Ji.hlava 25

The selection includes 15 titles in Opus Bonum International Competition, and 11 titles in First Lights competition for debut films. The Czech Joy comp section presents 18 new Czech docs. In total, 305 films are selected for this year's Ji.hlava IDFF, which include 76 world, 28 international, and 15 European premieres. The festival opens Oct 24 with Virtual Girlfriends by Czech director Barbora Chalupová. “Documentary cinema has long been the most dynamic and inspiring area of filmmaking,” confirms Ji.hlava IDFF director Marek Hovorka. The festival runs Oct 24 to Nov 2.

The Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival announced November 1 the awards for its 29th edition. The Best Czech Documentary was named as Time to the Target by Vitaly Mansky, made as a co-production. The Best World Documentary Award went to Polish filmmaker Natalia Koniarz for Silver. The Best Debut Award was given to So Close, So Far by Chinese director Yudi Zhu. The Audience Award went to Mr. Nobody vs. Putin by directors David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin. The Bolivian film collective Grupo Ukamau received the Award for Contribution to World Cinema.

Eleven industry awards were presented October 21 to the most promising projects at Ji.hlava New Visions Forum 2025. In total, fifty-five projects from Europe, United States and East & Southeast Asia were presented, whether in development, production or post-production. The winners received numerous cash awards, and in-kind awards handed out in association with partners of Ji.hlava IDFF. All winners…

The program will feature new films from Czechia and beyond, film retrospectives, and the “best of world experimental cinema,” the festival writes. Taiwan-based Tsai Ming-liang will shoot and present the world premiere of the new Walker series film at Ji.hlava. The discussion platform Inspiration Forum will focus on the topics of love, money, radicalization, and the future of Europe. The 29th Ji.hlava IDFF will run October 24 to November 2.

The Respekt Award for the best audiovisual reportage on a political or social topic – went to Černá práce (Black Work) from Czech Television’s Reportéři ČT series. The Documentary Book Award, presented for the fifth time, was handed to Petr Třešňák for his book Důstojnost (Dignity), while in the Short Joy category, the winning film is wedLOCK tradWIFE by Austrian director Gabriele Neudecker.

Inna Shevchenko, Ukrainian feminist activist and the leader of international women's movement FEMEN, pitched her urgent new project, about the Ukrainian survivors of war who are rehabilitating in the Lviv Superhumans Center. “People rebuilding their bodies part by part, rebuilding themselves part by part, they rebuild the very idea of Ukraine - and they are rebuilding the country and the nation itself,” she told the professional audience.

Victoria Hely-Hutchinson’s deliciously paced Vacances is neither a reductive portrait of an old eccentric nor a sensationalist dissection of a dysfunctional family. Although either could probably have been edited from her material. Instead, we mostly find ourselves lounging languidly around a sunny villa in Provence, as the uninhibited, at times inexcusably rude, Granny dominates the proceedings. But at some point, something’s gotta give…

The 29th edition of Ji.hlava IDFF, the most important docfest within the CEE region and one of key staging posts within the global yearly calendar, kicks off October 24 with the world premiere of Virtual Girlfriends by Czech director Barbora Chalupová. The opening film may be Czech, but the festival is solidly international in outlook. “It is important for us to connect films from all over Europe in the program, to create a place where filmmakers from the North and South, as well as from the West and East, can meet,” festival director Marek Hovorka tells BDE.

In Adam’s Tooth, which won a Most Promising European Project award at Ji.hlava IDFF, two Georgian archaeologists find a 1.8 million year old tooth, as well as the ancient skeleton of a wolf. But the Minister of Culture “arrests” the tooth, and bans any further digging, forcing the archaeologists to make a last-ditch attempt to free the artefacts from the Ministry’s grip. “Though Adam's Tooth begins with archaeology, it's really about human existence. [It’s] about time, absurdity, and the freedom to act within the limits of our own stage,” says co-director Nik Voigt.

Industry luminaries will determine winners across the Opus Bonum, First Lights, Testimonies, Czech Joy, Fascinations, Virtual Reality and Industry sections. The 29th Ji.hlava IDFF opens Friday October 24 with Virtual Girlfriends by Czech director Barbora Chalupová. The festival runs through to November 2.