The awards ceremony of the 26^th edition of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival kicked off by honouring Slovakian director Dušan Hanák. Hanák, who has directed memorable films such as 322, Pictures of the Old World, and I Love, You Love, received the Contribution to World Cinema Award. Festival director Marek Hovorka noted that Hanák’s “signature filmmaking style is highly inspirational, also thanks to his courage and his ability to pinpoint the substantial issues of the times, even at the cost of being banned and facing restrictions by the totalitarian regime. Dušan Hanák’s films were critical mainly thanks to their consistent authenticity, combining experiments with casualness.”

The jury of the main Opus Bonum Competition, comprising Carmen Gray, Diana Cam Van Nguyen, Bianca Oana, Miguel Ribeiro and prolific filmmaker Lav Diaz, notorious for his lengthy films, ironically picked the shortest movie in the competition as the main winner. Judith Auffray’s poetic flick 07:15 – Blackbird, a short revolving around recording birds, was labelled by the jury as “a simple, honest, yet multi-sensory experience. This film draws us back to the mystery of our existence while conveying ways of connecting us, humans and non-humans, with a profound trust in the tools of cinema.” In addition, the movie’s DoP, Mario Valero, received the Best Cinematography Award for his “elegant yet non-manipulative camerawork”.

Croatian director Damir Markovina took home the Award for Best Film from Central and Eastern Europe for his latest work, Deserters. “To confront the past is painful but fundamental. This raw but delicately constructed film brings forth traces of memory and conflict from Europe’s collective history,” revealed the jury. Markovina’s collaborator Miroslav Piškulić received the Best Sound Design Award for his work on the film.

In the competition section dedicated to domestic works, the documentary opera (or operatic documentary) Kapr Code [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Lucie Králová
ficha de la película] by Lucie Králová, which has already travelled quite substantially around the festival circuit, won the Best Czech Documentary Award. “This film provides joy through its original and sophisticated form. In a perfect symphony involving all of the components of its cinematic language, it tells a story of a forgotten and ambiguous character from Czech history,” said the jury.

Šimon Špidla went home with the Best Editing Award for his work on Jan Bušta’s experimental and challenging film a-B-C-D-e-F-G-H-i-JONESTOWN, which recreates the infamous mass suicide in a conceptual manner. The jury mostly appreciated “the search for a new mode of expression through editing that aligns with radicality, playful subversiveness and an unconventional nature”. Cinematographer Jakub Vrtík won the Best Cinematography Award for his work on the unconventional portrait of Czech translator Anna Kareninova in Petr Michal’s film Found by the One She Seeks. Meanwhile, the student jury highlighted Jana Počtová’s exploration of a variety of forms of open relationships, Happily Ever After, and the sentiment was also clearly shared by the festival visitors, as the film won the Audience Award as well.

While the gathering has already wrapped its on-site component, the Ji.hlava IDFF continues online until 13 November.

Here is the full list of award winners at the 26^th Jihlava IDFF:

Opus Bonum

Best Film
07:15 – Blackbird – Judith Auffray (France) (short film)

Best Documentary Film from Central and Eastern Europe
Deserters – Damir Markovina (Croatia) (medium-length film)

Best Editing
Mateo Ybarra - Over Our Hills (Switzerland) (medium-length film)

Best Cinematography
Mario Valero - 07:15 – Blackbird

Best Documentary Debut
Bloom – Fanie Pelettier (Canada)

Award for Original Approach
Greater Gospel [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
ficha de la película] – Javier Codesal (Spain)

Best Sound Design
Miroslav Piškulić - Deserters

Student Jury Award
Over Our Hills – Mateo Ybarra

Testimonies

Best Film
Into the Weeds: Dewayne "Lee" Johnson vs Monsanto Company - Jennifer Baichwal (Canada)
Special Mentions
Rojek - Zaynê Akyol (Canada)
Atlantic Ragagar - Gilles Aubry (Switzerland) (medium-length film)

Czech Joy

Best Film
Kapr Code [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Lucie Králová
ficha de la película] – Lucie Králová (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
Special Mention
The Visitors [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
ficha de la película] – Veronika Lišková (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Norway)

Best Editing
Šimon Špidla - a-B-C-D-e-F-G-H-i-JONESTOWN (Czech Republic)

Best Cinematography
Jakub Vrbík - Found by the One She Seeks (Czech Republic) (medium-length film)

Student Jury Award
Happily Ever After – Jana Počtová (Czech Republic)

Fascinations

Best Film
The Sound of Time - Jeissy Trompiz (Venezuela/Brazil/Italy) (short film)
Special Mentions
Spectrum Restoration - Felippe Mussel (Brazil) (short film)
The Geometry of the Hunter - Soh Boram (South Korea) (short film)

Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz

Best Film
Glasswork - Zdeněk Picpauer (Czech Republic) (short film)
Special Mentions
Kambium 1492 - Denis Kozerawski and Peter Kašpar (Slovakia) (short film)
The Landscape of Ashes - Denis Kozerawski and Peter Kašpar (Czech Republic) (short film)

Audience Award
Happily Ever After – Jana Počtová

Short Joy
Blue Bed - Lize Cuveele (Belgium) (short film)

Contribution to World Cinema Award
Dušan Hanák