27th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
competition sections
Opus Bonum
Opus Bonum is a competition section for the best world documentary films presented in world, international or European premieres.
→ USD 10,000 for the winning film
→ USD 5,000 for the best Central and East European film* (in cooperation with Current Time TV)
→ EUR 5,000 for the best film from V4 countries** (in cooperation with the International Visegrad Fund)
→ EUR 3,000 for the best debut (in cooperation with ARRI)
→ awards for the best cinematography, editing, sound design, film essay, etc.
* Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia
** Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia (only for films not supported by the Russian state institutions), Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan
Testimonies
Testimonies is a competition section dedicated to powerful documentary films which deal with important social, economic, environmental, and political phenomena.
Czech Joy
Czech Joy is a competition section for the best Czech documentary, celebrating diversity of themes and cinematic expression.
→ 200.000 CZK for the winning film
→ Professional Nikon camera for the Special mention
Short Joy
Short Joy is a competition section for the most remarkable world documentary shorts.
All films are made available online and free for two weeks prior to the festival. The public, anywhere in the world, is the jury of the section.
→ Free distribution on DAFilms.com platform for one year & additional support for the winning film
Fascinations
Fascinations is a prestigious competition section for best world experimental documentary films. Exploration of new forms, approaches, and film language.
Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
Exprmntl.cz is a competition section representing the latest Czech experimental films that search for new ways of expressing reality using both classical and digital film formats.
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality competition gives viewers the chance to enter into 360° films and spatial installations. Here, you can find 360° documentary films, VR installations and works on the boundary between film and art that make use of virtual spaces to create autonomous worlds whose own rules are determined by visuality. We are interested in works that take advantage of the characteristics of virtuality in an innovative and contemplative manner, that experiment with the audiovisual representation of reality and real stories, or that build an entertaining and instructive world of knowledge and learning.
non-competition sections
Constellations
The Constellations section presents films, that recently shone on world documentary skies. We introduce carefully selected remarkable titles from other film festivals.
Siren Test
The section dedicated to music/sound in contemporary progressive cinematography.
Virtual Reality: USA
Experience virtual reality walks in VR cinema projections, and enter installations where you can intervene and influence the story and the world yourself.
Enjoy the selection of VRs from the USA.
transparent being / retrospectives
Tribute: Naomi Kawase
A tribute to Japanese director Naomi Kawase. Poetic and unobtrusive, subtle but radical, discreet and naturally committed... discover with us all the significance of Kawase's Eastern film aesthetic.
Films:
Still the Water / Naomi Kawase / Japan / 2014 / 110 min
Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 SIDE A / Naomi Kawase / Japan / 2022 / 119 min
Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 SIDE B / Naomi Kawase / Japan / 2022 / 123 min
Translucent Being: Pavel Koutecký
Pavel Koutecký's documents are a chronicle of post-socialist Czechoslovakia.
"I believe that documentary film can just as well develop a critical view of reality as it can help one group of people understand another."
The persistent observer, subtle ironist and brilliant filmmaker will be remembered for his student, social, time-lapse and political films.
Films:
Citizen Havel / Pavel Koutecký / Czech Republic / 2007 / 119 min
Seekers of a fixed point / Pavel Koutecký / Czech Republic / 2001 / 115 min
Where's the truth? / Pavel Koutecký / Czech Republic / 1999 / 57 min
... for all eternity / Pavel Koutecký / Czech Republic / 1998 / 14 min
Dear master / Pavel Koutecký / Czech Republic / 1996 / 60 min
The Sportsman / Pavel Koutecký / Czech Republic / 1994 / 11 min
The Dissolution of Czechoslovakia in Parliament / Pavel Koutecký / Czech Republic / 1993 / 75 min
Oh, what a fight it was! / Pavel Koutecký / Czechoslovakia / 1992 / 7 min
After all, it's so easy to fly / Pavel Koutecký
Maximalists in a Microworld / Pavel Koutecký / Czechoslovakia / 1985 / 20 min
Dialogue / Pavel Koutecký / Czechoslovakia / 1981 / 18 min
Translucent Being: Marguerite Duras
A retrospective selection of films by Marguerite Duras. Literature and film are two sides of the same work.
"Life can only be brought to life by the way the imagination takes possession of everything that was, is and will be."
Her vibrantly formal films co-created the political and avant-garde dynamics of the new cinema as they sought to revive it in a gesture of destruction.
Films:
Sprinkled Sprinkler / Paul Seban / France / 1965 / 9 min
The Lorry / Marguerite Duras / France / 1977 / 76 min
Marguerite Duras in the Lions' Den / Paul Seban / France / 1966 / 16 min
Marguerite Duras Talks About the Difference Between Men and Women / Paul Seban / France / 1965 / 3 min
Aurélia Steiner (Melbourne) / Marguerite Duras / France / 1979 / 28 min
Aurélia Steiner (Vancouver) / Marguerite Duras / France / 1979 / 50 min
The Negative Hands / Marguerite Duras / France / 1979 / 14 min
The Ship Night / Marguerite Duras / France / 1979 / 95 min
High School Students Have a Say / Pierre Zaidline / France / 1968 / 8 min
Marguerite Duras and Little François / Roger Kahane / France / 1965 / 9 min
Caesarea / Marguerite Duras / France / 1978 / 11 min
Atlantic Man / Marguerite Duras / France / 1981 / 42 min
Marguerite Duras and the Prison Governess / Jean Noël Roy / France / 1967 / 12 min
Woman of the Ganges / Benoit Jacquot, Marguerite Duras / France / 1974 / 84 min
Duras and the Cinema / Dominique Auvray / France / 2014 / 60 min
I Want To Talk About Duras / Claire Simon / France / 2021 / 95 min