“Heroes” the theme of 7th annual Fresh Film Fest

The annual Fresh Film Festival has gotten underway in Prague, showcasing short and longer-length projects by student film directors and budding filmmakers from around the world. Over the next several days, audiences will be able to choose from 40 films in official competition in four categories: Fresh Generation, the Main Competition, Theatre Optique (looking at animated and avant garde film) and Fresh Czech (focusing on Czech productions).

A little earlier I spoke to the festival’s programme coordinator Magda Niklová about Fresh Film:

“Actually it’s the only big showcase of student films in the Czech Republic and even in Central Europe and this is special. Otherwise a lot of these films wouldn’t have much of a chance to be seen. Some of them are really special but would be overlooked by Czech distribution. You could get them only on DVD or they might be forgotten. That is why we are trying to find very ‘fresh’ films to bring them to our viewers.”

Previously the festival was held in the spa town of Karlovy Vary (known for its own famous festival); what were the main reasons that FFF moved to Prague?

“One of the main reasons is that Karlovy Vary is being transformed into a city that is no longer suitable for a festival of this type. The city is getting too expensive and aims more to host guests at the spas than those of the festival. Fresh Film is not as big a festival as the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. So we decided to move to another city. This year in Prague is kind of a step-in-between to prepare for the move elsewhere, to prepare everything from the beginning again.”

Things kicked off last night: what was the atmosphere like as the festival began?

Photo: CTK

“Well it was very nice: the topic of the evening was in line with the main theme this year, which is Heroes. After the opening there was a screening – a pre-premiere of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – which will be in cinemas here on October 1. The theme of heroes is very apparent as the main character, a teenager, who has to fight seven exes of his girlfriend – six boys and one girl who all have super strength and supernatural powers – to get her and to be with her. It is all done in a comic way, inspired by computer games and comics, so it’s very heroic!”