Coming-of-age drama Pusinky (Dolls) won the grand prize at the 20th Film Festival Finale Plzen on Saturday.

Karin Babinska's debut feature, Dolls is a coming-of-age story about three young women on a road-trip holiday. The film is produced by Cineart TV Prague. International sales are being handled by Telexport Prague.

Director Petr Nikolaev received an award for Outstanding Film Achievement for his feature It's Gonna Get Worse, which looks at Czech counterculture in the aftermath of the 1969 Warsaw Pact invasion.

Director Helena Trestikova won the documentary film competition with her gripping film Marcela.

The film is one film of the director's six-part series 'Marriage Stories', which Trestikova has been filming over the past 30 years. Marcela is produced by Negativ Film Productions. Irena Taskovski is handling international sales.

Director Robert Sedlacek's film The Rules Of Lying won the festival audience award and a prize from the Czech Film Club Association.

Festival guests got a surprise in the form of the world premiere of Tajnosti (Secrets), the new film from director Alice Nellis which was added to the programme at the last minute. A marriage drama seasoned with situational humour and a stirring soundtrack, Secrets stars Iva Bittova (Zelary) and Karel Roden (Hellboy 2).

Secrets is produced by Jan Sverak, who also presented his own film Empties at the Plzen festival. The filmmakers are still looking for a festival to take the film for its international premiere.

Czech actress Iva Janzurova chaired the international jury, which also included chief executive of European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs Alan Fountain, Slovenian producer Danijel Hocevar, Bulgarian film critic Bojidar Manov and Slovak film expert Peter Dubecky.

Czech producer Jana Cisar chaired the documentary jury, which included Estonian director Kristiina Davidjants and Slovak director Robert Kirchhoff.

Topics