FNE at Art Film Fest: The Guilty Wins Best Film

25-06-2018

FNE at Art Film Fest: The Guilty Wins Best Film

By Cathy Meils

The Guilty by Gustav Moller Photo by Nikolaj Moller

KOSICE: The Danish film The Guilty by Gustav Moller won the Blue Angel for Best Film at the closing ceremony of the 26th Art Film Fest on 23 June 2018. The Danish actor Jakob Cedergren won Best Actor award.

The Best Director prize went to Ognjen Glavonic for The Load (Serbia, France, Croatia, Iran, Qatar). Slovakia didn’t go home empty-handed. The auteur film The Last Self-Portrait directed by Marek Kubos received a special mention.

The festival took place in the Eastern Slovakia city of Kosice for the third year, with the saying “Third time a charm” reflecting the reality. Artistic Director Peter Nagel told FNE, “It’s not only the foreigners who have been saying how much they like Kosice. The Slovaks are saying it too.” Attendance at screenings showed that local audiences have embraced the festival, and the city has also been supportive of having the festival relocate to Kosice. Better screening halls, an enchanting smaller city with an active café society and an airport with international connections all bode well for the future of the festival.

The industry programme still has room for growth, but with filmmakers and industry professionals from Slovakia as well as nearby Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic, turning up for the festival, there are opportunities to use Kosice as a sort of regional industry hub. This year’s programme included a strong presentation of women in the film industry, first in a panel on Slovak women professionals in filmmaking and later in a discussion on production, presented primarily by women filmmakers and professional from Central Europe. Expect to see growing industry presence at Art Film Fest in future years, as word spreads about the benefits of the move to Kosice.

Complete list of awards:

Best Film

The Guilty (Denmark)
Directed by Gustav Moller

Best Director

Ognjen Glavonic for The Load (Serbia, France, Croatia, Iran, Qatar)
Produced by Non-Aligned Films in Serbia
Coproduced by Kinorama

Best Actor

Jakob Cedergren in The Guilty (Denmark)

Best Actress

Zsófia Szamosi in One Day (Hungary)
Directed by Zsofia Szilagyi

Special Mentions:

The Last Self-Portrait (Slovakia)
Directed by Marek Kubos

Butterflies (Turkey)
Directed by Tolga Karacelik