Broken Voices, Rebuilding or Out of Love Among the Winners of the Non-Statutary Awards

The empathetic film Rebuilding won 59. KVIFF Ecumenical Jury Award, this jury was also taken up by the drama Cinema Jazireh. The Czech film Broken Voices won the Europa Cinemas Label Award and the FIPRESCI Awards went to films Out of Love in the Crystal Globe Competition and Before / After in the Proxima Competition.​

THE ECUMENICAL JURY AWARDS

Since 1994 the Ecumenical Jury has awarded films from the Crystal Globe Competition that display high artistic quality while questioning social, political ethical, and spiritual values. It promotes directors who emphasize the search for truth, justice, and hope in accordance with Christian Gospels.

THE ECUMENICAL JURY​​
Achim Forst
Rose Pacatte
Ida Tenglerová

GRAND PRIZE OF THE ECUMENICAL JURY

Rebuilding
Directed by: Max Walker-Silverman, USA, 2025

Jury Statement:​
A quiet, divorced Colorado rancher who lost everything in a wildfire is relocated to an emergency relief camp with other displaced survivors. As these strangers come to know one another, each rediscovers hope through the creation of friendships, family bonds, and community connections. With a delicate touch, the director explores themes of community, the blended family, profound human generosity, selflessness, mutuality and cooperation. This austere and visually striking film is a beautiful, life-affirming story that offers hope in the face of hardship, both personal and environmental.

COMMENDATION OF THE ECUMENICAL JURY

Cinema Jazireh
Directed by: Gözde Kural, Turkey, Iran, Bulgaria, Romania, 2025

Jury Statement:​
A woman, having survived her family’s massacre under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, disguises herself as a man to locate her missing son. The film, with its gritty cinematography and nuanced editing, deftly places contemporary global issues within the context of Leila’s journey, such as war, oppression of women and the marginalized, religious fanaticism, gender, sex trafficking, and child abuse. The film is a testament to hope, resistance to tyranny, and the power of profoundly human networks working together. Cinema Jazireh has the exceptional potential to make the audience care about what is happening in the world.

EUROPA CINEMAS LABEL AWARD

Since 2003, the Europa Cinemas Label has been awarded to a European film by a jury of Europa Cinemas network exhibitors at five European festivals. It aims to increase the promotion, circulation and exhibition lifespan of winning films. The Europa Cinemas Label awards the best European film among those selected for the Crystal Globe Competition and the Proxima Competition.

EUROPA CINEMAS LABEL JURY
Daniel Krátký
Slavomíra Macáková
Wouter Timmermans

Sbormistr / Broken Voices
Directed by: Ondřej Provazník, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2025

Jury Statement:
This was not an easy choice for us. We were impressed by the diverse field of powerful contenders in this year’s competitions, but we finally agreed unanimously on a very strong film: Broken Voices. The film’s universal topic shows a very complex power structure within a competitive all-girl choir. Broken Voices illustrates very sensitively how the safe spaces for a girl can get poisoned. The young leading actress Kateřina Falbrová is so impressively nuanced in her debut as a spellbound young girl. Shot on grainy 16mm, the director Ondřej Provazník lures the spectator into a comfortable nostalgic nineties setting only to slowly reveal a very sinister abuse of authority.

FIPRESCI AWARD

The International Federation of Film Critics Jury awards two FIPRESCI Prizes: to a film from the Crystal Globe Competition and a film from the Proxima Competition, for works that best promote film art and encourage new and young cinema.

FIPRESCI JURY
Helen Barlow
Ela Bittencourt
Bitopan Borborah
Patrick Fey
Lukáš Jirsa
Christos Skyllakos

The FIPRESCI Award for the Best Film in the Crystal Globe Competition

Out of Love / Les Enfants vont bien
Directed by: Nathan Ambrosioni, France, 2025

Jury Statement:​
FIPRESCI is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and at the 59th Karlovy Vary Film Festival our jury has unanimously decided to award our prize in the Crystal Globe competition to the French film Les Enfants vont bien (Out of Love) directed by Nathan Ambrosioni. The 25-year-old writer-director shows his remarkable skill in working not only with adult actors but with children in examining fragile family relationships.

​The FIPRESCI Award for the Best Film in the Proxima Competition

Before / After / Avant / Après
Directed by: Manoël Dupont, Belgium, 2025

Jury Statement:​​
​We award the FIPRESCI prize for Proxima Competition to Manoël Dupont’s Before / After for its unfeigned exploration of a relationship as fractured and ambiguous as the cinematic travelogue that captures it. Through its hybrid aesthetics, the filmmaker grants the narrative an openness to question how the real interferes with fiction, and to prod the notion of character in cinema as knowable. The film depicts the homoerotic bond with humor and tenderness, while also placing its Western protagonists in the context of orientalism and socioeconomic privilege.