Eight of them were decided by the festival jury and the ninth is based on audience voting. In addition to awards for best film and best director, the Grand Jury this year decided to grant two Special Mentions.
One World 2014 also welcomed a record number of protagonists from the screened documentaries. Prague audiences had the unique opportunity to personally meet Tanzanian defender of albinos Josephat Torner from the film In the Shadow of the Sun, Mira Kinnunen from the Finnish film Hilton! – Here For Life, Dean Puckett – the director and resident of the ecovillage in Grasp the Nettle, 80-year-old hitchhiker Teresa Bancewicz from Everything is Possible, Petri Luukkainen – the creator of the experiment in My Stuff, Libyan activist Ali Nouh from the film Road to Tawerghaa, and the mayor of the Hungarian village of Besence József Ignácz (Men with Balls).
This year's festival had to battle with a formidable foe: unseasonably warm weather. But thankfully the sunny weekend did not affect attendance too much. From March 3, when the festival started, to Sunday, March 9, in total 26,170 people attended the afternoon and evening film screenings. This is only 200 people fewer than last year, when the festival recorded a 25% increase in attendance compared to the year before.
The school screenings in Prague in the first festival week attracted 7,742 people (7,336 pupils and students and 406 teachers). There was also a great deal of interest in weekend screenings of documentary films for children and the related creative workshop. The Saturday and Sunday screenings for children were completely sold out.
This year One World was attended by 183 foreign and local guests from the ranks of filmmakers, producers and festival organizers.
Grand Jury
The Grand Jury awarded The Best Film Award, The Best Director Award, and two Special Mentions in the Main Competition. The jury was selecting from 12 documentary films.
The Best Film Award goes to Judgment in Hungary directed by Eszter Hajdú (Hungary / 2013 / 107 min.). The director and the film producer Sándor Mester presented their film personally at the One World festival. The director is coming back to Prague to receive the award.
“Set in a claustrophobic court-room, as 4 neo-Nazis stand trial for murder, this film bears witness to a riveting, and striking examination of an entire society. Small details are revealed through cinema vérité: the judge’s treatment of witnesses and survivors from the Romany community; the relationship between prison guards and the accused, subtle smiles of the lawyers, and the empty seats of courtroom,” stands in the jury statement.
The Best Director Award is presented to Forest of the Dancing Spirits directed by Linda Västrik (Sweden, Canada / 2013 / 104 min.).
„The jury honors a director who did her own camerawork, and created a highly poetic, layered and sensitive film. This director spent seven years working collaboratively with a remote forest community, and she transcends the political constraints of ethnographic film, to bring us an intimate yet universal story of birth and death with great humanity,” said the jury.
The Grand Jury decided to grant two Special Mentions. Both comment on a similar issue, from different points of view. Both films deal with the arrogance of the privileged. The jury members valued the access, intimacy and cinematic storytelling of both of these films:
The Blocher Experiencedirected byJean-Stéphane Bron (Switzerland, France / 2013 / 100 min.).
“The film shows how easy it is to fan the flames of racism with fear in order to gain political power and fulfilling personal ambitions of an individual who is capable of doing anything. It shows what consequences it can have even in a country full of prosperity as Switzerland, not forgetting the influence that far right politicians are having on the demise of democracy across Europe,” reads the jury statement.
Stop-Overdirected by Kaveh Bakhtiari (France / 2013 / 100 min.).
„The characters of this film suffer from direct consequences of the behavior of people like Blocher and must face life situations that are inhuman and degrading,“ explained the jury.
Members of the Grand Jury were: Anita Khanna – Tri Continental Film Festival director (South Africa) and a producer of Miners Shot Down documentary, which was the opening film of One World 2014; Fernand Melgar, a Swiss filmmaker whose film Special Flight got the Best Film Award at One World 2012; Radovan Síbrt – a Czech filmmaker whose film On Decency was screened at One World 2013; Katerina Cizek – a filmmaker and cross-media expert who joined the jury meeting via Skype.
