UK director Mark Cousins’s A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things has won the top prize, the Crystal Globe, at this year’s Karlovy Vary Film Festival, while Loveable by Norwegian director Lilja Ingolfsdottir won five awards in total including the special jury prize and best actress award for Helga Guren.
Cousins‘ A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things is a documentary portrait of British painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, a leading figure in the modernist St Ives group of artists. Screen’s review said that Cousins brought “his distinctively poetic and enquiring approach to this elegiac cine-essay“ to the film. Conic acquired UK-Ireland rights to the film ahead of its Karlovy Vary premiere.
Scroll down for full list of winners
One of the most talked about films at the festival, Lilja Ingolfsdottir’s Loveable centres on a mother, played by Guren, who must come to terms with herself when her husband asks for a divorce.
As well as the special jury prize and the best actress award, Loveable received the Europa Cinemas Label Award, the Grand prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and the Fipresci Award for the best film in Crystal Globe competition. Screen’s review said Ingolfsdottir’s “impressive feature debut” is “superbly acted and sharply written“ and ”casts a perceptive, empathetic eye over the messy business of breaking up.“
Meanwhile, Nelicia Low won the best director award for her Singapore-Taiwan-Poland co-production Pierce. A psychological thriller, it centres on a young fencer reunited with his older brother Zihan in juvenile prison for killing an opponent during a fencing match.
The best actor award was shared by Ton Kas and Guido Pollemans for their role in the film Three Days of Fish by Dutch director Peter Hoogendoorn.
The Crystal Globe jury consisted of US producer Christine Vachon, actor Geoffrey Rush, Icelandic poet and novelist Sjón, the Czech actress Eliška Křenková and Hungarian director Gábor Reisz.
There was a special jury mention for Noaz Deshe’s refugee drama Xoftex and Adam Martinec’s Czech-Slovak drama Our Lovely Pig Slaughter. The festival’s Pravo Audience Award went to Jiří Mádl’s 1968-set Czech drama Waves.
The festival’s Proxima Competition was won by Zhengfan Yang episodic hotel-set drama Stranger, a US-China-Netherlands-Norway-France co-production.
Paolo Tizón’s Night Has Come received the Proxima special jury prize, while there was a special mention for Martin Pavol Repka’s Czech drama March to May.
Crystal Globe Competition
Grand Prix – Crystal Globe
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things (UK)
Dir. Mark Cousins
Special Jury Prize
Loveable (Nor)
Dir. Lilja Ingolfsdottir
Best Director Award
Nelicia Low, Pierce (Sing-Taiw-Pol)
Best Actress Award
Helga Guren Loveable (Nor)
Best Actor Award – ex-aequo
Ton Kas and Guido Pollemans, Three Days of Fish (Neth-Belg)
Special Jury Mention
Xoftex (Ger-Fr)
Dir. Noaz Deshe
Our Lovely Pig Slaughter (Czech-Slovak)
Dir. Adam Martinec
Právo Audience Award
Waves (Czech-Slovak)
Dir. Jiří Mádl
Proxima Competition
Proxima Grand Prix
Stranger (US-China-Neth-Nor-Fr)
Dir. Zhengfan Yang
Proxima Special Jury Prize
Night Has Come (Peru-Sp-Mex)
Dir. Paolo Tizón
Special Mention
March to May (Czech)
Dir. Martin Pavol Repka
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