Aung Fie’s “Fruit Gathering” won the Crystal Globe Award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Saturday.
Set in modern-day Myanmar, it depicts the friendship and bond that develops between two young women working in a textile factory.
The film “begins as a rich, contemplative portrait of work and friendship, and unexpectedly and organically transforms into a harrowing drama of obsession and bizarre desire,” the jury said.
“My producers went through a lot to make this movie, and I had to deal with it too. I don’t know why they believed in me. I don’t believe in myself,” Fie said at the ceremony, also thanking her mother.
“I wanted to make a movie that was very atmospheric and very restrained because it was a world that I knew,” he told Variety.
“We are trying to achieve our own national language of cinema. We are very backward and we don’t get support for most things. It is very difficult to make films in this country,” he admitted.
“I also have to be very careful that political matters have to be very subtle. Personally, I try to achieve a rhythm in the film that I hope resonates with my own lived experience.”
Jury members Justin Chan, Amanda Nell Yu, Pavel Regolec, Nadia Turinchev and Eskil Vogt also awarded The Guest, starring Trine Dyrholm, a “chillingly funny yet precisely calibrated drama that subtly raises questions about motherhood, filial piety and mental illness.”
The film won a Special Jury Award and a $15,000 cash prize, as well as Best Director for Mads Mengel.
“We made a movie about family, so I want to thank my family and my sister for always being there for me, even when things got a little tough. I also want to thank my fiancée, who said to me, ‘If you win, don’t forget to thank my hot wife.’ So from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank my hot wife,” he said, picking up his second trophy.
“What fascinated me was not telling my own story, but exploring something that many people recognize: how our understanding of our parents changes as we grow older, especially when we start families of our own. I was interested in those moments when certainties start to crumble, when the people we’ve spent years judging slowly become more complex and human,” Mengel said.
“Life rarely has a perfect ending, but sometimes it gives us a chance to start again.”
The Best Actress award went to Jean-Eric Mack’s “The Happy Family” and to Anna Schinz for her “gripping, haunting and restrained performance as a mother pushed to the edge of despair.” Ghassan Saad won Best Actor for Karim Kasem’s Pipes.
In the Proxima competition, Martina Bucherova’s “Lover, Not a Fighter” won the grand prize and $15,000.
“The jury found the film’s extraordinary lightness (and its refusal to take itself too seriously) refreshing, even as it dealt with essential themes such as the absurdities of family, the confusion of young love, and the anxieties of old age, all with brilliant sincerity.”
The Jury Prize went to Shuntaro Uchida’s “Incinerator,” a “film of deceptive simplicity,” and director Efthimis Kosemundo-Sannidis was awarded the Best Director award for “Whole Person Almost.”
Finally, the special award was given to “33 Steps”.
“Rather than reducing the people who bear the brunt of racism to mere symbols, this film dives deep into their inner lives to confront harsh truths about the nonlinear nature of trauma, the inherited nature of fear, and the difficulty of shutting down a broken society,” the jury said.
At the ceremony, Juliette Binoche received the Crystal Globe Award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema.
“I have to thank all the directors I’ve worked with. That doesn’t happen very often. I’ve been very lucky in life and career. I have two patient children and a wonderful nanny who took care of them in my absence,” she said.
Binoche also spoke of countries and artists who “can’t express themselves.”
“I’m thinking about Palestine, Lebanon and Ukraine. We need artists who tell stories and tell the truth. Passion is at the heart of what we do. Life passes quickly, so let’s give as much of ourselves as we can. We need to come together.”
Jeffrey Wright (who surprised the audience earlier this week by remembering Karlovy Vary’s late president Jiří Bartoshka, saying he “taught me how to laugh” in a promotion for “Basquiat”) received the Festival Chairman’s Award.
“There are forces in this world right now that want to separate us, but our stories, our films, our history say otherwise,” Wright said, also recalling a meeting with “Amadeus” director Milos Forman. At one point they wanted to make a film about Alexander Pushkin “to celebrate their commonality.”
