Documentary on Czech brothers wins 59th Karlovy Vary
The main prize at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival was won by Better Go Mad in the Wild by Slovak director Miro Remo. During Saturday’s closing ceremony other top prizes went to filmmakers from states ranging from Iran to Bangladesh.
The Grand Prix Crystal Globe at the 59th Karlovy Vary was won by Better Go Mad in the Wild, a portrait of eccentric Czech twins living in isolation in the countryside. It’s the second documentary to win the top prize in two years, and is directed by Miro Remo.
“I think the openness of the protagonists won over the audience. It also persuaded us, the makers, to put as much as possible into the project. And they often showed us what direction to take.”
Shockingly, one of the brothers featured in the film, František Klišík, was found drowned on Sunday morning.
Karlovy Vary’s Special Jury Prize went to Bidad by independent Iranian director Soheil Beiraghi, about a young woman who pays a high price for singing in public.
The Best Director gong, meanwhile, was shared between Vytautas Katkus, for The Visitor, and Nathan Ambrosioni, for Out of Love.
Katkus’s low-key debut is about a man returning from abroad to his sleepy hometown in Lithuania to sell his parents’ apartment.
“I had a lot of specific feelings and specific stories which I wanted to tell to other people. And actually I wanted to explore a bit and to dig a bit deeper – not to just tell them in a narrative way and for the viewer to have the opportunity to be in a small town during the summer time.”
France's Ambrosioni summed up his Out of Love, in which a woman has her sister’s children dumped on her.
“It’s a family drama. I guess it’s a movie to cry at – and I hope people will cry in front of it [laughs].”
The Best Actor prize at Karlovy Vary was bestowed on Àlex Brendemühl for his part in When a River Becomes the Sea, an intense Spanish drama centred on a daughter and father after the former’s sexual assault.
Unlike Brendemühl, Best Actress winner Pia Tjelta was present to receive her award. She stars in Don’t Call Me Mama, a Norwegian picture directed by Nina Krag in which a school teacher falls for an immigrant student.
“There were a lot of challenges with it, but also Nina had written such a brave script and it frightened me a lot – so that’s why I wanted to do it. I think that was part of the fun. It’s a character with a lot of contradictions in her, and that was a great challenge.”
The biggest Czech film of this year’s Karlovy Vary, Broken Voices by Ondřej Provazník, did not take any major award. But a Special Jury Mention for Kateřina Falbrová, the teenage breakout star of the drama centred on a girl’s choir, was a popular choice.
“I have such wonderful memories of the shoot. It was the loveliest moment of my life, so far, even though I was just 13 at the time and the subject matter was a bit difficult at first. This award is such an honour. To get it at 15 is a big success.”
The festival’s second competition, Proxima, was won by Sand City, helmed by Bangladeshi filmmaker Mahde Hasan.
The Audience Award went to We’ve Got to Frame It! it by Milan Kuchynka and Jakub Jurásek, a documentary based on an interview with late KVIFF president Jiří Bartoška.
The next edition of Karlovy Vary, the 60th, will run from July 3 to 11, 2026.
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The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is currently in full swing, offering viewers around 200 works from all corners of the world on a very broad range of themes.
