Amedspor

Source: Karlovy Vary

‘Amedspor’

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s (KVIFF) industry strand Eastern Promises has unveiled its 2024 winners.

The winners come from its established Works In Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch, and First Cut+ strands, as well as its new Works in Development – Intensive Queer programme, and the second edition of KVIFF Talents.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Winners included Turkish feature Amedspor, directed by Rezan Yesilbas, which took the Works in Progress Visual Post Production Award. The film centres on a Turkish football club that decided to reclaim its Kurdish identity. The judges called it “an important and enthralling look at the intersection of sports and politics in modern day Turkey.”

The  Works in Progress Sound Post-production Award was won by Martina Buchelová’s Slovak-Czech co-production love story Lover, Not A Fighter. The judges described it as a “fresh and honest depiction of young love.” The film was also one of the winners of the Marché du Film Producers Network Award.

New for this year was the Eurimages Co-production Development Award for Works in Development with €20,000 prize money. It was won by Czech project Antonie, directed and written by Rozálie Kohoutová and produced by Martina Knoblochová and Martin Hůlovec. Knoblochová also won the Rotterdam Lab Award. The jury said the film “challenges conventional ideas about parenthood with humour and heart and motivates us to rethink societal norms.”

A total of 39 film and series projects were screened, competing for awards with a total value of €110,000.

Hugo Rosák, the head of the KVIFF Film Industry Office, said: “This year has once again brought a diverse selection of strong creative voices, and we were pleased to showcase them to their potential production, distribution and festival partners in the beautiful setting of the Imperial Spa, the new KVIFF Industry venue.”

Eastern Promises 2024 winners

Works in Progress

Works in Progress Visual Post-production Award
Amedspor (Turkey), dir. Rezan Yesilbas, prod. Ahmet Gurata

 Works in Progress Sound Post-production Award
Lover, Not a Fighter (Slovak-Czech), dir. Martina Buchelová, prod. Michaela Kaliská, Erika Paulinská and Julie Marková Žáčková.

Works in Progress Award
Virtual Girlfriends (Czech-Slovak Republic), dir. Barbora Chalupová, prod. Pavla Klimešová, Monika Lošťáková and Simona Hrušovská.

Works in Development – Feature Launch & Intensive Queer; KVIFF Talents

MIDPOINT & KVIFF Development Award
Klára is Here (Hungary), directed and written by Dávid Csicskár, prod. Balázs Zachar.

Eurimages Co-production Development Award
Antonie (Czech), directed and written by Rozálie Kohoutová, prod. Martina Knoblochová and Martin Hůlovec.  

Connecting Cottbus Award
Eli and Them (Czech), directed and written by Petr Pylypčuk and produced by Kryštof Burda.

Rotterdam Lab Award
Martina Knoblochová, producer of the film Antonie (Czech)

KVIFF Talents

Feature Pool
Inbetween Worlds (Czech-Slovak), dir. Diana Cam Van Nguyen, written by Diana Cam Van Nguyen, Milada Těšitelová and produced by Karolína Davidová and Jakub Viktorín
Letters to the Future (Czech), directed and written by Myro Klochko, produced by Marek Čermák, Karolína Fránková
Rusalka (Czech), written by Hana Neničková.

Creative Pool
Casting (Czech), limited series dir. Terézia Halamová, written by Jan Černý, prod. Natália Pavlove
Into the Endless Unknowns (Czech) miniseries written and dir. Veronika Jelšíková and Petr Vlček
Spectrum (Czech), dramedy series dir. Igor Smitka, written by Adél Škvrna, produced by Klára Mamojková, Wanda Kaprálová and Matej Sotník.

First Cut+ Works in Progress

First Cut+ Works in Progress Award
Numakage Public Swimming Pool (Japan), directed and written by Shingo Ota, prod. Kyoko Takenaka

First Cut+ Works in Progress Special Mention
Mayflies (Hungary-Slovak), directed and written by Emília Goldberg, prod. Ferenc Pusztai and Linda Pfeiffer.

KVIFF Eastern Promises – Marché du Film Producers Network Award
Michaela Kaliská, producer of Lover, Not a Fighter (Slovakia) and Patryk Sielecki, producer of Anxiety of the Heart (Poland)