THE 59TH ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL WILL EXPLORE AND LEARN ABOUT THE WORLD

Explore and Discover. This is the main challenge and primary central theme of the upcoming 59th Zlín Film Festival. The selected travel theme of the festival is linked to the approaching 100th birthday of the famous traveler, adventurer and writer Miroslav Zikmund. The Zlín Film Festival will be held from May 24 until June 1, 2019. Filmmakers can already submit their films now.

Miroslav Zikmund traveled to more than eight dozen countries, creating over twenty books and a wide range of radio and film reportages. In addition to short films, audiences can also enjoy feature films from the trips he undertook with his friend, engineer Jiří Hanzelka.

"Miroslav Zikmund is a phenomenal traveler, photographer, writer and journalist who will celebrate an incredible hundred years in February. His trips and journeys are still considered admirable today and we have decided to let them inspire us for the upcoming festival,"

said Jarmila Záhorová, Executive Director of the festival.

The structure of the film program has undergone a transformation that aims to make the three basic program blocks more transparent and visible. In addition to its traditional competitions and a new section called FESTIVAL CLASSICS, the 2019 film festival will focus on EXPLORE & DISCOVER.

"Film audiences can look forward to discovery and exploration in three areas: NATURE, PEOPLE, and COUNTRY,"

says Art Director Markéta Pášmová and adds that more than 40 films and documentaries will be screened within this section. In the section devoted to NATURE, we will present world-renowned natural history documentaries that will provide interesting, instructive and unique moments to young audiences and will also focus on ecology and environmental issues. The section devoted to the theme of PEOPLE will focus on live-acted feature films about the native inhabitants of various parts of the world – from Inuits, Australians, Maori, Native Americans and many others – through which we can look into the extraordinary lives of these ethnic groups. Finally, the COUNTRY section will present a profile of Balkan cinema. In 15 full-length feature live-acted films, we will get to know the lively and hospitable atmosphere of former Yugoslavia, as well as Albania and Bulgaria. The festival keeps to its profile in all its sections: a film festival where children or teens are in the main line. It is this focus that offers us a unique film collection whose themes are viewed from a child's perspective. 

Miroslav Zikmund's significant life anniversary is commemorated in screened films, debates and exhibitions, on whose program and content the Museum of Southeastern Moravia in Zlín has cooperated with the Hanzelka and Zikmund Club in Zlín.  As a follow-up to this theme, there will also be significant Czech travelers, popularizers, and adventurers whom festival goers will be able to meet both at film talks and outside them.

The film festival will take place from May 24 to June 1 in Zlín and other cities in the Czech Republic. Those interested can submit their films by March 1, 2019 at www.zlinfest.cz