“I heard that he had a script for a very interesting story, about a young artist who lived a fiery life and died young. It’s similar to the story of Jean-Michel Basquiat, who first brought me here,” he said. Quincy Jones wanted to produce it.
Pushkin may have been described as a “typical Russian,” but his great-grandfather was African.
“I missed it, but there’s still time. Milosz won’t be directing it again, Quincy won’t be producing it again, but maybe he’ll come back with that story. I’m going to use this (award) as an encouragement to continue creating to unite us. As Americans, I think this is our greatest strength. It’s not what we destroy, it’s what we create.”
A complete list of awards can be found here.
crystal globe competition
Grand Prize – Crystal Globe ($25,000)
“Fruit Gathering”
Myanmar, Czech Republic, France
Directed by Aung Hwiet
Special Jury Prize ($15,000)
“The Guest”
Denmark
Works directed by Mats Mengel
Best Director Award
Mats Mengel “The Guest”
Best Actress Award
Anna Schinz “Happy Family”
Switzerland
Works directed by Jean-Eric Mack
Best Actor Award
Gassan Saad “Pipes”
Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
Directed by Karim Kasem
Prabo Audience Award
“Rose – Rockstar Diary”
czech republic
Directed by Helena Treštiková
proxima competition
Proxima Grand Prix ($15,000)
“A lover, not a fighter.”
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic
Director: Martina Bucherova
Proxima Special Jury Award ($10,000)
“Incinerator”
Japan
Director Shuntaro Uchida
Proxima Best Director Award
Efthimis Cosemund-Sannidis “Almost everyone”
Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, Cyprus, Romania
Special mention of Proxima
“33 steps”
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic
Director Anna Domczek, Szymon Domczek
Crystal Globe Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema
Juliette Binoche, France
Dustin Hoffman, USA
Robert Richardson, USA
Festival Chairman’s Award
Jesse Eisenberg, USA
maggie gyllenhaal, america
Magda Vasaryova, Slovak Republic
Jeffrey Wright, USA
Ecumenical Jury Grand Prize
“The lion on my back”
Cyprus, Luxembourg, Greece
Directed by Tonia Misiari
European Cinemas Label Award
“3 weeks later”
Serbia, Bulgaria, Italy, Croatia, Luxembourg
Directed by Miroslav Terzic
FIPRESCI Award for the Best Film in the Crystal Globe Competition
“Look at only the beautiful things”
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Hungary
Directed by Ivan Ostrokhovsky
FIPRESCI Award given to the best work of the Proxima Competition
“Petty thieves”
Croatia, France, Germany, Serbia
Directed by Mate Ugrin
KVIFF promises winners
Midpoint and KVIFF Development Award (10,000 euros)
“Blooming at dawn”
north macedonia
Director: Angela Dimesca
Eurimages Co-Production and Development Award (20,000 euros)
“Selamrik”
sweden, denmark
Director: Jerry Carlson
Eurimages Special Co-Production and Development Award (20,000 euros)
“Reminiscence”
ukraine
Director: Anastasia Tika
Connecting the Cottbus Prize
“Reminiscence”
Rotterdam Lab Award
Monika Matuszewska, producer of the movie “Confirmation”
Poland
Marché du Filmmakers Network Award
Tomáš Hrubi, “Cowgirl” Producer, Czech Republic
Eva Vacova, “A Few Branches Off” Producer, Czech Republic
Feature pool (120,000 CZK for further development):
“Exposure”
czech republic
Director: Klara Tasowska
“Until we leave.”
czech republic
Screenwriter: Lucia Zidzinska
“Nera”
Czech Republic, Slovenia
Director: Ivana Vogrink Vidali
Creative pool (50,000 CZK for further development):
“Inhaler”
czech republic
Director: Bara Anna Stajskalova
“Burning Witches”
czech republic
Screenwriter: Martina Babisova, Vera Starechkova
“K-Dream”
czech republic
Director: Adam Sedlak
