Ji.hlava 25

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.

Without silver, the 21st Century would be unrecognisable, such is its ubiquitous use across tech - from phones to electronics to AI. But it’s also the cause both of widespread exploitation and many deaths within the mines where it is sourced. In her feature doc, Natalia Koniarz follows the Indigenous folk of Potosi, Bolivia, who have worked these mines for 500 years. “Over 8 million people are believed to have died here since silver was discovered in 1545,” she tells BDE. “They were enslaved. They were forced.”

Thirteen new US and Asian projects will be presented October 29–31 during the 29th Ji.hlava IDFF. Seven projects are from the United States, while six are from East and South-east Asia. These join the previously announced projects from Europe and Croatia, this year's Ji.hlava Industry guest country. This year’s Ji.hlava IDFF will run October 24 to November 2.

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.

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…

Some see OnlyFans as purveyors of “fair-trade” porn, allowing content creators control over their business from the safety of their home. Others see it as no less exploitative in its objectification of women than pornography has ever been. “It's consensual from both sides, so that's why we decided that we want to do it in a very observational way,” Czech producer Pavla Klimešová tells Business Doc Europe of her Ji.hlava opener Virtual Girlfriends. “We just wanted to shoot the situation and make the viewer make the decision about what they think.”

US filmmaker Yoruba Richen pitched her short film project Free Joan Little, which tells the story of the eponymous 20-year-old African American woman who, in 1975, became the first woman acquitted of murder in a sexual assault case. “The film shows how, nearly half a century before movements that we know today, such as the MeToo Movement, Say Her Name, Black Lives Matter, people were forming innovative coalitions and demanding justice for issues that we are still fighting for today in our democracy,” said Richen.

In The Beauty of the Donkey, which has its international premiere at Ji.hlava 2025, director Dea Gjinovci and her exiled father return to his razed village in Kosovo to recreate his childhood memories, alongside local townsfolk. “My film contemplates the traces left behind and asks: can they be woven back together? Often, what remains are the memories of those who survive—and how they pass them on,” Gjinovci tells BDE.

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.