…and so our short sojourn to the 2013 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival draws to a close. Our time here this year was so brief that we feel guilty in not having seen more of the films In Competition, and across the various diverse and always thoughtfully-stocked sidebars, but now that the awards have been announced, we know we’ll have a starting point for all the catching up we’ve got to do.
The winner of the Grand Prix is one of the films we didn’t have a chance to see, Janos Szasz’s “The Notebook” (“Le Grand Cahier”). Szasz is a Hungarian director whose 1994 “Woyzeck,” based on the same source material as Werner Herzog’s 1979 film of the same name, won him quite some acclaim at festivals around the world. “The Notebook” was rumored for a Cannes sidebar bow at one point, but obviously having its international premiere here has served it well. Based on the novel “Le Grand Cahier” by Agota Kritóf (and not the one by Nicolas Sparks), the film tells the story of two brothers living in wartime Hungary under the tyrannical rule of a cruel grandmother. We look forward to checking it out.
Also of note, two films we have seen: Ben Wheatley’s muddy mindfuck “A Field In England” picked up the Special Jury Prize, which is a great mark of how this festival is happy to celebrate more challenging, provocative and potentially divisive fare (we loved it — you can read the review here). And it was a good night for the U.S., too, with one of our Tribeca favorites, Lance Edmand’s “Bluebird,” sharing the Best Actress Prize among its four principal females, Amy Morton, Margo Martindale, Emily Meade and Louisa Krause, and also scooping the Ecumenical Jury Prize.
Best Actor went to Ólafur Darri Ólafsson for Icelandic film “XL” in which he apparently gives a powerful, dominating performance that is at the opposite end of the spectrum from his turn in Iceland’s Oscar entry “The Deep,” which we liked quite a bit when we saw it in Goteborg.
And the home crowd also had something to cheer about as Best Director went to Czech Jan Hřebejk for his film “Honeymoon.” The concluding part of a trilogy, “Honeymoon” is conceived as a psychological drama about guilt and the past haunting the present, set off when an uninvited guest appears at a wedding celebration.
The winners in full are listed below:
OFFICIAL SELECTION – COMPETITION
GRAND JURY
Agnieszka Holland, Poland (president of the Jury)
Ivo Andrle, Czech Republic
Frédéric Boyer, France
Alon Garbuz, Israel
Claudia Llosa, Peru
Meenakshi Shedde, India
Sigurjon “Joni” Sighvatsson, Iceland
GRAND PRIX – CRYSTAL GLOBE (25 000 USD)
The financial award is shared equally by the director and producer of the award-winning film.
Le grand cahier / A nagy füzet
Directed by: János Szász
Hungary, Germany, Austria, France, 2013
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE (15 000 USD)
The financial award is shared equally by the director and producer of the award-winning film.
A Field in England
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
United Kingdom, 2013
BEST DIRECTOR AWARD
Jan Hřebejk
for the film Honeymoon / Líbánky
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2013
BEST ACTRESS AWARD
Amy Morton, Louisa Krause, Emily Meade, Margo Martindale
for the film Bluebird
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012
BEST ACTOR AWARD
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
for his role in the film XL
Directed by: Marteinn Þórsson
Iceland, 2013
SPECIAL MENTION
Papusza
Directed by: Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze
Poland, 2013
EAST OF THE WEST – FILMS IN COMPETITION
EAST OF THE WEST JURY
Éva Vezér, Hungary (chairwoman)
Peter Paul Huth, Germany
Maja Miloš, Serbia
Piotr Mularuk, Poland
Sergej Stanojkovski, Germany
EAST OF THE WEST AWARD (20 000 USD)
Floating Skyscrapers / Płynące wieżowce
Directed by: Tomasz Wasilewski
Poland, 2013
SPECIAL MENTION
Miracle / Zázrak
Directed by: Juraj Lehotský
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, 2013
DOCUMENTARY FILMS IN COMPETITION
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM OVER 30 MINUTES LONG (5 000 USD)
Pipeline / Truba
Directed by: Vitaly Manskiy
Russia, Germany, Czech Republic, 2013
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM UNDER 30 MINUTES LONG (5 000 USD)
Beach Boy
Directed by: Emil Langballe
United Kingdom, 2013
SPECIAL MENTION
The Manor
Directed by: Shawney Cohen
Canada, 2013
FORUM OF INDEPENDENTS
INDEPENDENT CAMERA AWARD
Things the Way They Are / Las cosas como son
Directed by: Fernando Lavanderos
Chile, 2012
AUDIENCE AWARD
Revival
Directed by: Alice Nellis
Czech Republic, 2013
CRYSTAL GLOBE FOR OUTSTANDING ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD CINEMA
Theodor Pištěk, Czech Republic
Oliver Stone, USA
John Travolta, USA
FESTIVAL PRESIDENT´S AWARD
Vojtěch Jasný, Czech Republic
NON-STATUTORY AWARDS
AWARD OF INTERNATIONAL FILM CRITICS (FIPRESCI)
Shame / Styd
Directed by: Yusup Razykov
Russia, 2013
THE ECUMENICAL JURY AWARD
Bluebird
Directed by: Lance Edmands
USA, Sweden, 2012