Zlín Film Fest names winners
- Israeli family film Abulele the most successful, with three awards for Russia
The Zlín Film Fest wrapped up its 56th edition at an awards ceremony where juries honoured films selected from the total number of 148 competing titles. “We had a lot of films about sports or films featuring child protagonists with very busy parents who don’t have much time for them”, said the artistic director Markéta Pášmová, adding “another characteristic feature of this year’s film programme was a large number of directorial debuts, especially in the children’s film section.”
The most successful film of the festival was Israeli family film Abulele, about a 10-year-old boy and his secret friendship with an ancient monster, by Jonathan Geva, who wrote, directed and worked as a visual effects artist on the project, netting three awards – the Audience Award, the Children’s Jury Award and the Ecumenical Jury Award. The Europe Award for Best European First Film went to Russian director Mikhail Mestesky for his debut Rag Union, a punk story about anarcho-activism, ideology and coming-of-age. Alen Huseyin Gursoy received special recognition for his role of child protagonist in Barış Kaya and Soner Caner’s Rauf [+see also:
trailer
film profile], set in an isolated Kurdish village with strong melancholic undercurrents. Another Russian director, Eduard Bordukov, won the Youth Jury Main Prize for his football film Pitch, which explores inter-ethnic relations among youths.
41,000 viewers visited the Festival´s screenings, which included 14 world premieres, 43 international premieres and 135 Czech premieres out of a total of 361 films. “Next year’s 57th Zlín Film Festival will be devoted to the national film of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, namely Hungary and Austria, as well as Switzerland, which was a neighbouring country back then,” said the Festival´s president Čestmír Vančura. The 57th Zlín Film Festival will run from 26 May to 2 June, 2017.
Here is the complete list of winners:
The Golden Slipper for Best Feature Film for Children
The World of Us – Yoon Ga-eun
The City of Zlín Award for Best Child Actor in a Feature Film for Children
Choi Soo-in – The World of Us
The Golden Slipper for Best Feature for Youth
Keeper [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Guillaume Senez
interview: Kacey Mottet Klein
film profile] – Guillaume Senez
The Miloš Macourek Award for Best Actor in a Feature Film for Youth
Hiba Atallah – The Idol
The Golden Slipper for Best Animated Film
The Orchestra – Mikey Hill
The Hermína Týrlová Award for Young Artists under 35 years
About a Mother – Dina Velikovskaya
The Children´s Jury Main Prize for Best Feature Film for Children
Abulele – Jonathan Geva
The Youth Jury Main Prize for Best Feature for Youth
Pitch – Eduard Bordukov
The Europe Award for Best European First Film
Rag Union – Mikhail Mestesky
The Main Prize (Zlín Dog Prize) for Best Film
Peacock – Ondřej Hudeček
ECFA Award
Learn by Heart [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Mathieu Vadepied
Ecumenical Jury Award
Abulele – Jonathan Geva
The Golden Apple Audience Award for Best Feature Film
Abulele – Jonathan Geva
The Golden Apple Audience Award for Best Animated Film
Tiger – Kariem Saleh
The ČT:D Czech Television Audience Award for Best Animated Short Film
I Am Not a Mouse! - Evgenia Golubeva
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