We also invite you to take a look at our Industry Guide where you will find profiles of film professionals accredited at Ji.hlava. Most of the industry events – including the Ji.hlava New Visions Forum – will also be accessible online and you can get your industry accreditation here.
Marek Hovorka and the Ji.hlava IDFF team
WHEN FLOWERS ARE NOT SILENT ABOUT BELARUS WILL OPEN THE 25TH JI.HLAVA
The anniversary edition of the festival will kick off with an international premiere of Polish film When Flowers Are Not Silent by Belarusian director Andrei Kutsila that captures the atmosphere in Belarus after last year’s presidential election. The Contribution to World Cinema Award will be presented to the prominent Czech filmmaker Jana Ševčíková at this year's Awards Ceremony and her masterpiece Old Believers (2001) will be screened at Ji.hlava on Saturday evening.
MASTERCLASSES BY OLIVER STONE AND VITALY MANSKY
Five masterclasses will take place at this year's Ji.hlava. The first filmmaker who will share his work methods is the three-time Oscar winner Oliver Stone whose new film JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass will be screened at Ji.hlava, following the succes at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Russian documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, whose new film Gorbachev. Heaven will be screened in the competition section Testimonies, will also introduce his creative approach. Other masterclasses include the artist group Flatform, the prominent Czech documentary filmmaker and script editor Jan Gogola Jr. and creative duo Ivo Bystřičan and Sara Pinheiro who will speak about their project Future Landscapes: Expedition into Sound.
CZECH JOY FEATURES BEST NEW CZECH DOCUMENTARIES
The Czech film competition will feature nineteen films, including a reflection on the local political landscape Points for the President aka Attempt at Contrarevolution by Martin Kohout, animated documentary Love, Dad by Diana Cam Van Nguyen, the Czech premiere of Francesco Montagner's Brotherhood awarded at Locarno, and a very personal film called How I Became a Partisan by Vera Lacková. On Wednesday, October 27 at 5PM you will have the unique opportunity to join the Czech Joy in the Spotlight – an introduction of the competition films by their directors and producers, which will also be streamed online.
BEST OF FESTIVALS – TWENTY FILMS IN CONSTELLATIONS
The Constellations section that traditionally presents a selection of the cream of the world's film festivals will screen time-lapse documentary Cow by British Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold. In Jane by Charlotte, the British actress Charlotte Gainsbourg explores her complicated relationship with her mother, actress, singer and 1970s fashion icon Jane Birkin. The history of the working class will be recounted in the film Returning to Reims by French director Jean-Gabriel Périot. In The Balcony Movie Polish director Paweł Łoziński spends entire days on his balcony, from where he films events on the sidewalk. Check out all the twenty films of the Constellation section!
JURIES WILL HAND OUT AWARDS CREATED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
The Ji.hlava festival awards this year (and in the years to come) will be created by artificial intelligence – a concept by Czech-Argentinian artist Federico Díaz who is developing a neutron network that examines and then transcribes emotional messages into graphic notation. The international jury is composed of Syrian writer and filmmaker Orwa Al Mokdad, Romanian producer Anamaria Antoci, Czech-Japanese documentary filmmaker Haruna Honcoop, Dutch film critic Sofie Cato Maas, Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu and Mexican festival programmer and distributor Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal. See all festival's juries here.
JUDITH BUTLER AND DAVID ABRAM AT THE INSPIRATION FORUM
For the eleventh time, the Inspiration Forum, which connects the film world with the world beyond, will be a part of the Ji.hlava IDFF. Visitors will be invited to discuss with personalities from across the world, including Afghan filmmaker Sahra Karimi, American ecologist and philosopher David Abram and among the stars of this year's Inspiration Forum will be American feminist, philosopher and gender studies legend Judith Butler. Check out the full programme of the Forum, selected discussions will be streamed to audiences worldwide.
DOK.INCUBATOR MARKS 10 YEARS AT JI.HLAVA
This year, the dok.incubator documentary workshop will also celebrate a special anniversary: ten years of its existence. At the Ji.hlava IDFF, the occasion will be marked by a retrospective comprising five outstanding films that were presented at the workshop in the past. These will include the Sundance titles The Earth Is Blue as an Orange and The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear, as well as an intimate portrait of a mother who decides to disappear from the world she has been living in (The Disappearance of My Mother), a probe into mystical architecture of Brasília (A Machine To Live In) and frank and open conversations about sex and sexuality (Venus – Let’s Talk About Sex)
VOTE FOR THE BEST FESTIVAL POSTER
Despite the pandemic, the 2021 has offered a large number of film festivals with their unique visuals. You can now browse through 53 submitted festival designs and vote in the traditional competition for the Best Festival Poster! The voting ends on October 29 at 6PM.
ON THE SAFE SIDE AT JI.HLAVA
Last year we couldn't meet in person in Jihlava as the festival had to move online. This year, we appreciate all the more that we can return to the cinemas with live viewers and guests. Of course, we have to stay on the safe side and therefore we have introduced a simple system of rules to create a safe environment during the festival. All visitors will be requested to use respirators in cinemas and in all other indoor areas. In addition to that, valid infection-free status is a condition for attending the festival programme. A testing site will also be available for the festival visitors. See more information here. Let's be responsible and considerate of each other!
