Film Festival Zlín

Film Festival Zlín
Location	Zlín, Czech Republic
Founded	1961
Awards	The Golden Slipper (main award)
Number of films	571
Official website

Zlín International Film Festival for Children and Youth is a film festival for young audiences, and is one of the oldest festivals of its kind in the world.^[1] Due to the dramatic expansion of its scope over the last few years, it can also be counted among the largest film events of its kind worldwide. The last edition saw the record-breaking attendance of more than 100,000 visitors and the number of films reached 571 from 52 countries.^[2] The festival traditionally takes place in the Eastern part of the Czech Republic and is held every year at the turn of May and June. Since its 48th edition, which took place 1–8 June 2008, it has been extended to 8 days. The festival is a member of the CIFEJ and ECFA professional organizations.

Contents 1 History 2 Programme 2.1 Competition Sections 2.2 Out-of-competition Sections 2.3 Days of European Cinema 3 Awards 4 List of main prize winners 5 Famous attendants of Film Festival Zlín 6 References 7 External links

History

Zlín, the city linked to the name of the Baťa family, has had a long tradition of organizing film festivals. There were festivals of Czech and Slovak films held in Zlín as early as 1941 and 1942, under the name of Film Harvest (also known as Zliennale). These seminal festivals are still considered the beginning of Czechoslovakia's film festival tradition. The history of the Film Festival in Zlín began in the year 1961 when the historical first edition of the Film Festival for Children and Youth was held. In the course of time the festival has expanded the number of films it screens as well as the number of visitors and cinemas. A milestone of sorts was the 48th edition when the festival acquired 6 new screening halls, bringing the total number of projection venues to 23. The 48th edition was also unique in its record number of films presented (570 films from 52 countries) and visitors (108,722). The 50th annual Film Festival Zlín was held from 31 May to 6 June 2010.^[3]

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 or 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

• Feature Films for Children and Youth: 16 feature films compete in two categories; films for children of up to 12 years and films for children of 13 years or older.
• Short Animated Films for Children: Approximately 70 short animated films for children.
• European Debuts Competition: 10 feature film debuts by European directors present young filmmakers' unusual view of the world today.
• Feature Films from the Visegrad Countries: No restriction in terms of topic or focus on young audience, the key is film reflection of the Visegrad Four – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary. Judged by a student jury.
• Advertising Award The Rainbow Marble: Advertising spots and printed advertisements focused on children, adolescents and family compete in six categories; complemented by a specialist conference.

Out-of-competition Sections

• Days of European Cinema: This section contains the cinema of a selected European country. In 2010 it is the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Czechoslovakia, respectively. This section was launched in 2004 with cinema from France, continued with Scandinavia and the Baltic regions, Russia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Spain.

• 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
• Czech Film and TV Production for Children and Youth: 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.
• Creative Contribution to Filmmaking for Children and Youth award to one of the prominent film professionals accompanied by a showcase of films of the awarded actor or filmmaker.
• Supporting programme: Apart from the hundreds of 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.

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). It is a project which presents one of the major European cinemas to the Czech audience each year. 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. In the past editions of DEC, the cinemas of France, Scandinavia and the Baltic region, Russia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were presented. In previous years, smaller sections presented forums of German, Austrian, Swiss and Slovak cinema.

Archive sections are among the parts of DEC that are the most popular ones. The 2008 edition of DEC, dedicated to British cinema, commemorated the hundredth anniversary of the director David Lean by presenting a retrospective of his works, presented a representative selection of films for children and youth and offered a profile of film production of the so-called British New Wave, that is, a programme aimed mostly at more mature and grown up audience.

The 49th edition of the Days of European Cinema was dedicated to Spanish cinema.

Awards

• Golden Slipper – Main prize awarded to the best feature film for children, youth, and animated film.
• The City of Zlín Award – Special recognition for a feature film for children
• The Miloš Macourek Award – Special recognition for a feature film for youth
• The Hermína Týrlová Award – Award for young artists aged fewer than 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
• The Czech Minister of Culture Award – Awarded to the best feature film from the Visegrad Group
• The Don Quixote Award – Awarded by the International FICC Jury
• Ecumenical Jury Award – Awarded by the International Ecumenical Jury

List of main prize winners

• 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
^[4]

• 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 Film Festival Zlín

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, Gotz George, Alexej Kotěnočkin, Katerina Jakob, Sir Peter Ustinov, Alexander Mitta, Maximillian Schell and many others.^[5]

References

External links

• Zlín International Film Festival for Children and Youth – Official website
• The town Zlín – Official website
• The Zlín Region – Official website
• Zlínfest – the Czech Republic’s most audience-friendly film festival – Czech Radio
• Announcement of 49th film festival