English info

Main Competition

Audience Award

JerryMaya’s Detective Agency – The Riddle of the Scorpion

Main Competition

Award

Too Old for Fairy Tales

For the original script, the sense of humor, the lightness of the story while at the same time the difficult road that the hero had to overcome. For being Waldi the Strong alongside an unexceptional aunt and for wanting to go for ice cream with them.

Special mention

Bigman

For the hero’s passion for sports despite his disability and for the power of friendship.

Film Discoveries Competition

Award

Comedy Queen

A grieving child, after the loss of a parent, is a difficult subject that we often don’t want to bring up and can’t talk about. It is all the more difficult when the emotions experienced by the child – such as anger and rage – are at odds with what we adults would expect from children, from their grief. That’s why we were so captivated by the film “Comedy Queen,” because it puts at the center the emotions of an adolescent girl trying to put the world back together after the death of her mother. For its emotional truth and for its successful attempt to show how an adolescent child can experience grief, we award the top prize to the film “Comedy Queen.”

Special mention:

Icarus

An honorable mention in this year’s edition also goes to the visually beautiful film “Icarus.” The jury appreciated the idea of telling the commonly known myth of the Minotaur, as well as that of Daedalus and Icarus, according to the rules of classical animation, but reading it anew, shifting the emphasis to those elements of the story that we did not appreciate before.

Short Documentaries Competition

Award

Our Orphanage

For the chicken baked in batter together, for reading fairy tales in the evening, and for the hugs that their caregivers bestowed on them every day. A superbly constructed, moving, thought-provoking film that shows who a child is and who an adult should be, who has the responsibility for them.

Special mention:

Free as a Bird

When an authentic, charming heroine appears, seizing all the attention, empathy and sympathy of the viewer, a person stays with her. If she speaks with her strong, wise voice, but also hesitates to finally perform an act of courage, a person pulls away to give her his vote.  

ZEF Film Highway to Europe

Award

How I Learned to Fly

The ZEF Film Highway to Europe’s Award for the film “How I Learned to Fly” for its exceptional lightness in portraying the world of today’s younger teenagers and its accurate diagnosis of children’s coping skills in difficult situations involving relationships (friendship and love), taming illness, and working through the traumas (including those of war) of older generations.

Special mention:

Yuku and the Himalayan flower

The ZEF Film Highway to Europe’s honorable Mention for the film “Yuku and the Himalayan flower” for its subtle portrayal of the transience of life, unflagging motivation in pursuit of goals, and uninterrupted readiness to grow.

Arthouse Cinemas Association

Award

Yuku and the Himalayan flower

A beautiful fairy tale, sparkling with a fever of colors, where music is an integral part of it, becomes the best medicine and flows through the successive extraordinary adventures of the little mouse, giving rhythm to the film’s story. The animation, which draws from the best graphic patterns of the French comic strip, creates its own separate world and surprises with solutions also on the story level.

European Children’s Film Association

Award

Too Old for Fairy Tales

This heart-warming coming-of-age story could happen in any backyard, maybe even yours. We meet Waldi, at an unusual and hard to grasp moment, somewhere between being a child and a teenager. The cocoon of childhood is slowly bursting, and Waldi is faced with the choice of whether to hide back or stand up for himself and take responsibility for his own happiness. Kristoffer Rus guides Waldi lightly and sympathetically through this uneasy time and surrounds him with adults who, although not without flaws, are supportive partners for the protagonist. There is no denying that everyone would like to have an aunt like Aunt Mariola. In addition, the film is a unique voice in the discussion on body-positivity.

Authors’ Association ZAIKS 

Award

Too Old for Fairy Tales

For sensitivity in telling an important story. For skillfully combining commercial qualities and a satisfying artistic form. The jury also appreciated the performances of both professional nnd first-time on-screen actors.