30/5 — 5/6/2024
64th International Film Festival
for Children and Youth
4. 5. 2018

58. ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL KNOWS THIS YEAR’S FILMS IN THE COMPETITIONS

Football on an Icelandic volcano, superheroes on two continents, horse races on Mongolian plains, crazy little rockers, fight against ancient giants, retro adventures of small kidnappers, the rite of passage in rugged American wilderness.

These and other topics are featured in the films in international film competitions for children and youth of the 58th Zlín Film Festival - International Film Festival for Children and Youth, to be held from May 25 till June 2, 2018. 

The Icelandic film by director Bragi Þór Hinrikssona The Falcons will in its international premiere open the 58th edition of the ZFF on May 25, 2018. The evening opening will feature the distribution premiere of the Slovak-Czech film Nina, directed by Juraj Lehotský. 

The adult audience can look forward to the international competition of first feature films, looking at the world of children and young people. 

This year's novelty is the promotion of the genre of documentary film to a competitive level. The ECFA Doc Award will honour the best of 7 European documentaries for young audiences and ZFF will co-operate with the European Children's Film Association to organize this competition. 

We must not forget the competitions of short films. The International Competition of Short Animated Films for Children will introduce 62 films from 24 countries around the world to its child audience. France and Russia will have the largest representation. The most exotic countries include Singapore, Venezuela and Chile. The Zlín Dog, the annual competition of student films will again offer three categories – live-action film, documentaries and animated films. 

Czech representatives cannot be missed in this year’s competitions either. The children's film section will present the magical The Third Wish by Vít Karas. The dancing Slovak-Czech coproduction Backstage, directed by Andrea Sedláčková, will have its Czech distribution advance premiere, accompanied by a large number of supporting events. In the new competition of documentaries, the Czech Republic will have hot favourites - the topical Kateřina Hager’s Children Online and the and Marián Polák‘s wildlife documentary Wilder Than Wilderness

In relation to the centenary of the Czech Republic, the main theme of the 58th film festival will be Czechoslovak cinema, which will be presented to the audiences in 4 thematic sections - Films of My Childhood, Film Music, Ota Hofman 90 and TV Series. 

The 120th anniversary of the first Czech films will not be forgotten either. The National film Archive is preparing special commented screenings of Jan Kříženecký's films from the late 19th century. At the Biograf, in the beautiful setting of one of the local parks, Czechoslovak silent comedy from the first decades of the 20th century will be screened with piano accompaniment, including It Was the First of May, Nightmare, Golden Heart and Torn Photograph

The attention of the film festival will also focus on Austria, its cinematography and culture. The Austrian Trip section will feature the screenings of fifteen Austrian feature films for children and young people. Bernd Neuburger will personally present his three films Holiday with Silvester, Lisa and the Sabre-Toothed Tigers and Mozart in China, for which Zdeněk Merta composed music. The festival will honour Christine Nöstlinger, a well-known Austrian author of children's books, with three films – a child adventure The Three Postal Robbers, Villa Henriette, a story for girls about an unusual house, and an autobiographical film Fly Away Home, brought to Zlín by Zita Gaier, appearing in the lead role of little Christine, together with her brother Enzo Gaier, who will remember his role of Mika in the film The Horse on the Balcony, directed by the German director Hüseyin Tabak, this year's member of the International Expert Jury for Films for Children and Youth. This "film" family will be complemented by the young actor Abdulkadir Tuncer, who in 2012 attracted attention in the role of the twelve-year-old Veysel in Tabak‘s drama Your Beauty is Worth Nothing. Apart from the director Tabak, the international jury will feature the prominent Austrian producer Katja Dor, who will also personally introduce the children's film Karo and God Himself as well as the already mentioned films Villa Henriette and The Horse on the Balcony, for which was the producer. 

