Zlín Film Festival

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Zlín Film Festival, also known as the International Film Festival for Children and Youth(Czech: Mezinárodní festival filmů pro děti a mládež) is the oldest festival of its kind. The festival first took place in 1961 as a national festival of Czechoslovak films for children. Over the course of 55 years, the Zlín Film Festival has become a significant international event of excellent renown. Although the subtitle of the festival speaks of children and youth, the festival offers film and supporting programs for all age groups – from children to university students, adults and even senior citizens. The festival attracted around 107,000 visitors in 2014.

History

The establishment of the tradition of a regular film festival in Zlín was the logical result of efforts by local filmmakers to present their work in a local atmosphere. The first year of the festival took place in 1961, exactly 20 years after another film festival had been carried out in Zlín, which went by the name of Film Harvest (or Zliennale). Although these precursors of later film festivals in Zlín were held in the war years 1940 - 1941, they attracted a considerable amount of attention among audiences and the filmmakers themselves. The Film Harvest was graced with the presence of most of the stars of that period's highly productive and internationally successful Czech and Slovak films. The main program was held in Zlín's Grand Cinema, which was the largest cinema in Central Europe at that time. The capacity of the building, completed in 1932, was over 2,500 moviegoers! The Grand Cinema screens film to this day, and regularly hosts, among other events,the opening ceremony of the festival.

Films are not only projected, but also produced in Zlín. In 1936, Jan Antonín Baťa founded a new film studio in the city, which gradually turned into Czechoslovakia's most prominent centre of filmmaking focused on children and youth. Well known filmmaking artists such as Karel Zeman, Hermína Týrlová, Alexander Hackenschmied, Břetislav Pojar and Josef Pinkava created their works in the Zlín film studios. The glorious filmmaking tradition of Zlín continues today in its two film schools. It is the very connection of film and its filmmaking tradition which gives the Zlín Film Festival its unique appeal. In this place with such unique history, the two poles of the film world unite each year: the audience and the filmmakers.

Programme

The competitive sections of the festival are particularly rich in new films shot within the last two years. They are complemented by either quality films from other festivals or classic works of world cinema. Apart from the five competitive sections, the festival offers a whole range of informative and retrospective sections, including that of documentary full-length films. Each year cinematography of one European nation is presented within an extensive film showcase.

Competition Sections

• International Competition of Feature Films for Children
• International Competition of Feature Films for Youth
• International Competition of Short Animated Films for Children
• International Competition of European First Films
• Zlín Dog - International Competition of Student Films

Out-of-competition Sections

Zlín Film Festival opening party fireworks

• Days of European Cinema: This section contains the cinema of a selected European country.
• Night Horizons: Serious and provocative topics – films which incite debate and attract the more mature part of the audience, in particular college and university students. Topics of transition from childhood to adult age, captured to be attractive for older spectators
• New Czech Film and TV Programmes: Presentation of the outcomes of Czech Cinematic and TV production made over the year.
• Documentaries: A section dedicated to documentaries for children and youth or focusing on children and youth as their topic.
• Panorama: Informative section – presents mostly films awarded at other festivals, interesting films which cannot, for various reasons, compete in one of the competitive sections or films bringing new, unorthodox views.
• A Thousand and One Night a new long-term project that will present the concept of fairy tales within an international scale from various perspective. The section offers different variations of fairy tales not only for children, but also for young people and adults.
• Young Stars The section of films where the festival introduces young and hopeful actors with whom the audience can meet in person in Zlín.
• Supporting programme: Apart from the film projections, the festival offers a supporting programme for the general film enthusiast as well as the specialist. Supporting events for the public mean above all charity and entertainment – concerts, exhibitions, public readings, parties in squares. The specialist part of the programme includes mostly classes, lectures and workshops. Festival also offers a supporting programme for the Film Industry.

Days of European Cinema

Since 2003 the main conceptual line of the festival has been represented by the section called the Days of European Cinema (DEC). DEC is the dominant element of the whole festival. DEC is represented by new films in the competitive section and a selection of the best and most interesting older films in the non-competitive sections. This project was created with the aim of presenting European cinemas and in the past editions of the festival, the cinemas of Scandinavia and the Baltic regions, Russia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, Czech Republic and Slovak Republic, Italy, Ireland, Denmark and Poland were presented at the previous editions. In 2015, the festival focused on the cinematic production of GERMANY.

Supporting program

Apart from the film projections, the festival offers a supporting programme for the general film enthusiast as well as the specialist. Supporting events for the public mean above all charity and entertainment – concerts, exhibitions, public readings, parties in squares. The specialist part of the programme includes mostly classes, lectures and workshops. Festival also offers a supporting programme for the Film Industry. The rich supporting program includes one of the most notable projects of the festival, the Cinematrain, which is a railway car modified into a projection room that makes its way around the Czech Republic and Slovakia for a few weeks before the film festival. ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL is thus able to bring happiness even to children who cannot come to Zlín. A great amount of interest is also given each year to the climax of the MINISALON project – an auction of artistically rendered film clapperboards.http://minisalon.cz/ Prominent Czech artists and other significant personalities "artistically empower" these film clapperboards during the autumn and winter. The collection of art works is then put on display and auctioned off during the film festival. The funds procured from their auction are intended for the support of student film productions.

