Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarčík’s Photophobia won the best Czech documentary award at the 27th edition of the Czech Republic’s documentary film festival Ji.hlava (October 24-29).
Slovakia’s entry for best international feature at the Oscars, Photophobia centres around a Ukrainian family hiding from the war in a metro station where one of the young sons meets another girl trapped there and they form a bond. Also winner of best European film at Venice’s Giornate degli Autori, the film is a co-production between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The prize includes 200,000 Czech crowns (around £7,000).
Croatian documentary Ship from Elvis Lenić won the Opus Bonum award, the festival’s top prize, for best world documentary. The film focuses on an abandoned shipyard in Croatia’s Pula through the testimonies of various former workers.
Matej Bobrik’s Polish film Distances took home the best film from Central and Eastern Europe while, from the Visegrad region, the best film prize went to Slovak documentary Third End Of the Stick from Jaro Vojtek.
Other prizes included best world debut, awarded to You Will Never See It All by Czech director Štěpán Pech, and the award for an original approach which went to Maria Gattas Vargras, an audiovisual artist and research worker from Buenos Aires, for her film East Wind. Hungarian director Béla Tarr received recognition for his contribution to world cinema.
The festival also announced it would be extending its live run from six to ten days, starting next year.
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