Uherske Hradiste, South Moravia, Aug 1 (CTK) – A total of 5,500 film fans from the Czech Republic and abroad visited the 41st Summer Film School (LFS) in Uherske Hradiste that ended Saturday, LFS spokeswoman Radka Piskacova has told CTK.
The attendance is lower than last year when a record high number of 6,247 people visited the LFS on the occasion of its 40th anniversary.
“We consider this year’s festival successful since the attendance was higher than in the previous years,” Piskacova said.
The festival, which opened on July 24, has offered not only film screenings, but also a series of accompanying events, such as concerts, exhibitions, theatre performances and lectures.
“This year, 5,500 visitors were accredited who could see 237 films in eight cinemas, including open-air ones, nine theatre performances and 14 concerts,” Piskacova said.
All festival sections drew a high attention, especially the Film and Live Music section focused on Alfred Hitchcock this year, and Focus/Finland presenting the Finish cinematography.
The festival also welcomed a number of renowned guests, such as Finnish director Mika Kaurismaeki, Iranian film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, British director Peter Strickland and Christoph Hochhaeusler, a significant personality of the Berlin film school, as well as Czech director Juraj Herz and documentary film-maker Helena Trestikova.
The Association of Czech Film Clubs (ACFK), the festival organiser, presented five annual awards.
The last one went to Trestikova at the closing ceremony tonight. She was awarded her the sensitivity and empathy with the protagonists of her time-lapse documentaries.
Other laureates of the ACFK awards are Kaurismaeki, Makhmalbaf, Czech actor Bolek Polivka and Michael Malek, a long-time collaborator with the LFS.
Makhmalbaf, who lives in Paris and whose films and books are banned in Iran, symbolically donated his award to his friends and artists imprisoned in Iran.
This year’s budget of the LFS was 15 million crowns, the same sum as last year.
($1=24.648 crowns)
