65th BRNO16 awarded its winners

The International Jury, consisting of David Bonneville, Jelena Maksimović and Afsun Moshiry, decided to award the Estonian film Sauna Day, directed by Anna Hints and Tushar Prakash. The reasons were: "The spacial intimacy, body interactions and human relationships leave an undeniable sensation under our skin. The subtle yet subversive, emotionality is brought to us in a ritual culture with a flavour of history, which opens an ambiguous nature of masculine desire that slowly unfolds.The radiant cinematography and well crafted filmic language have left their mark on our cinematic consciousness." They also awarded two honorable mentions to the films Lemon Tree and 3MWh.

The International competition was judged by The Student Jury, which was composed of Jan Kryštof Kux, Mariia Ivanova and Zbyšek Plaňanský. They gave their award to the film The Mysterious Adventures of Claude Conseil. "We were moved by the human story of the everyday life of an elderly lady who, along with her husband, is passionate about ornithology. The film weaves together the ordinary lives of bird sound enthusiasts with a reflection on how seniors can perceive social media. The protagonist responds to them with an endearing dose of naivety, which eventually leads to an unforgettable musical collaboration. The film amused and pleasantly surprised us with the hope that not every famous singer is self-centred. This film's warmth deserves to be expanded into a feature-length version."

The Czechoslovakian Jury awarded their award to the film The Lodge that depicts the inner life of a young female protagonist and deals with her moment of crisis in a sensitive and subtle way. They also granted a special mention to the film 3MWh.

The audience had an opportunity to award their prize. This year, they chose the film Be Somebody, directed by Polish filmmaker Michal Toczek, who also won the audience award at last year's BRNO16 with his previous film.

All awarded received their prizes in person during the closing ceremony of the festival.

CONGRATULATIONS!