A natural counterpart to traditional European cinema will be the introduction of a new section American Teen, dedicated to the American independent film, which will offer a mixture of older films such as Ghost World and Napoleon Dynamite with brand new films like Saturday Church and And Then I Go

Many film professionals will also head to Zlín to enjoy a packed programme. This year we are preparing several events that will touch on, for example, the theme of regional film incentives (prepared in cooperation with the ZLÍN FILM OFFICE), open the resonant theme of "working with films for children and youth in Czech cinemas", which will be organized as part of the NEW CINEMA project. New Czech films for Young Audience will be presented for foreign film professionals. We will discuss the pitfalls of making an animated feature film or the advantages or disadvantages of international co-productions. An integral part of the Industry program is a meeting of representatives of international and domestic festivals called The Festival Community. For film students, we are preparing several special events, such as a screenwriting and dramaturgy workshop, or the first edition of the Film Exchange, aimed at connecting film professionals working on their projects in the Zlín region with students from the local film schools. 

The complete Film Industry programme will be published on May 10, 2018 at www.zlinfest.cz and many events will be open also to the general public. 

The complete film programme will be available on May 14, 2018 at www.zlinfest.cz 

List of feature film competitions

Feature films

International Competition of Feature Films for Children

Los Bando, dir. Christian Lo, NOR, 2018, Czech premiere

Children of Genghis, dir. Zolbayar Dorj, MON, 2017, Czech premiere

Pipsi, dir. Rohan Deshpande, IND, 2017, European premiere

Rosie & Moussa, dir. Dorothée Van Den Berghe, BEL, 2018, Czech premiere

Supa Modo, dir. Likarion Wainaina, KEN/GER, 2018, Czech premiere

Tha Falcons, dir. Bragi Þór Hinriksson, ICE, 2018, international premiere

The Third Wish, dir. Vít Karas, CZE, 2017

The Witch Hunters, dir. Rasko Miljkovic, SRB/MK, 2018, European premiere 

International Competition of Feature Films for Youth

Backstage, dir. Andrea Sedláčková, SVK/CZE, 2018, Czech premiere

Barley Fields on the Other Side of the Mountain, dir. Tian Tsering, GBR, 2017, Czech premiere

Cross My Heart, dir. Luc Picard, CAN, 2017, Czech premiere

Forty Baldies, dir. Sadegh Sadegh Daghighi, IRN, 2017, European premiere

My Team, dir. Carlos Morelli, URU/ARG/BRA, 2017, Czech premiere

I Kill Giants, dir. Anders Walter, USA/GBR/BEL, 2017, Czech premiere

Rock My Heart, dir. Hanno Olderdissen, GER, 2017, Czech premiere

Walking Out, dir. Alex Smith, Andrew J. Smith, USA, 2017, Czech premiere 

International Competition of European First Feature Films 

Ava, dir. Léa Mysius, FRA, 2017

Kissing Candice, dir. Aoife McArdle, IRL, 2017

Once Upon a Time in Indian Country, dir. Ilker Cątak, GER, 2017

Pin Cushion, Deborah Haywood, GBR, 2017, Czech premiere

Pure Hearts, dir. Roberto De Paolis, ITA, 2017, Czech premiere

Summer Children, dir. Gudrún Ragnarsdóttir, ICE/NOR, 2017, Czech premiere

Team Hurricane, dir. Annika Berg, DNK, 2017, Czech premiere

The Best of All Worlds, dir. Adrian Goiginger, AUT, 2017

We, dir. René Eller, NDL/BEL, 2018, Czech premiere

Dreams by the Sea, dir. Sakaris Stora, Faroe Islands/DNK, 2017, Czech premiere 

International Competition of European Documentaries for Children and Youth

Children Online, dir. Kateřina Hager, CZE, 2017

Hobbyhorse Revolution, dir. Selma Vilhunen, FIN, 2017

Kinders, dir. Arash T. Riahi, Arman T. Riahi, AUT, 2016

Wilder Than Wilderness, dir. Marián Polák, CZE, 2017

The Distant Barking of Dogs, dir. Simon Lereng Wilmont, DNK/SWE/FIN, 2017, Czech premiere

Girl Down loch Änzi, dir. Alice Schmid, SUI, 2016, Czech premiere

Marcus and Martinus, dir. Daniel Fahre, NOR, 2017, Czech premiere