Kormakur takes top prize at Karlovy Vary

Baltasar Kormákur’s “Myrin” (Jar City) has won the Grand Prix Crystal Globe, the highest prize at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. The Icelandic filmmaker (The Sea) and A Little Trip to Heaven) tells the tale of a desperate man is trying to locate the genetic origin of his little daughter’s brain illness. A solitary detective is investigating the murder of an old eccentric whose eventful past changes this seemingly ordinary case into a bizarre mystery. Both storylines gradually become intertwined in Baltasar Kormákur’s latest film – the biggest Icelandic box-office hit of all time.

The 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 29th to July 7th) also handed out top prizes to Norwegian director Bard Breien won best director for his film, The Art of Negative Thinking. Acting prizes went to Elvira Minguez for her role in Pudor and Sergey Puskepalis for his role in Simple Things. Czech director Lucie Kralova took the best doc prize over 30 minutes for Lost Holiday while the prize in the under 30 minutes category went to Artel by Russian director Sergey Loznitsa.

 
Variety reports that “Simple Things” took anex-aequo (according to what is right and good) special mention for elderly Russian actor Leonid Bronevoy, whose performance was his first in film since the 1980s, and FIPRESCI and ecumenical jury nods.

In the festival's East of the West competition section, dedicated to films from former Communist countries, the $10,000 top prize went to “Armin,” a Croatian, German, Bosnian and Herzegovinian co-production directed by Ognjen Svilicic. Estonian director Imar Raag's “The Class” got a special mention.

In other awards, the audience prize went to Czech director Jan Sverak's “Empties.” Sverak's father Zdenek Sverak wrote the script and starred in the movie — which has been a big boxoffice hit in the Czech Republic — and he also took an ex-aequo nod.

Australian director Michael James Rowland got a special grand jury prize for the Australian feature film “Lucky Miles.”     

For more on the festival – visit the official site.