Produced by Perfilm
Coproduced by Studio BEEP, PFX
Supported by the Czech Film Fund
Festival President’s Award for Contribution to Czech Cinematography:
Ivan Trojan (Czech Republic)
Festival President’s Award:
Viggo Mortensen (USA)
Daniel Brühl (Germany, Spain)
Clive Owen (UK)
Non-statutory Awards:
Grand Prize of the Ecumenical Jury:
Loveable / Elskling (Norway)
Directed by Lilja Ingolfsdottir
Commendation of the Ecumenical Jury:
Panopticon / Panoptikoni (Georgia, France, Italy, Romania)
Directed by George Sikharulidze
Produced by 20 Steps
Coproducedby FILM02, Ombre Rosse Film Production, Tangaj Production, Independent Film Project
Supported by the Georgian National Film Center
Europa Cinemas Label Award:
Loveable / Elskling (Norway)
Directed by Lilja Ingolfsdottir
FIPRESCI Award for the Best Film in the Crystal Globe Competition:
Loveable / Elskling (Norway)
Directed by Lilja Ingolfsdottir
FIPRESCI Award for the Best Film in the Proxima Competition:
Night Has Come / Vino la noche (Peru, Spain, Mexico)
Directed by Paolo Tizón
Click HERE to see the KVIFF Eastern Promises winners and HERE for the press release.