Awards

• Golden Slipper – Main prize awarded to the best feature film for children, youth, and animated film.
• The City of Zlín Award – for Best Children Performance in a Feature Film for Children
• The Miloš Macourek Award – for Best Youth Performance in a Feature Film for Youth
• The Hermína Týrlová Award – Award for young artists under 35
• Golden Apple – spectator prize awarded to the most successful feature and animated film
• The Europe Award – Awarded to the best European debut feature film
• Ecumenical Jury Award – Awarded by the International Ecumenical Jury
• ECFA Jury Award - Awarded by the ECFA Jury
• Children´s and Youth Jury Awards - prizes awards to the best feature films for children and youth

List of main prize winners

• 2015| 55th ed.

Best feature film for children: Birds of Passage, dir. Olivier Ringer , Belgium
Best feature film for youth: Behaviour, dir. Ernesto Daranas, Cuba
Best Animated Film: The Elephant and the Bicycle, dir. Olesya Shchukina, France, Belgium

• 2014| 54th ed.

Best feature film for children: The Nightingale, dir. Philippe Muyl, France, China
Best feature film for youth: The Kings of Summer, dir. Jordan Vogt-Roberts, U.S.A.
Best Animated Film: Mythopolis, dir. Alexandra Hetmerová, Czech Republic

• 2013| 53rd ed.

Best feature film for children: My Sweet Orange Tree, dir. Marcos Bernstein, Brazil
Best Feature Film for Youth: So Much Water, dir. Ana Guevara Pose, Uruguay, Mexico, Netherlands, Germany
Best Animated Film: Pilipka, dir. Tatiana Kublitskaya, Belarus

• 2012| 52nd ed.

Best feature film for children: Chubby Drums, dir. Arne Toonen, Netherlands
Best Feature Film for Youth:Death of a Superhero, dir. Ian FitzGibbon, Germany, Ireland
Best Animated Film:Harbor Tale, dir. Yuichi Ito, Japan

• 2011| 51st ed.

Best feature film for children: The Liverpool Goalie, dir. Arild Andresen, Norway
Best feature film for youth: Hold Me Tight, dir. Kaspar Munk, Denmark
Best animated film: Larghetto, dir. Jaroslav Nykl, Czech Republic

• 2010| 50th ed.

Best feature film for children: Magic Tree, dir. Andrzej Maleszka, Poland
Best feature film for youth: Sebbe, dir. Babak Najafi, Sweden
Best animated film: Lost and Found, dir. Philip Hunt, United Kingdom

• 2009| 49th ed.

Best feature film for children: Who Is Afraid of the Wolf? (Kdopak by se vlka bál?), dir. Mária Procházková, Czech republic
Best feature film for youth: Max Embarrassing, dir. Lotte Svendsen, Denmark
Best animated film: Post!, dir. Christian Asmussen, Matthias Bruhn, Germany

• 2008 | 48th ed.

Best feature film for children: Where is Winky’s Horse?, dir. Mischa Kamp, The Netherlands, Belgium
Best feature film for youth: The Substitute, dir. Ole Bornedal, Denmark
Best animated film: The Bears Stories, dir. Marina Karpova, Russia

• 2007 | 47th ed.

Best feature film for children: Little Heroes, directed by Itai Lev, Israel
Best feature film for youth: Leaps and Bounds, dir. Petter Naess, Sweden
Best animated film: Tyger, dir. Guilherme Marcondes, Brazil

• 2006 | 46th ed.

Best feature film for children: Bonkers, directed by Martin Koolhoven, The Netherlands
Best feature film for youth: We Shall Overcome, dir. Niels Arden Oplev, Denmark
Best animated film: Cartoon, dir. Pál Tóth, Hungary

• 2005 | 45th ed.

Best feature film for children: The Colour of Milk, directed by Torun Lian, Norway
Best feature film for youth: Fourteen Sucks, dir. Filippa Freijd, Martin Jern, Emil Larsson, Henrik Norrthon, Sweden
Best animated film: Music Shop, dir. Sofia Kravtsova, Russia

• 2004 | 44th ed.

Best feature film for children: Strong as a Lion, directed by Manne Lindwall, Sweden
Best feature film for youth: 4th Floor, dir. Antonio Mercero, Spain
Best animated film: Music Shop, dir. Michéle Lemieux, Canada

• 2003 | 43rd ed.

Best feature film for children: The Flying Classroom, directed by Tomy Wigand, Germany
Best feature film for youth: White Oleander, dir. Peter Kosminsky, Germany, USA
Best animated film: I Want a Dog, dir. Sheldon Cohen, Canada

• 2002 | 42nd ed.

Best feature film for children: Children of Petroleum, directed by Ebrahim Forouzesh, Iran
Best feature film for youth: And Your Mother Too, dir. Alfonso Cuarón, Mexico, USA
Best animated film: Choo-choo-2, dir. Garri Bardine, Russia

Famous attendants of Zlín Film Festival

Cyron Melville, Pelle Hvenegaard, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Martin McCann, Patrick McCabe, Martin Duffy, Tim Curry, AnnaSophia Robb, Dakota Blue Richards, Daniel Clark, Randal Kleiser, Stana Katic, Christopher Miles, Haley Joel Osment, Andrej Chalimon, Gerrit van Dijk, Lawrence Guterman, Marléne Jobert, Annie Girardot, Pierre Brice, Gina Lollobrigida, Ornella Muti, Emmanuelle Béart, Oleg Tabakov, Alfonso Cuarón, Krzysztof Zanussi, Michael York, Jan Pinkava, Götz George, Alexej Kotěnočkin, Katerina Jakob, Sir Peter Ustinov, Alexander Mitta, Maximilian Schell, Petr Sís, Jürgen Prochnow, Gedeon Burkhard, George MacKay and many others.

External links

• Zlín International Film Festival for Children and Youth – Official website
• Festival´s official Facebook page
• Zlínfest – the Czech Republic’s most audience-friendly film festival – Czech Radio