2024-07-11 00:10:35
The grand prize in the main competition of the Karlovy Vary festival was awarded this Saturday evening to the British documentary The Sudden Flash of Deeper Things. Director Mark Cousins received the Crystal Globe from the festival president Jiří Bartoška for this essay portrait of the now deceased British abstract painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. The award is associated with a reward of 25 thousand dollars, which is about 600 thousand crowns.
In the main competition of the Karlovy Vary festival, the jury assessed 12 films. The director award goes to Singapore native Nelicia Low for her feature debut Na kordy. It tells the story of a young swordsman dreaming of being reunited with his older brother Han. He is serving a sentence for killing an opponent during a match. “There are rumors about one of the most successful competition films, Na kordy, that they wanted to have it in the competition in Venice in September, but the creators preferred Vary,” wrote critic Tomáš Stejskal.
The special jury prize was awarded to the Norwegian film Forever. The film by director Lilja Ingolfsdottir deals with the breakdown of a marriage. Helga Guren’s performance in the role of Marie, who tries to combine a career with taking care of the children and the household, won her the statuette for the best actress. The one intended for men was won equally for their roles in the film The Guest and the Fish on the Third Day by Dutchmen Ton Kas and Guido Pollemans.
Two titles earned special recognition, Xoftex by German director Noah Desh, set in a refugee camp in Greece, and Mord by director Adam Martinec, set in the environment of a domestic killer. The Audience Award of the newspaper Právo went to Vlny directed by Jiří Mádl, which received a standing ovation for several minutes at the festival.
In the second festival competition section Proxima, the co-production Foreigner by Chinese director, screenwriter and cinematographer Cheng-fan Yang takes home the Grand Prize. The Special Jury Prize of the Proxima competition went to When the Night Came by debuting director Paolo Tizón, set in the military environment of Latin America. The creators of the Slovak film From March to May earned special recognition for Proxima.
Bartoška was delighted by Czech films
Actors Clive Owen and Ivan Trojan received the festival president’s award from Jiří Bartoška on Saturday. The British guest introduced the film Na dotek, for which he won a Golden Globe or an Oscar nomination. Trojan in Karlovy Vary reminded me of the drama Karamazov from 2008. “The fact that I am receiving this award from Jirka Bartoška is important to me. He is our god, as you could see from the clip from the film Angel of the Lord. He is so in this world somehow better,” declared Trojan, who celebrated his 60th birthday a few days ago.
According to Jiří Bartoška, Czech cinematography is looking forward to better times. | Photo: CTK
“Congratulations to Clive Owen and I think it’s good that I’m getting the award before him because I’m half a year older,” Trojan joked.
Festival president Bartoška was pleased with the success of Czech films. According to him, domestic cinematography is “flashing back to better times”, as he said before the closing ceremony. “Czech film has two films in the main competition, and Mord is fighting for the audience award. This is a signal for us that we will hopefully make interesting films again, not only for us, but mainly for the world, and Czech films will get to big festivals, and not only in Karlovy Vary,” said Bartoška.
There were two domestic films in the main competition – in addition to Murder by director Adam Martinec, it was Světýlka by director Beáta Parkanová. Waves by Jiří Mádl attracted a lot of attention, as did the documentary Janžurka. The one about her mother, the actress Iva Janžurová, was filmed by her daughter Theodora Remundová.
Jiří Bartoška celebrated 30 years as festival president this year. “When Eva Zaoralová and I started to establish a foundation in 1993 to save the film festival in Karlovy Vary, which is the second oldest on the continent, we had no idea that we would do it for so long. The thirtieth anniversary of the festival is a huge success for us, because the state canceled the festival with the fact that it is not perspective. And after 30 years of the state, we have proven that not all government decisions are logical. Which is a huge satisfaction for us,” says Bartoška.
According to him, if the organization fell under the state, the festival would probably no longer exist. “Every four years, there would be a new government, it would install its own person, who would form its own team. After four years, another person would come, the officials at the Ministry of Culture would blow the whistle that the event had taken place, and the festival would probably be he wasn’t,” thinks Bartoška.
Under his command, a team was created in which today’s executive director Kryštof Mucha started as a part-time worker 28 years ago, and production manager Petr Lintimer has been working here for 26 years.
“You could say without modesty that we know how to do the festival. The festival is actually a mathematical formula into which you insert the titles and the personalities that come. So when asked if I still enjoy it when the festival is in the same place at the same time, I say that it’s something different every time,” continues Bartoška.
He was pleased with the participation of foreign stars from this year’s event, including actors Viggo Mortensen and Daniel Brühl. “When I saw the film History of Violence and now I saw Viggo Mortensen upon arrival, I thought to myself: my God, that’s some kind of bank clerk, he doesn’t look like the kind of person who can kill with his hands. I also had a very pleasant meeting with Daniel Brühl,” states Bartoška.
Festival president Jiří Bartoška presents the award to actor Daniel Brühl. | Photo: CTK
The greatest interest was in Waves
At this year’s 58th edition of the festival, the organizers sold 127,325 tickets, almost 4,000 more than last year. 10,769 accredited visitors attended, about the same as last year. Of these, there were 8,726 visitors with festival passes, 411 filmmakers, 1,097 accredited producers, buyers, sellers, distributors, festival dramaturgs, representatives of institutions and other professionals from the field, and 535 journalists, festival spokeswoman Uljana Donátová calculated.
“Of the listed films, 33 had their world, eight international and three European premieres at the festival. A total of 168 screenings were personally shown by a delegation of creators. There were 92 screenings for journalists and film professionals,” said Donátová. “During the festival, 453 film performances were held. A total of 177 full-length feature films, full-length documentaries and short films were shown,” she added.
This year, among other things, the organizers faced comments from visitors about sold-out screenings. For example, there were complaints about differences in the speed of bookings on iPhones, where the response time was longer than on devices with the Android operating system.
“We would like everyone to be satisfied and get a ticket for the movie they want. But, unfortunately, that’s not always possible,” responded executive director Kryštof Mucha. “We struggle with it, we try to make it work, but every year there are two or three films that are so popular that it doesn’t make it to all of them. This year it happened especially with the film Waves, even though it had four screenings. We try to correct, and the words that the festival does not focus on the common viewer are absolutely untrue. We devote a lot of money and energy to it and try to keep the tickets at the lowest possible price,” adds Mucha.
The next, the 59th year of the Karlovy Vary Festival will take place from July 4 to 12, 2025.
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