The Pavel Koutecký Award went to the films The Grand Finale of PSO and Touching Darkness

PAVEL KOUTECKÝ AWARD FOR FEATURE-LENGHT DOCUMENTARY: THE GRAND FINALE OF PSO  

The Grand Finale of PSO follows a lively amateur music ensemble that takes on ever greater challenges and realizes increasingly daring ideas: selling out Lucerna Music Hall, organizing a benefit concert for 5,000 spectators, closing an international music festival, or performing with a foreign star. However, their enthusiasm and passion clash with adulthood and the bleak reality of the COVID-19 pandemic. As director Dominik Kalivoda points out, this is not just a time-lapse documentary about an extraordinary musical group, but above all a personal testimony of ordinary young people about the world around us.

The jury gave the following explanation for its decision: "The jury's decision fell on a time-lapse documentary with perfectly balanced emotions and dynamics. A documentary that resonates with a love of art and plays on the note of human cohesion. Congratulations to the Police Symphony Orchestra and the time-lapse documentary PSO Grand Finale!"

PAVEL KOUTECKÝ AWARD FOR SHORT DOCUMENTARY: TOUCHING DARKNESS 

Touching Darkness by director Jamaica Kindlová depicts the world of ten-year-old Vítek, who has special abilities—he can feel and hear things that others cannot perceive. This animated documentary, made using sand animation techniques, opens the door to Vítek's world and shows that the absence of one of the senses does not have to be an obstacle. The director explains her choice of animation technique: "For me, it was important not to spend months working on a film about perceiving the world through touch with a digital pen on digital paper. I wanted to touch the image and, like Vítek, feel it with senses other than sight."

"The short documentary that we believe deserves this year's award is Jamaika Kindlová's Touching the Darkness, which found a delicate, functional, and aesthetically appealing visual form to capture a blind child's perception of the world," the jury explained its decision.