Club Zero wins the best production design award at the Alexandre Trauner Art/Film Festival

24.10.2023.

The jury members of the European Feature Film Competition were Joseph Hodges, British production designer, Francisco Gózon, Hungarian cinematographer and Barnabás Tóth, film director.

The winner of the European Feature Film Competition is Club Zero, directed by Jessica Hausner and starring Mia Wasikowska. The film took home the festival's top prize for best production design, which was handed over to visual designer Beck Rainford in person in Szolnok. One of the Cannes Film Festival's most divisive films was shown for the first time in Hungary at the festival in Szolnok. According to the jury, the film deals with important and topical social issues, which are expressed through visuals. The character and relationships of the protagonists unfold through the richness and starkness of the sets.

According to the jury, the creators of the film Power, starring Szabolcs Hajdu, have consistently and uncompromisingly used the available resources to bring the story to the screen. The world, reduced almost to black and white, indeterminate in space and time, is coherent and tasteful. The production designers are Anna Nyitrai and Michal Lošonský.

The third prize was awarded to the production designer Su Erdt for her visual design for Ingeborg Bachmann - Journey to the Desert. Every frame of the film exudes a refined taste and a precise, rigorous sense of the situation. Every setting is an aesthetic delight to behold. Elegance, faithfulness to the period and diversity characterise the whole production, the three-member jury explained.

The jury gave a special mention to the production designer of the Austrian film First Snow of Summer, Enid Löser.

The jury of the festival's Hungarian Films Competition, the Spectacular Science and the Student Films Competition was composed of Attila Dávid Molnár, nature film director, Katalin Solymosi, plant biologist, and Bálint Gelley, animation director.

The first place prize in the Spectacular Science Competition was shared with Dan Dinu's Wild Romania, which the jury judged to be a professional, breathtaking classic nature documentary that provides an in-depth, diverse and interesting overview of nature and wildlife in Romania. The jury particularly appreciated the images of the top predators, knowing how difficult and time-consuming it is to capture these moments in natural conditions. A real image film about Romania, a potential blockbuster that could attract back to the cinema audiences who love nature films.

Also taking first place was Volker Schlecht's animated documentary The Waiting, which was judged to be a highly progressive, unconventional and paradigm-shifting work, thanks to its crime thriller-like narrative about invisible chytrid fungi killing frogs in tropical rainforests in Central America, which it combines with reality in an extremely realistic way.

Second place went to Flóra Chilton for her documentary My Back Story. This professionally narrated medical documentary follows the fate of a teenage girl, Dorottya, and her family as they struggle with scoliosis, from the dreaded and complicated spinal correction surgery to physical and emotional recovery. The film vividly portrays the unconditional love and support of the parents, the extremely strong emotional bond and trust between the medical staff and the family.

Jakub Vágner, Jakub Vomáčka's portrait film of the English painter Before They Disappear, came joint third. The film is a subjectively narrated, behind-the-scenes nature documentary that offers a highly exotic and unique insight into the life of a family from an Amazonian tribe. It takes viewers to the farthest reaches of the Earth and depicts what may be the last moments of a vanishing culture before our civilisation takes over, destroying their habitats and culture.

The film Silent Pandemic - The Global Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance also won third prize. Michael Wech's science documentary addresses one of the most frightening and little known threats to human health: antimicrobial resistance acquired by bacteria and fungi. The film draws attention to the unsustainable agricultural practices we use in animal husbandry (e.g. the overuse of antibiotics in factory farms) and crop production (e.g. the fight against diseases caused by fungal pathogens).

A certificate of merit was awarded to Rita Kubát for her work entitled Máté. For the first time in the world, a spinal tumour of almost 50 centimetres in length was removed in a single operation, followed by correction of the significant spinal deformity caused by the tumour in Szeged. The unique surgical procedure, which took more than 12 hours, saved the life of a 15-year-old boy. The film shows the psychological processes experienced by the patient, the family and the clinical staff involved over the months through the eyes of the participants in the unique and exciting surgical procedure. The family drama is an extraordinary portrayal of the heroic stand of the team of medical experts and their positive attitude after rehabilitation.

The winner of the Student Film Category is this year's Dargay Attila Award-winning filmmaker Tamás Ivády's animated film, Legacy, in which the director with his unique vision, thanks to the harmony of genre and message, depicts the pain of losing loved ones, their irreplaceable absence, and the only legacy and consolation of those left behind: the power of love and care that spans generations.

