Institute of Documentary Film regularly organizes the East Silver Market in Jihlava, presenting a selection of the outstanding new documentaries from the CEE region. In 2016 more than 600 films applied to it, and more than 300 successful titles were introduced in the Vysočina County Gallery, where you could meet the industry guests or visit the video library. The profiles of the films selected for East Silver can also be found in an online catalogue here. Thanks to the support of MEDIA Programme / Creative Europe, for the eighth time already, the best films from the market were rewarded by Silver Eye Awards in an effort to help them with distribution and being screened at international film festivals and TV's. The financial support of 1500€ as well as the year-long festival service East Silver Caravan is given to the winners in three categories: best short, mid-length and feature-length documentary.
First two named categories were announced this year within the Emerging Producers presentation. East Silver Market representatives had chosen the nominees and the international juries consisting of the representatives of important festivals and documentary professionals chose the winners from the strong competition as follows:
Best Short Documentary
The jurors Andrea Prenghyová (DOK Incubator, Czech Republic), Tue Steen Müller (Filmkomentaren, Denmark) and
Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz (Lodz Film School, Poland) decided to award PULSE (dir. Robin Petré, Hungary, Belgium, Portugal, 2016) about a Hungarian deer farm and the ever-lasting human vs. nature struggle, because "the film impressed the jury by its original approach and artistic craftsmanship, using specific and unusual point of view in combination with high filmmaking language. By using various materials, including photographs, mostly made by farmers, who have no problem to kill the animals, juxtaposes the topics and makes the viewer uncomfortable".
Best Mid-length Documentary
The jurors of this category were Aleksandar Govedarica (Syndicado, Canada), Oliver Wright (Open City Documentary Festival, UK) and
Magdalena Zelažko (LET‘S CEE Film Festival, Austria). They decided to award the most personal diocumentary in the competition, the Slovak film 5 OCTOBER by Martin Kollár. They commented on their choice: "A quiet, yet extremely powerful story about a man with an important deadline, maybe the last one of his life. We particularly admired Kollar's ability to taciturnly convey a complex and intimate story that never loses it sense of purpose. A structurally innovative exploration of the inner self that is highlighted by outstanding cinematography and meticulous pacing."
Apart from the main award, the jurors also wanted to draw attention to one more film and decided to grant a Special mention to MY OWN PRIVATE WAR (dir. Lidija Zelovic, the Netherlands, 2016): "Our honourable mention also goes to a very personal film by Lidija Zelović. Using the personal experiences and the archive footage, the director is looking for answers to some of the most important questions of one's life. How to deal with the history – the one of a nation and the privat one? How to forgive? And not forget." "
The winning film were screened right after the ceremony to the packed cinema hall and the audience was thrilled. Our sincere congratulations to all awarded films and we hope to see them at many festivals soon! The winner of the main category was announced during the Jihlava IDFF closing ceremony.