From 1-5 October, Kino Art will host the 66th annual BRNO16 International Film Festival, one of the oldest film festivals in the world, which has been held in Brno continuously since 1960. The festival will include an international short film competition, pop-up screenings, and a varied accompanying program.
“The BRNO16 festival is proof that even a short film has enormous power – it can entertain, surprise and inspire viewers,” said the Mayor of Brno, Markéta Vaňková, the patron of the festival. “I am proud that Brno has been hosting this unique festival for 66 years, which connects generations of creators and audiences and gives the city an irreplaceable place on the film map of Europe.”
International competition and prizes
Films made in the last three years are accepted for the international competition and the domestic section, Czechoslovak 16. The films will be shown in hour-long blocks, and judged by an international and student jury. A separate jury will also evaluate the 13 films included in Czechoslovak 16. Awards will be presented at the closing ceremony on Saturday, 4 October, at 8pm, including the Učit Brno Award chosen by the student jury, the MSI Award to the winner of Czechoslovak 16, and the audience award. The winning films will be screened immediately after the ceremony, and again on Sunday, 5 October.
66: The Magic(al) Number
“For the 66th year of the BRNO16 festival, we decided to turn to the magical symbolism of these numbers,” explained festival director Milan Šimánek. “However, we did not stop at occult themes or witchcraft, but tried to explore this representation from various perspectives.”
The accompanying film program will refer to this concept, offering a series of five Asian short films ‘Cursed & Charming’, which connect to the theme via different interpretations of the number 666 in other cultures. Lovers of the avant-garde will be provided with a selection from the work of Kenneth Anger, an iconic director who worked with magical symbols, pop iconography and celebrity cults.
Special screenings
The 66th edition will officially open on Wednesday, 1 October at 7:30pm in the Large Hall of Kino Art, but viewers can get into the festival atmosphere from the beginning of the week. On Monday, 29 September, Kino Art will screen the cult film ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ by Karel Zeman, followed by the Big Game Quiz, intended for video game enthusiasts. Tuesday, 30 September will see a screening of the stylized documentary detective film ‘Satan Kingdom Babylon’. Before Wednesday’s opening ceremony, the cinema’s so-called Black Hole will host a performance by Ferrilana Libuše Kopůncová, one of the creators currently exhibiting at the KUMST Gallery.
Other attractions include archive films by the “Czech Ed Wood” Oldřich Kmínek. Two of his fairy tale films from 1933, ‘The Gingerbread House’ and ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, will be screened as night projections.
BRNO16 will also visit other Brno locations, with a pop-up screening of Otakar Vávra’s cult work, ‘Hammer on the Witch’, at Husova sbor on Botanická on 2 October. Martin Ježek’s cinematographic performance, ‘Satan among us’, screened from two 16mm and one 8mm film, will be shown at Káznice on Friday, 3 October.
Connecting the film and gaming worlds
A now-traditional part of the festival’s accompanying programme is the Filmohraní section , focused on video games. The relationship between short films and games will be explored on Friday, 3 October, in the lecture ‘Absolute Cinema: Cutscenes in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II’ by Petr Pekař, cinematic director of Warhorse Studios, who will present spectacular animated films from the game.
Saturday will see the launch of a book on film education, and a live playthrough of the educational game ‘Playing Kafka’ from Charles Games studio, performed by Jiří Forejt and Lucie Formánková, will look into Czech history. The Black Hole will also host Michal Vojkůvka’s Thursday lecture ‘Lost in the Story: Pillars of Narrative in Elden Ring’, about building stories in video games, and a playthrough of the gamebook ‘Call of Cthulhu’ with live musical accompaniment. On Saturday, the gaming section will close with a playthrough of the iconic first-person shooter ‘Heretic’.
Industry program
This year’s industry section will be co-organised with the MIDPOINT Institute at KUMST Gallery. Nebojša Slijepčević will lead a masterclass on short films on Saturday, 3 October.
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Accreditations are on sale online at www.brno16.cz or at the Kino Art box office. Tickets for individual program blocks will also be on sale directly before the screenings at the festival venues or online in advance on the festival website and the Kino Art website.
BRNO16 is organized by Kino Art and Galerie TIC, under the auspices of TIC BRNO. For further information, see the festival website or Facebook event.
