21/10/2022 - Ten feature-length and ten short documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe are vying for the awards that will be given out at the upcoming Ji.hlava IDFF

The Institute of Documentary Film has announced the nominees for the Silver Eye Award, which will be bestowed upon the best documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe. The Silver Eye Award has been granted annually since 2009, and since 2018, the award has gone to the best short (of up to 40 minutes) and best feature-length documentary film (over 60 minutes). This year, ten titles have been shortlisted in each section, and the aim of the prize is to support directors with an innovative approach, auteurs making films that create a social impact, filmmakers with the courage to open up a discussion on serious topics, and creators offering unique points of view.

The winner in each category receives not only a unique award trophy, but also prize money of €2,500 and one-year-long access to the festival service of the East Silver Caravan, worth an additional €3,500. The announcement of the winners will be made during the East Silver Market at the 26th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, running from 25-30 October. The Silver Eye Award for Best Short Film will be presented at the Festival HUB on Friday 28 October, and the Silver Eye Award for Best Feature-length Film will be given out during the closing ceremony on Saturday 29 October.

The international jury for the feature-length documentaries is composed of Kathleen McInnis, film marketing strategist and programmer (See-Through Films); Christopher Small, curator (Dafilms); and Radu Sticlea, festival director at the Beast Film Festival. As for the short documentaries jury, it features Mathieu Janssen, head of competitions at Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen; Anna Feistel, programmer at the Kurzfilm Festival; and María Vera, festival distributor and sales agent at Kino Rebelde.

Here are the nominees for the 2022 Silver Eye Award:

Feature-length Documentaries

5 Dreamers and a Horse [+see also:
film review
interview: Vahagn Khachatryan and Aren…
film profile] - Aren Malakyan, Vahagn Khachatryan (Armenia/Germany/Switzerland/Denmark/Georgia)
Producer: Vahagn Khachatryan
Co-producer: Eva Blondiau

Belarus 23.34 - Tatsiana Svirepa (Belarus/Ukraine/Belgium/Poland)
Producer: Tatsiana Svirepa

Burial [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Emilija Skarnulyte (Lithuania/Norway)
Producer: Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė
Co-producers: Elisa Fernanda, Pirir Ruiz

The Cathedral [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Denis Dobrovoda (Slovakia)
Producer: Matthew Bremner

The Hamlet Syndrome [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elwira Niewiera and Piotr R…
film profile] - Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosolowski (Poland/Germany)
Producers: Magda Kaminska, Matthias Miegel

Love Is Not an Orange [+see also:
trailer
interview: Otilia Babara
film profile] - Otilia Babara (Moldova/France/Netherlands/Belgium)
Producer: Hanne Phlypo, Jet Koomen
Co-producer: Christine Camdessus

Magic Mountain - Mariam Chachia, Nik Voigt (Georgia)
Producer: Mariam Chachia

Plai. A Mountain Path [+see also:
interview: Eva Dzhyshyashvili
film profile] - Eva Dzhyshyashvili (Ukraine)
Producers: Natalia Libet, Oksana Ivanyuk

Whose Dog Am I? [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Robert Lakatos (Hungary/Romania)
Producers: Rita Balogh, Ada Solomon

Yoyogi - Max Golomidov (Estonia/Belarus/Japan)
Producers: Volia Chajkouskaya, Ivo Felt, Yu Nakajima

Short Documentaries

After Betelgeuse - Len Murusalu (Estonia/Latvia)
Producer: Tauno Novek
Co-producer: Len Murusalu

Aralkum - Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhluktenko (Uzbekistan/Germany)
Producers: Mila Zhluktenko, Fozil Yunusov, Daniel Asadi Faezi

Avitaminosis - Kateryna Ruzhyna (Ukraine/Czech Republic)

Babajanja - Ante Zlatko Stolica (Croatia)

CALLS - Ming-Wei Chiang (Poland)
Producer: Krzysztof Brzezowski

May the Earth Become the Sky - Ana Vijdea (Portugal/Hungary/Belgium/Romania)
Producer: Ana Vijdea

Moody - Karolina Karwan, Tomasz Ratter (Poland)
Producer: Ewa Jastrzebska

Mother's Milk - Isaac Knights-Washbourn (Serbia)
Producers: Dejan Petrović, Nađa Lapčević

Papagalo, What's the Time? - Ingel Vaikla (Estonia/Belgium)

Strigov - Barbora Berezňáková (Slovakia)