Prague, December 7th, 2021
A-FilmTeensFest 2021 has announced the winners
On Saturday the 4thof December 2021 at 2:30 p.m. the winners of the International Online Film Festival of Children and Teens Films A-FilmTeensFest were officially announced at “Pilots Cinema” in Prague. The awards were distributed by some members of the jury: an actress Nela Boudová, a director and camerawoman Jana Hojdová and a journalist Jan Tuna. The ceremonial afternoon was moderated by a singer Jana Rychterová. Other members of the jury were: an actor Marek Lambora, a screenwriter Iva Jestřábová-Kašpárková, directors Barbora Chalupová and Robin Kvapil, an editor Martin Mlynarič and an animator Michael Carrington.
A-FilmTeensFest, which started on 14thof November screened 170 audiovisual works from 22 countries from all over the world. The audience had an opportunity to watch 32 film sections on the website https://afilmteensfest.com, each section was around 35 minutes long. The screened films were competing in 5 categories according to the genres and 4 age subcategories. The three-week event finished at midnight, the 5th of December. After the end of the festival, the recording of various accompanying events (Q&As, workshops and other) will be available on the web in their original language and in English or Czech translations. Workshops were held in schools in Prague and Mšeno on themes: “Fakenews and Contradistinction of Information”, “Cyberbullying and Mental Health of Youth in the Age of Social Media” (in cooperation with the company Fak(e)ticky) and “Do Not Be Afraid and Start” (conducted by two Czech documentary filmmakers and online by an English lecturer from the “Sparks” organization from London).
There were given in total 55 prizes: 36 Awards (three of them were audience prizes) and 19 Special Recognitions. The winners among the fiction films of different age categories were: The Butler And The Ball (USA, A.Chan-Possemato), Signals (participants of Cachinus De Chines workshop, Spain), Czech Revolution (A.Korb and S.Piluchová from Michael High School) and Canadian Solitude (F.Coker). The outstanding movies between the documentaries were: Wavy Head (Canada, M.Shoham), Beautiful Days (Greece, K. Pashjari), Sète girls (Spain, P.Jimeno and A.Ribagorda) and collection of teen docs from Pakistan. In an immense competition among animations, the first places were granted to: Bad Bugs (USA, B. Wright), Czech movie Jakub Jan Ryba Through The Children´s Eyes (pupils from the primary art school “Jakub J. Ryba in Rožmitál under Třemšín”) and Irish FOMO (K.Meggs and M. Hendrickson). The Australian director of the movie The Quiet Radheya Jegatheva received the 1st prize in the oldest animation category and as well as Ben Barenholtz Award (famous American producer and distributor) for a significant contribution in the field of international youth films. The director Marie Klowersová of Wandering with the Likesroaming Family obtained the 2nd prize in the same category, and an Award for The Best Czech School Film as well. The best experimental films were: Hello Frisco (Great Britain, A.Bounds) and Czech Kolektiv (Stela Konečná). In the last category “Other Videos” (jingles, music videos, ads etc.) won: Irish music video We Create Magic, Czech clip Stay In Alive (M.Lada) and American Diana´s Best (M.Johnson). The most successful movie among the audience became the Czech one Klam (F.Špinka and Š. Hartl). The Award for The Best Czech Out-Of-School Film was given to Surviving in Nature according to Jim Křovák made by Abrhám brothers. South Korean director Taeyang Lee received for his Superstar The Award for The Best Foreign Film. Petra Peštová from the Primary Art School of “Jakub J. Ryba in Rožmitál under Třemšín” obtained Vojtěch Jasný Award (one of the most acclaimed directors in the history of Czech cinema) for a significant contribution in audiovisual education in the Czech Republic.
Media partner was “Radio Junior”, one of stations of Czech Public Broadcasting. Thanks to companies such as Instax, Foto Skoda, O2 Clever School, Pompo, Bombus Energy, National Film Museum, Czechoslovak Commercial Bank, Prague Energy, Créme de la Créme and Fruit Svetozor, the filmmakers could receive the valuable prizes, among them also a film workshop for one week during summer holidays 2022 organized by Artistic Agency Ambrozia (winners of The Best Czech Out-Of-School Film Prize will participate).
Apart from individual spectators and the filmmakers, the festival program was mediated to 55 schools and 12 children´s Homes and health resorts in different parts of Czech Republic. From every school there were on average 175 pupils or students participating (in case of smaller schools there were around 50 pupils on average, in case of bigger schools there were up to 400 participants). From available statistics, the films on web had exactly 9 346 streams. There were counted from all the accessible sources at least 8 200 spectators (most probably even more; 97 % of them were from Czechia).
“Thanks to the financial support of Czech Ministry of Culture, Foundation Net4Gas, Administrations of Districts of Prague 1 and Prague 10, we were able to organize the second year of this event despite all the obstacles. I am also delighted that the zeal of the audience for the children and teens movies has increased significantly in Czech Republic. For the next year, we are planning to make A-FilmTeensFest for even more spectators as well as for at least twice more schools”, says the director of the festival and of the public service company “Adonai for People”, Zuzana Dražilová.
The whole executive team cordially thanks all the partners, people who cooperated with the festival and organizations which helped and supported the festival, among others members of “Youth Cinema Network”, Pakistani organization “The Little Art”, Canadian festival “Reel Youth” and South Korean festival “BIKY”. The entire results of winning movies and all the other information are available on our webpage https://afilmteensfest.com.
