For the 10th time the Institute of Documentary Film gave Silver Eye Award to the best documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe at East Silver Market. The winner of the feature length category is Czech-Croatian documentary When the War Comes, directed by Jan Gebert and produced by Radovan Síbrt. Both got the award at the closing ceremony of Ji.hlava IDFF on October 29, 2018. The short length category was anounced the day before at Festival Hub 2018: Eight Images from the Life of Nastya Sokolova / Vosem kartin iz zhizni Nasti Sokolovoi (dir. Alina Kotova, Vladlena Sandu) was awarded and the Special Mention was given to Lembri Uudu (dir. Eeva Mägi).
The international jury Christophe Postic (Lussas Doc, France), Alex Shiriaieff (B2B Doc, Sweden), Martin Horyna (KVIFF, Czech Republic), Csilla Kató (Astra Film Festival, Romania) and Nevena Milašinović (Sweet Spot Docs, Bosnia and Herzegovina) gave the following statement:
"The emerging director – producer duo, Jan Gebert and Radovan Síbrt, found a peculiar way of portraying a modern-day antagonist who genuinely represents dangerous tendencies in current society, while choosing the necessary rigorous way to approach him. With clear cinematic language, this film depicts omnipresent inclination of some people to manipulate the others."
10 films were nominated in the Short category, 11 films were nominated in the Feature length category. The winner in each category received not only a unique award trophy, but also a prize money of 2 250 € and a year-long festival service of the East Silver Caravan worth of additional 2 250 €.
Feature length documentaries nominated for the Silver Eye Award 2018:
Rodeo (dir. Raimo Jõerand, Kiur Aarma, Estonia, Finland, 2018)
Are You Sleeping, Brother Jakob? (dir. Stefan Bohun, Austria, 2018)
Bruce Lee & the Outlaw (dir. Joost Vandebrug, Great Britain, Netherlands, Czech Republic, 2018)
Home Games (dir. Alisa Kovalenko, Ukraine, France, Poland, 2018)
A Woman Captured (dir. Bernadett Tuza-Ritter, Hungary, Germany, 2017)
The Distant Barking of Dogs (dir. Simon Lereng Wilmont, Denmark, 2017)
Chris the Swiss (dir. Anja Kofmel, Switzerland, Germany, Croatia, Finland, 2018)
Solving My Mother (dir. Ieva Ozolina, Latvia, 2017)
Genesis 2.0 (dir. Christian Frei, Maxim Arbugaev, Switzerland, 2018)
No Obvious Signs (dir. Alina Gorlova, Ukraine, 2018)
When the War Comes (dir. Jan Gebert, Czech Republic, Croatia, 2018)