THE GRAND 60TH ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL IS STARTING IN ZLÍN

The grand 60th International Film Festival for Children and Youth begins on Friday the 4th and will last until Thursday, September 10, 2020. In addition to competition films, this year's festival is focused on the theme "2020: Back to the Future" and much of its supporting program also recalls its rich festival history. Despite its untraditional date and course of preparations, the organizers again promise a number of exceptional film and other experiences for the whole family.

The oldest and largest film festival of its kind in the world will offer 315 films from 50 countries this year, 158 of which will be premiered at the festival. Audiences will see films in six competition categories: for children and youth, European directorial debuts, documentary films for children and youth, animation, and student films.

"This year we have 30 feature films, 63 short animated films and 62 short student films,"

says artistic director Markéta Pášmová.

The festival will open on Friday morning with the world premiere of the narrative fairy tale "The Greatest Gift" by directors Marta Santovjáková Gerlíková and Daria Hrubá. The Australian family film "H is for Happiness", directed by John Sheedy, will be given its Czech premiere during the evening's opening for adult audiences. The whole following weekend will also be in the premiere spirit, on which the organizers have decided to focus audience attention.

"The efforts of filmmakers often take many years, and these works are made for audiences – in our case children and young people – and we would like to support these endeavors,"

says the president of the Zlín Film Festival Čestmír Vančura and adds:

"I would like to emphasize that our appeal is all the stronger during this difficult time, which is not exactly in favor of films. We really want the Zlín public to help open a successful path for these films to their viewers.”

The weekend film program includes, for example, the premieres of the competition films “The Pack”, “Summer Rebels", and the animated “Hungry Bear Tales”.

This year, the competition films will be judged by experts and children's jurors from the Czech Republic, as well as from other countries around the world.

"Due to the situation connected with COVID-19, we selected foreign jurors this year mainly from among professionals living permanently in our country or in Slovakia,"

said Markéta Pášmová, adding that the Czech Republic is represented by Jiří Konečný, a producer of feature and documentary films. Bárdos and other jurors from Denmark, Belgium and Germany will evaluate films for children and young people. The jury for European debuts will include, for example, the Czech writer and author of plays Petra Hůlová and the Slovak director and screenwriter Ivan Ostrochovský.

In addition to the competition films, the festival will also offer films in a special edition called 2020: BACK TO THE FUTURE.The films will be dramaturgically divided into three groups: documentaryfilms on science and technology, live-acted sci-fi fiction films for children and youth, and a section devoted to special effects in film. Special screenings of films such as "Metropolis", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Gravity" and others will be supplemented by a professional introduction by film critic Kamil Fila and visual effects artist Boris Masník. In addition to films, the section 2020: RETURN TO THE FUTURE will include discussions with interesting personalities, such as video magician Michal Orsava, creator of visual effects Vladimír Valovič, film trick specialist Petr Rohr, and the authors of the festival jingle Eliška Chytková and Vít Karas.

As part of the evening opening ceremony on Friday, September 4, the festival will also announce the Film Award of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic

"For the popularization of science among young people". The expert jury decided to award the Film Award of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic to the Educational Portal of ČT edu. "During the coronavirus pandemic and the closure of schools, Czech Television set up an educational portal in a very short time, offering over 3,000 short educational videos adapted not only to pre-school children, but also to primary and secondary school pupils."

explains Markéta Pášmová on behalf of the jury members and addsthat the motto of the educational portal is: "Thousands of videos for smart entertainment and science" and that this was an extraordinary feat that helped mitigate the effects of the crisis on children's education, including the popularization of science.

As in previous years, the festival focuses on a rich program for professionals and film professionals. Under the name Zlín Industry Days 2020, it will offer interesting conferences, presentations and opportunities for informal meetings and exchanges of views and experience.

There will also be the traditional auction at the 23rd Film Clapperboard Salon, which will take place on Sunday, September 6 at the Congress Center. Proceeds will once again go to support budding filmmakers and audiovisual projects.

As part of the supporting program, this year the organizers of the Zlín Film Festival have prepared, in addition to traditional projects and events, a number of novelties related to the main theme of 2020: Back to the Future and the 60th anniversary of the festival. One of them is the new mobile application AR ZFF, which allows visitors to enter an augmented reality of the festival world.

"We have distributed attractive content in various parts of the festival, mapping not only the 60-year history of the festival, but also current information from the present,"

said festival executive director Jarmila Záhorová. She added that wherever visitors come across an AR icon and focus their mobile phone at it, the application will reveal something interesting (for example, in large-format photographs, more detailed descriptions, or video materials for the relevant years of the festival). The virtual gallery, in turn, takes visitors to a different decade of the festival's rich history every day.

"Current information, film trailers and, for example, daily videos will be carried by various festival publications: from the catalog, through the Festival Review and, for example, program overviews,"

added Jarmila Záhorová.

Following the example of the film "Back to the Future", visitors can embark on an adventurous journey through time.

"Anyone interested in what the festival's gala evening in 2060 will look like can go at their own risk through a special time machine to when the festival celebrates its 100th anniversary,"

says Jarmila Záhorová about this unique project. There will be a festival time machine every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the main square Náměstí Míru.

This year as well, visitors will not be deprived of film workshops, interesting exhibitions, virtual reality, and many other projects.

After the end of the 60th Zlín Film Festival, the 5th annual Festival Half Marathon MONET + Zlín 2020 will take place on Saturday, September 12, which also includes the Festival VIVA Family Run. Its start has been moved to 11 a.m. this year.