Václav Havel Jury
The Václav Havel Jury awards the prize to a film that makes an exceptional contribution to the defense of human rights. They also decided to award a Special Mention. The jury was selecting from 12 documentaries featured in the Right To Know category.
The Award for a documentary that made an exceptional contribution to the defense of human rights goes to Miners Shot Down directed by Rehad Desai (South Africa / 2014 / 85 min.).
“Using testimonies, live and archive footage of the tragic unfolding events the filmmaker tells the story through powerful images of miners' protest and the police response. The film manages to operate on a number of levels: it tells the tale of both individual struggle and tragedy, but also of the reality of life in the Rainbow nation, nearly 20 years after the end of apartheid, where old racial divisions are replaced or translated into dividing lines between rich and poor. The filmmaker leaves no stone unturned in documenting the existence of slavery and rampant capitalism which is corrupting the states' elites and undermining basic right,” explains the jury statement.
The Special Mention is presented to No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lankadirected by Callum Macrae (Great Britain / 2013 / 93 min.).
“This is a documentary that needs to be seen, not only because it allows personal tragedies to be told but also because it documents serious war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law by the Sri Lankan government,” said the jury.
Members of the Václav Havel Jury were: Jacqueline Hale from Save the Children, Brussels; Mon Mon Myat, an organizer of Human Rights Human Dignity film festival in Burma; a Russian journalist Irina Gordienko from Novaja Gazeta; and Alina Abdullayeva, a filmmaker from Azerbaijan.
Czech Radio Jury
The Czech Radio Jury awards the innovative use of music and sound in the documentaries.
The Czech Radio Jury Award goes to Forest of the Dancing Spirits directed by Linda Västrik (Sweden, Canada / 2013 / 104 min.).
“The jury in particular recognizes the outstanding quality of the film’s natural sound and its meticulous audio postproduction, and considers the technical and artistic quality of the resulting material to be excellent. The jury also positively assesses the professionally mastered real sound environment,” said the jury.
Members of the Czech Radio Jury were: Tomáš Zikmund, Hubert Bittman, Jitka Kundrumová – sound masters from the Czech Radio.
Student Jury
Student Jury selects from a school film collection. Its members are mainly high school students and organizers of the Student film clubs of One World at Schools project.
The Student Jury Award goes to Viva Cuba Libre: Rap is Wardirected by Jesse Acevedo (Cuba, USA / 2013 / 60 min.).
“The film shows the true face of this country, as well as the courage of the young people living there. The oft-condemned musical style of rap is given a new face – it is presented as a weapon against injustice. We believe that this film has the ability to remind our peers that we can be grateful for the freedoms we enjoy in our country,” stated the jury.
Members of the Student Jury were: Markéta Mojžíšová, Mia Šamárková, Tereza Trnková, Jakub Voves.
AVAST Foundation Audience Award
The audiences have been voting for the best film in all festival cinemas until the last Tuesday screening. The Audience Award will be announced during the closing ceremony in Lucerna cinema in Prague on March 12, 2014.
Awarded films screenings
The awarded films will be screened on Wednesday, March 12 in following cinemas:
Lucerna Small Hall
18:00 Miners Shot Down / TheVáclav Havel Jury Award
22:00 Judgement in Hungary / TheBest Film Award
Lucerna Large Hall
22:00 Judgement in Hungary / TheBest Film Award
Světozor Large Hall
17:15 AVAST Foundation Audience Award
19:30 Forest of the Dancing Spirits / The Best Director Award and The Czech Radio Award
21:45 No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka / TheVáclav Havel Jury Special Mention
Atlas
17:30 The Blocher Experience / TheGrand Jury – A Special Mention
19:30 Stop-over / TheGrand Jury – A Special Mention
21:30 Viva Cuba Libre: Rap is War / TheStudent Jury Award
For more information please go to www.oneworld.cz or contact Tereza Hronová, cell: 731 129 553, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
