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.
Awards
Jordan and Patrick live in a small village in the south of France and feel pretty bored. The only thing they enjoy is Call of Duty, a popular war video game. But one day a tragedy occurs ...
Set up as a comedy, the film raises the themes of friendship, guilt, taking on responsibility and the search for forgiveness and life purpose.
The director has displayed admirable sensitivity with regards to timing. And he has succeeded perfectly in the challenge of working with talented non-actors.
Young people on a road trip through the Australian outback. Their encounter in the countryside develops into a healing situation for them all. They learn to tell their own story.
The Commendation also recognises the director's amazing camera work and her respect for the landscape, the culture and her own origins.
