For the first time in eight years, a domestic film has claimed the top prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The Crystal Globe of the 59th edition of KVIFF was awarded to the Czech-Slovak documentary Better Go Mad in the Wild, the latest work by the acclaimed Slovak documentary filmmaker Miro Remo. The film follows the lives of two ‘peculiar men’ in their sixties in the forests of the Šumava mountains.
Tragically, František Klišík, one of the film’s key protagonists, died in what seemed to have been a drowning accident just hours after the award of the Crystal Globe.
“This festival has been proving to me for years that it makes all the sense in the world,” said director Remo on receiving the award from Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård. “Thank you to Aleš Palán, who wrote a brilliant book that allowed us to enter that crazy world. It’s probably the greatest honour I’ve received as a filmmaker, and I appreciate it very much.”
The film is sold by Czech sales company Filmotor, whose CEO Michaela Čajková commented on Klišík’s tragic passing: “The next day our joy was replaced by sadness. We learned of the sudden tragic death of František Klišík, one of the film´s protagonists. We firmly believe that his poetic legacy will live on with his film. R.I.P. František.”
The Právo Audience Award was also handed to a Czech film, this time to the festival’s opening documentary We’ve Got to Frame It!, in which the late Jiří Bartoška, president of the KVIFF, reflects on his life and career.
Karel Och, the festival’s Artistic Director, writes of the film: “The president of the Karlovy Vary film festival vigorously rejected all suggestions for a biographical work or film portrait; he was irritated by the pathos associated with official versions of personal life narratives. Thus all the more valuable (and hitherto unseen!) is the bard’s affable, informal exchange with producer Milan Kuchynka, in which he touches upon a myriad themes, from his grammar school days and the Velvet Revolution, to his encounters with stars – and this conveyed with playful ease, blistering irony and affectionate wisdom.”
The Proxima Special Jury Prize was awarded to Forensics, an experimental essay exploring unspoken traumas of modern Colombian history. This experimental essay, which stems from the signing of the peace accord between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas in 2016, interweaves three stories: a female director reconstructing the life of a dead transgender woman through film; an intimate study of the filmmaker’s family, who also dealt with a missing relative; and the testimony of forensic pathologist Karen Quintero.
The 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Festival will take place 3 to 11 July 2026.
