– Mads Mengel’s The Guest picked up two awards, while Martina Buchelová’s Lover, Not a Fighter triumphed in the Proxima Competition
Director Aung Phyoe with his Crystal Globe for Fruit Gathering (© Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary)
Fruit Gathering, a feature debut directed by Myanmar filmmaker Aung Phyoe, has won the Grand Prize – Crystal Globe at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF). The film was singled out by the jury for the way its initially meditative portrait of work and friendship organically transforms into a disturbing drama around obsession and queer desire.
The Special Jury Prize in the Crystal Globe Competition went to Danish director Mads Mengel for his feature debut The Guest, which was described by the jury as a finely calibrated and uncomfortably funny drama addressing motherhood, filial responsibility and mental illness. Mengel also received the Best Director Award for his assured handling of the film’s ensemble cast and its shifting tonal register.
Swiss actress Anna Schinz was named Best Actress for her performance in Jan-Eric Mack’s family thriller A Happy Family. The jury praised the restraint with which she portrays a mother pushed towards desperate measures. Lebanese actor Ghassan Saad took the Best Actor Award for Karim Kassem’s Pipes, in which he plays a veteran village plumber confronting a succession of setbacks with warmth and gruff humour.
The Právo Audience Award was presented to Helena Třeštíková’s biographical timelapse documentary Bára – Diary of a Rockstar, centred on singer Bára Basiková.
Slovak filmmaker Martina Buchelová claimed the Grand Prize in the Proxima Competition with Lover, Not a Fighter, a tragicomic film observing young love, family life and the anxieties of ageing with humour and emotional lightness. The jury commended the director’s convincing engagement with Gen-Z culture and her ability to approach familiar experiences without resorting to gimmickry or inflated dramatic gestures.
The Proxima Special Jury Prize, for its part, went to Japanese filmmaker Shuntaro Uchida for Incinerator, a deceptively simple coming-of-age drama told from the perspective of an unusually perceptive young girl; Greek director Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis earned the Proxima Best Director Award for A Whole Person Almost, praised for balancing the intimate and the cosmic while addressing disability, bereavement and estrangement, while Slovak siblings Anna Domček and Šimon Domček received a Proxima Special Mention for 33 Steps. Inspired by an act of racist violence, the film was recognised for moving beyond a straightforward opposition between perpetrators and victims and for examining trauma, inherited fear and the elusive possibility of closure.
Among the non-statutory prizes, the Europa Cinemas Label went to Miroslav Terzić’s 3 Weeks After, with the jury highlighting the authenticity of its young ensemble and its depiction of contemporary adolescence from the protagonists’ own perspective.
Lastly, the FIPRESCI Award in the Crystal Globe Competition went to Ivan Ostrochovský’s Only Beautiful Things to Look At. This period drama tackles the state-sponsored sterilisation of Roma women in communist Czechoslovakia through a story of friendship and solidarity between two women from different backgrounds. The FIPRESCI jury awarded its prize in the Proxima Competition to Croatian filmmaker Mate Ugrin’s debut feature Petty Thieves, applauding its atmospheric portrayal of a generation struggling with economic precarity, fractured relationships and the search for dignity, while the Ecumenical Jury Grand Prize was awarded to Tonia Mishiali’s The Lion at My Back, focusing on an evolving relationship between an 18-year-old refugee and a 40-year-old Cypriot woman.
The festival also presented Crystal Globes for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema to Juliette Binoche, Dustin Hoffman and cinematographer Robert Richardson. The Festival President’s Award, meanwhile, was bestowed upon Jesse Eisenberg, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Magda Vášáryová and Jeffrey Wright.
The anniversary edition of KVIFF drew 11,014 accredited visitors, including 1,249 film professionals, 598 journalists and 469 filmmakers. The festival hosted 472 screenings and sold 132,553 tickets. Its programme comprised 179 films ,119 feature-length fiction titles, 21 feature documentaries and 39 shorts, including 42 world premieres and five international premieres. A total of 165 screenings were personally introduced by filmmaker delegations. The 61st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is scheduled to run from 2 to 10 July 2027.
The winners of the industry awards within KVIFF Promises can be found here.
The full list of award winners is as follows:
Crystal Globe Competition
Grand Prize – Crystal Globe
Fruit Gathering – Aung Phyoe (Myanmar/Czech Republic/France)
Special Jury Prize
The Guest – Mads Mengel (Denmark)
Best Director
Mads Mengel – The Guest (Denmark)
Best Actress
Anna Schinz – A Happy Family (Switzerland)
Best Actor
Ghassan Saad – Pipes (Lebanon/Qatar/Saudi Arabia)
Proxima Competition
Grand Prize
Lover, Not a Fighter – Martina Buchelová (Slovak Republic/Czech Republic)
Special Jury Prize
Incinerator – Shuntaro Uchida (Japan)
Best Director
Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis – A Whole Person Almost (Greece/Bulgaria/Germany/Cyprus/Romania)
Special Mention
33 Steps – Anna Domček, Šimon Domček (Slovak Republic/Czech Republic)
Non-statutory awards
Právo Audience Award
Bára – Diary of a Rockstar – Helena Třeštíková (Czech Republic)
Europa Cinemas Label
3 Weeks After – Miroslav Terzić (Serbia/Bulgaria/Italy/Croatia/Luxembourg)
FIPRESCI Award – Crystal Globe Competition
Only Beautiful Things to Look At – Ivan Ostrochovský (Slovak Republic/Czech Republic/Hungary)
FIPRESCI Award – Proxima Competition
Petty Thieves – Mate Ugrin (Croatia/France/Germany/Serbia)
Ecumenical Jury Grand Prize
The Lion at My Back – Tonia Mishiali (Cyprus/Luxembourg/Greece)
Honorary awards
Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema
Juliette Binoche
Dustin Hoffman
Robert Richardson
Festival President’s Award
Jesse Eisenberg
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Magda Vášáryová
Jeffrey Wright
