Saturday, December 14, 2024
The Prague Film Awards returns for its 5th edition at the Kino Aero on 26&27 January 2024.
Over two days, the annual film festival will screen 24 innovative and thought-provoking short and feature films by Czech and international filmmakers showcasing the power of independent cinema.
Following last year’s success, the PFA aims to serve once again as a meeting space for film lovers, filmmakers, students and industry experts. A place where people of various backgrounds but with the same love for cinema can interact, spark conversations and explore the latest indie shorts from around the world.
Each day features two short film programmes and one feature-length film. Through 4 different themes and 24 indie films from 11 countries, this year’s edition delves into social issues, personal dilemmas, existential questions and philosophical notions.
Documentary, fiction, experimental, and animation films comprise the PFA24 captivating programme. Some of them have premiered in world-class international film festivals while others are just making their way to the festival scene.
The first day of the festival opens with Yu-Lin Chung’s feature drama-fantasy film “The Mimicry” which takes the audience into people’s apartments, observing human behaviour through the residents’ stories. Programme 2 “Amuse-bouche” introduces us to the festival’s short film sections with 6 different stories where food plays the main role while the third program “Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” puts male anxieties’ in the foreground through 4 different shorts. Among others, this program includes Sebastien Duattis’ “Any Old Sunday” (Comme un dimanche matin) which won multiple awards and is nominated in over 40 festivals worldwide.
Any Old Sunday
On the second day of the Prague Film Awards, the program’s feature film is Mickael Bandela’s “One Mother” autobiographical documentary which examines the notion of family and motherhood. The shorts of the “East in the West” tell the stories of the eastern and south-eastern diaspora in the West while in the last program, we listen to “Queer Stories of Belonging”; stories of marginalization, immigration, motherhood, bullying and homophobia unfold the spectrum of societal restrictions.
At PFA24 we celebrate independent cinema, showcase the power of upcoming filmmakers and aim to challenge the audience with films that deal with significant issues of modern society.
Impasse
Program – Day 1
Programme 1: 18.00 – 19.30
⬦ The Mimicry, Yu-Lin Chung, Taiwan • 2023 • 83’
This film is an adaptation of a short story of the same name, written by Kao Yi-feng. It tells the story of a green scarab beetle, named “Vitamin”, who has transformed into human form. Vitamin surreptitiously enters people’s apartments and observes and imitates human behaviour. Through Vitamin’s perspective as a bystander, the plot leads the audience to explore the unknown stories of various residents.
**Break 1: 19.30 – 19.40**
Programme 2: Amuse-bouche // 19.40 – 21.10
Acting as an introductory to the festival’s short film sections, this program brings 6 different stories where food plays the main role. Discover the stories of street food workers and fruit producers, learn how cupcakes can act as a means of acceptance and biscuits as a connection to one’s memory and engage with an obnoxious flan connoisseur or an obsessed mustard lover.
⬦Under the Umbrella, Mario Oros, United States • 2023 • 16’
⬦The Last Biscuit, Amy Fitzpatrick, United Kingdom • 2023 • 9’
⬦The Flannoisseur, Aiden Troy Weber, United States • 2023 • 20’
⬦Late Frost, Flavien Kressmann, France • 2023 • 8’
⬦Camille, Denise Raquel Roldán, Mexico • 2023 • 12’
⬦Mustard, Hildegard Ryan, Ireland • 2023 • 25’
**Break 2: 21.10 – 21.20**
Program 3: Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown // 21.20 – 22.35
This program puts male insecurities, anxieties and fears in the foreground in a playful yet realistic way. An elder photographer struggling to materialise his dreams, a roller rink worker in a mid-life crisis, a husband on a not-so-regular Sunday and a soon-to-be father freaking out over intrusive thoughts he can’t control. Mentalities and pressures induced by the patriarchal society, disappointments and bitter realisations unravel as we follow the life journey of four different men.
⬦Without Influence, Lou-Andréa Désiré, France • 2022 • 19’
⬦Reuben the Roller Roo’, Will Prescott, United States • 2022 • 13’
⬦Tall Dark and Handsome, Sam Baron, United Kingdom • 2022 • 14’
⬦Any Old Sunday, Sebastien Duattis, France • 2022 • 27’
The Last Biscuit
Day 2
Programme 1: 18.00 – 19.20
⬦ One Mother, Mickael Bandela, France • 2022 • 80’
An autobiographical film about an unprivileged childhood, which raises questions about the (in)interchangeability of each individual, and in particular of a mother, and questions the notion of family.
** Break: 19.20 – 19.30 **
Programme 2: East in the West: 19.30 – 21.05
Through genuine and personal testimonies, this program tells the stories of the eastern and south-eastern diaspora in the West. The implications and traumas of intergenerational gaps, family bonds, cultural differences as well as the sense of identity and community become the main focal point in these fiction, documentary, experimental and animation short films.
⬦My Name is Tommy Lan Phat Truong, Tommy Truong, Canada • 2022 • 11’
⬦Sang, Ruqing Li, Czech Republic • 2022 • 17’
⬦The Taste of Orange, Minami Iizuka, Czech Republic • 2023 • 25’
⬦Shan Shan, Shen Gao, United Kingdom • 2023 • 4’
⬦The Long Way Home, Jiaxin Wei, United States • 2023 • 21’
⬦Same Old, Lloyd Lee Choi, Canada • 2022 • 15’
**Break 2: 21.05 – 21.15 **
Program 3: Queer Stories of Belonging: 21.15 – 22.45
Stories of marginalization, immigration, motherhood, bullying and homophobia unfold the spectrum of societal restrictions. As we watch the characters of these 6 shorts paving their ways, we find ourselves diving into the notions of the freedom of human emotional and sexual liberation.
⬦Spolu, Ben Senior, Czech Republic • 2023 • 10’
⬦Outdoors, John Mark Fitzpatrick, United Kingdom • 2022 • 13’
⬦Impasse, Nicolas Reza, Poland • 2022 • 16’
⬦August Sky, Jasmin Tenucci, Brazil • 2021 • 16’
⬦One Washer Please, Roxana Baloiu, Canada • 2023 • 11’
⬦Heart Fruit, Kim Allamand, Switzerland • 2022 • 20’
Ticket Price: 120CZK per screening // 100CZK for students and seniors
Tickets: bit.ly/3S0sppU