The second place went to Krisztina Zupkó and Máté Biri's documentary Red Road, a uniquely themed and professionally made documentary that gives an insight into the everyday and yet not everyday (and certainly not ordinary) life of Viktor, the Indian living in Mátraalja. One of the secrets of the film's extraordinary power and its penetrating impact is the exceptional sensitivity and meticulousness with which it portrays a man, a way of life and a world of beliefs that seem eccentric but are infinitely pure. Getting to know the protagonist, one comes to the conclusion that it is not the Indians' natural life that is strange, but that of the current majority society.

Shared third place went to Paula Wilczyńska's artistic student film Waft, a very soft, detailed, breathtaking and professionally shot film about the grieving process of a lost brother.

Adél Palotás' unique and impressive animated short film Ligths also received the third prize. The puritanical imagery and depiction highlights the universal opposites (light/darkness, life/death, good/evil, old/new, majority/minority), while also portraying the unsustainability of consumer society and the senseless destruction of the environment, partly dictated by fashion, with penetrating power. Lights is a film that touches on fundamental existential issues, showing concisely and clearly that the survival of technological society is far from guaranteed, but also conveying the message that there is light at the end of the tunnel through a series of visual metaphors and a masterful use of cinematic language.

The jury awarded a certificate of merit to Danilo Stanimirovic's documentary, which sensitively portrays a sensitive social issue, the plight of helpless and endlessly vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in the context of prostitution. The film has the particular virtue of showing the tension and fears of the women on their way to the evening, mostly through small gestures and movements, but it also captures the constantly oppressive atmosphere extremely well.

In the competition programme for Hungarian Film Competition for Hungarian filmmakers from Hungary and abroad, the prize is awarded to entries that promote media awareness, media literacy, support the use of online opportunities, and at the same time strengthen the fight against online threats. The jury was composed of Viktor Dudás, film expert, Zsolt Bajnai, journalist and Gábor Bojtos, chief archivist of the Hungarian National Archives and media educator. Gergely Tóth's film Isolated was the grand prize winner of the Hungarian Film Competition for Hungarian filmmakers from Hungary and abroad competition. Second place went to Vince Viplak's Timelessness, and third place to Hanna Peresztegi's Who Learns from Whom.

Balázs Lerner and Balázs Gergely's film The Robot and the Abyss was awarded the 1st Special Prize of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority. This well-composed and fascinating scientific documentary takes the viewer on an extraordinary exploration of caves and mines using underwater robots, using the story of the Unexmine expedition as a narrative framework. The film also gives an insight into how scientists and engineers work together as a team to develop and optimise a robot capable of breaking the world record for underwater cave depth.

Second place in the NMHH Special Prize was awarded to Anita Kühnel Szabó's animated film Your Dad. The animated film, which was drawn and produced with great care, stood out from the field mainly because of its interesting and profound human story and its messages, its original idea even among otherworldly journeys, and its portrayal of the complex father-son relationship, which is reminiscent of mature authors, partly fairy-tale-like, partly humorous and partly bizarre, but also universally valid.

Third place in the NMHH Special Prize was awarded to Kevin Králl's student documentary If You Were a Blue Balloon, in which we follow one (working) day of David, a visually impaired man, and get to know his whole life story, his philosophy of life and his valuable thoughts on human relationships through his monologue. The film impressed the jury because of the incredible sensitivity with which it approached and portrayed the subject.

The Student Jury Prize was awarded to Bianka Szelestey's Pragma, which the students judged to be a sophisticated yet raw approach to complex family dynamics and generational trauma through visual metaphors. Director Bianka Szelestey tackles a variety of issues in a bold and simple yet engaging way.

Over five days, this year's festival attracted nearly 200 university students and the filmmakers from the Czech Republic, Austria, the UK and other countries. In addition to the awards ceremony, the festival also featured a number of film-related events, book launches and exhibitions this year, with a focus on the work of visual designers, spectacular science films, media studies and student films from 17-22 October.

The National Film Institute, the main sponsor of the festival, offered prizes worth HUF 5 million. Other sponsors are The National Media and Infocommunications Authority, the Hungarian Academy of Arts and the National Cultural Fund.