Custody is winning film at 25th Febiofest

Press release no. 7

23^rd March 2018
Custody is winning film at 25^th Febiofest
The winner of the landmark 25^th edition of the Prague International Film Festival – Febiofest has been announced! The jury in the new Europe section, headed by Marta Kubišová, has selected Custody by French director Xavier Legrand as Best Film. Legrand’s picture tells the story of Julien, who ends up in alternating custody following his parents’ divorce. Escalating disputes between his violent father and unhappy mother bring him to the edge of the abyss. He is willing to do anything to prevent the worst… The director employs long, almost documentary-style shots to create an atmosphere of powerful emotional tension. The film already has an 81% rating on csfd.cz and is distributed by Artcam Films.
Amnesty International Febiofest Award

The festival has also bestowed the Amnesty International Febiofest Award for the fourth time. A jury comprising Ann Skelly, Šimon Holý and Martina Pařízková gave the prize to Philippe Van Leeuw’s Insyriated, which is a Belgian-French-Lebanese co-production. The film is the story of a woman, man and children barricaded inside a flat in a Damascus housing estate against the omnipresent war. There is a sniper at the opposite window and dangerous people are roving around the building. In the film the director attempts to highlight the pointlessness and cruelty of military conflict through the characters of ordinary, defenceless people.

You’re the Filmmaker

The winner has also been announced in the fifth edition of the You’re the Filmmaker competition, which was open to amateur filmmakers. A jury composed of Jaroslav Kratochvíl, Zuzana Černá, Zdeněk Chaloupka and Jitka Kotrlová selected three winners. A financial reward of CZK 7000 recognising high technical and filmic standard and strong narrative was presented to Jáchym Belcher. Second place, with a prize of CZK 13,000, went to Petr Černý for playfulness, originality and impressive brevity. The winner of the competition, who walked away with a cash prize of CZK 30,000 in recognition of inventiveness, levity and skill in maintaining filmic expression on a tight budget, was Adam Karásek.

Kristián

Two Kristián awards were presented at the festival’s closing ceremony. The first was received by a French director with a distinctive style, Leos Carax, whose three most important films were screened during this year’s Febiofest. The second recipient of the festival’s top honour was French acting star Catherine Deneuve, who on Wednesday introduced her film A Christmas Tale. That film was directed by Arnaud Desplechin, another distinguished guest at this year’s festival, and earned a special jury award for Catherine Deneuve at the Cannes IFF in 2008. The cinema icon had been indisposed for health reasons at the start of the festival but came to collect a Kristián at its close and also graced the closing party. A total of five statuettes were handed out this year. Alongside Catherine Deneuve and Leos Carax, they went to the above-mentioned French director Arnaud Desplechin, the French-Armenian musician and actor Charles Aznavour and the actress Daniela Kolářová.

“I never imagined that 25 years of my life would be connected to a festival that has grown so much in its time that the capital of the Czech Republic has denoted it one of its most important cultural events. I think that the program, attendance by international guests and unflagging interest on the part of viewers confirmed that once again this year,” said festival president and founder Fero Fenič, who added that he enjoyed welcoming luminaries of the world’s most important festivals, the film legends Charles Aznavour and Catherine Deneuve. “They blended in wonderfully with several dozen other filmmakers from all continents. I am very grateful to the entire festival team for the fact that they don’t just maintain with great dedication but wonderfully develop something that was created out of post-revolution enthusiasm and that, through stubbornness, I built up and created out of nothing over years,” he concluded.
Kapka naděje

This year Febiofest chose the Nadační fond Kapka naděje (Drop of Hope Endowment Fund) as its partner charity organization. At the closing ceremony representatives collected a cheque for almost CZK 20,000 from the yields of ticket sales but also over CZK 60,000. The latter amount was generated by ticket sales for the concert Karel Svoboda 80, which took place at the Spanish Hall at Prague Castle in cooperation with Febiofest. Helena Vondráčková, Eva Pilarová, Monika Absolonová, Marián Vojtko and others performed at the concert without financial remuneration.

Connected to the festival

A new CD by Evy Pilarová entitled Pilarka a přátelé, featuring the likes of Karel Gott, Aleš Cibulka and Jan Onder as guests, was released in cooperation with Febiofest. The CD was launched at CineStar Anděl, with the singer and moderator Endru serving as “godfather”.

This year Febiofest together with the Czech Mint in Jablonec also honoured the great Czech actor Jiří Kodet with the minting of a commemorative medal. The gold medal was collected by his wife Mrs. Soňa Kodetová and daughter Bára Kodetová. This followed on from similar tributes in recent years to Karel Fiala, Rudolf Hrušínský and Vladimír Menšík.
Accompanying program

Numerous club evenings, exhibitions, workshops, theatre performances and screenings were held within this year’s OFF accompanying program. One of it centres was the Festival Tent on Wenceslas Square, which every day offered screenings of cinematic delights on the history of our country and recordings of the show Na plovárně with festival guests.

Viewers also had the chance to meet filmmakers from the festival at master classes they gave. Guests of these moderated discussions included the UK actor, screenwriter and producer Mark Gatiss, the French director Arnaud Desplechin and the enfant terrible of French cinema Leos Carax.
25^th edition of Febiofest

This year’s edition of Febiofest delivered 445 public screenings and, including films from the You’re the Filmmaker competition, 179 films in total. The most popular films in the Prague part of the festival included Call Me By Your Name, Song to Song, The Party, Based on a True Story and Disobedience, as well as Easy, The Tree Feller, The Charmer, Under the Tree and Unknown Soldier. “Several tens of thousands of viewers came to the Prague part of the festival. We’ll see whether we’ll also be successful in the regions, of which we have 16 this year and where we’re headed as soon as 26^th March. We will bring the festival to a close on 20^th April in Zlín and on 21^st April in Olomouc,” said festival director Kamil Spáčil.

Festival heading to regions

Febiofest is now setting off the regions, where film fans will be able to enjoy a selection of the festival’s highlights. It will visit the following cities and towns: České Budějovice (26. 3. - 28. 3. 2018), Hradec Králové (27. 3. - 29. 3. 2018), Plzeň (28. 3. - 30. 3. 2018), Chomutov (29. 3. - 30. 3. 2018), Děčín (3. 4. - 5. 4. 2018), Jihlava (4. 4. - 6. 4. 2018), Pardubice (5. 4. - 8. 4. 2018), Kladno (6. 4. - 8. 4. 2018), Vsetín (9. 4. - 11. 4. 2018), Mikulov (10. 4. - 12. 4. 2018), Liberec (11. 4. - 13. 4. 2018), Beroun (12. 4. - 14. 4. 2018), Ostrava (16. 4. - 18. 4. 2018), Brno (17. 4. - 19. 4. 2018), Zlín (18. 4. - 20. 4. 2018), Olomouc (19. 4. - 21. 4. 2018)

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Press:

Gábina Vágner, t: [phone], [e-mail]

Tereza Jiravová, t: [phone], [e-mail]

MFF Praha - Febiofest, Růžová 13, Praha 110 00 Praha 1