Czech Film Awards Recognize Emerging Talent and Experimental Cinema
Prague’s film scene celebrated a diverse range of cinematic achievements at recent awards, spotlighting both established filmmakers and rising stars. The awards, presented by ČSFD.cz, highlighted works spanning animation, drama, and experimental film, with several titles now available for streaming on KVIFF.TV.
Award-Winning Films
National Competition
Philipp Kastner’s animated film Vlček (Wolf) took the top prize in the National Competition. The film explores themes of perfectionism and the liberating influence of imagination, depicting an illustrator whose creation of a compact wolf challenges their rigid order.
International Competition
Special recognition in the international competition was given to Slyšíš mě? (Can You Hear Me?), a Polish drama directed by Anastasija Naumenko. The film centers on a deaf woman navigating the joys and challenges of motherhood. Lukas Valenta Rinner’s short film, Ruletista (Roulette), also received special recognition. The film portrays an elderly woman contemplating suicide in a housing estate, praised by the jury for its “brutalist composition, color reduction and work with ambient expressive sound.”
Experimental Film
Dorian Jespers’ Loynes, a Kafkaesque court drama set in 19th-century Liverpool, won the main prize in the Labo experimental film section. The jury lauded the film’s screenplay, noting its potential as a literary work. Dylan Pailes-Friedman’s Who will you ride with received special recognition in the same category, featuring a horse disrupting the world of the video game Grand Theft Auto with philosophical musings.
Additional Recognitions
Eliška Jirásková’s animated documentary A Better Man, focusing on bodybuilding, and Maria Lukáčová’s rap fairy tale Orla both received special recognitions in the National Competition. Orla also won the Audience Award, celebrated by the judges as “the first time we’ve seen a medieval rap musical with a feminist approach.”
Availability and Future Viewing
All award-winning films will be screened on Sunday, March 1, at the Světozor cinema in Prague. Over five dozen films from the festival program, including most award-winning titles, are available for streaming on KVIFF.TV until March 22.
Filmmaker Spotlight: Lukas Valenta Rinner
Lukas Valenta Rinner, born in 1985 in Salzburg, Austria, is a director, screenwriter, and producer. He studied film in Barcelona and Buenos Aires and founded the Argentinian-Austrian production company Nabis Filmgroup in 2012. His previous works include Parabellum (2015) and A Decent Woman (2016), both of which have been screened at international film festivals. He also recently directed the short film Ruletista (2024) and is currently involved in several upcoming projects, including Michael M. (2025) and Dracula (2025).