Institute of Documentary Film regularly organizes the East Silver Market within the Ji.hlava IDFF, presenting a selection of the new documentaries from the CEE region. The record-breaking 700 documentaries entered the fourteenth edition, and industry guests of the festival had the opportunity to stream a total of 324 selected films in the video library.
Thanks to the support of MEDIA Programme / Creative Europe, for the ninth time already, the best films from the market were rewarded by Silver Eye Awards in an effort to help them with promotion, 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. The results of the short and mid-length category were announced during the Festival Hub Presentation on October 27.
In the competition of 11 shorts, Polish film Dust by Jakub Radej was awarded. The jury commented on their choice: „While there was a fine selection of films in the competition, Dust stood out as a careful and considered documentary. We admired Dust for its detachment of emotion, its conceptual approach to the subject of death, and for its beautiful cinematography and polished editing.“ The jury was Holly Butcher (Sideways Films, UK), Maëlle Guenegues (CAT & Docs, France) and Niklas Engstrøm (CPH:DOX, Denmark).
The international jury of the category mid-length documentary decided to give the Silver Eye Award to Paper Stars by Russian director Inna Omelchenko, and explained: “The film deals with its subject in a focused yet poetical form and treats its protagonists gently and respectfully. The smooth camera immerses in the life of 13-year old girls and captures this beautiful, yet very fragile and vulnerable coming-of-age process. A reflection on the relation between the individual and the group, the film in the same time witnesses the political dimension of education and traditional summer camping of teenagers.“ The jury was composed by Kenan Aliyev (Current Time TV, Czech Republic), Gennady Kofman (Docu Days UA, Ukraine) and Gaby Babić (Go East, Germany).
The results of the feature category will be announced during the closing ceremony of the Jihlava IDFF on October 28.
The profiles of the films selected for East Silver Market 2017 can also be found in an online catalogue here.
The nominees / short category:
About My Sister (Barbora Sliepková, Slovakia, 2016)
Between Us (Maciej Miller, Poland, 2017)
Blueberry Spirits (Astra Zoldnere, Latvia, 2016)
Collection (Marcin Polar, Poland, 2017)
Dust (Jakub Radej, Poland, 2017)
Grandfather's Father (Karlis Lesins, Latvia, 2016)
The Happiest Barrack (Noemi Varga, Hungary, United Kingdom, 2016)
Ionas Dreams of Rain (Dragos Hanciu, Romania, 2017)
Polonaise (Agnieszka Elbanowska, Poland, 2016)
Volte (Monika Kotecka, Poland, 2017)
The Winter Garden's Tale (Symon Mozgovyi, Ukraine, 2017)
The nominees / mid-length category:
Avec l'amour (Ilija Cvetkovski, Atanas Georgiev, Macedonia, 2017)
Cabbage, Potatoes and Other Demons (Serban Georgescu, Romania, Germany, 2016)
I am Hercules (Marius Iacob, Romania, Germany, 2017)
Opera about Poland (Piotr Stasik, Poland, 2017)
Paper Stars (Inna Omelchenko, Russia, 2016)
Rabbits in the Headlights (Alisa Erokhina, Russia, 2016)
The Road Movie (Dmitrii Kalashnikov, Belarus, Russia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, 2016)
The Wall (Dmitry Bogolubov, Russia, 2017)
