The Ecumenical Jury at Zlín 2023 has awarded its Prize to the French production "Juniors", directed by Hugo Thomas, and a Commendation to "Sweet As" by Jub Clerc from Australia which also won the Award of the Youth Jury for Best Feature Film in the Junior and Youth Category. The festival's main prize, the Golden Slipper, went to "What the Finn?! - A Summer of Surprises" by Stefan Westerwelle (Germany 2023), in the Children's Category, to "Scrapper", directed by Charlotte Regan (Great Britain, 2021) in the Junior Category, and to "Delegation" by Asaf Saban (Poland, Israel, Germany, 2023) in the Youth Category.
The festival started with an opening in the morning presenting the animated film "Tony, Shelley and the Magic Light", directed by Filip Pošivač (Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Hungary, 2023) and a second opening in the evening with the Canadian film "Billie Blue", directed by Mariloup Wolfe who presented her film personally. The whole festival programme included 295 films from 50 countries. Alongside the Competition for Feature Films in the three age categories the festival organises competition sections For Short Animations for Children, for Student Films and for European Documentaries for Young Audience.