Iranian drama ‘Summer With Hope’ wins top Karlovy Vary prize
By Ben Dalton, screendaily.com 9 July 2022
Sadaf Foroughi’s Canadian-Iranian drama Summer With Hope has won the Crystal Globe for best film at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), which held its closing awards ceremony on Friday July 9.
Foroughi’s second feature is about a swimmer learning a new open water discipline, who develops a close alliance with his coach.
Written and directed and produced by Foroughi, it is also produced by Kiarash Anvari and Christina Piovesan for Canada’s First Generation Films. The $25,000 (£20,782) prize is shared between the director and producers.
‘Summer With Hope’ - Source: KVIFF
Jonas Trueba’s Spanish comedy You Have To Come And See It, depicting conversations between two couples between city and and country life, received the $15,000 Special Jury Prize.
The best actress prize was shared between Taki Mumladze and Mariam Khundadze for their lead roles in Ioseb ‘Soso’ Bliadze’s Georgian title A Room Of My Own, which Mumladze co-wrote with Bliadze.
Czech films had a strong showing, with Beata Parkanova taking best director and Martin Finger receiving best actor for Czech-Slovak title Word; Stepan FOK Vodrazka winning the audience award for PSH Neverending Story; and Tomasz Winski’s Borders Of Love taking the Fipresci prize.
This success continued in the new Proxima section, with Adela Komrzy and Tomas Bojar’s Art Talent Show receiving the $15,000 Grand Prix. The Special Jury prize went to Eduardo Casanova’s Spanish-Argentinian co-production La Pieta, with a Special Jury mention to David Kapac and Andrija Mardesic’s Croatian-Serbian title The Uncle starring Goran Bogdan.
A previously announced Crystal Globe honorary award was given to Geoffrey Rush for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema; with Festival President’s awards to Czech cinematographer Boleslav Polivka and Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro.
Earlier this week the awards in the Eastern Promises industry strand were handed out, including to Yemeni-Sudanese titleThe Burdened.
Amr Gamal’s “The Burdened” - Credit: Courtesy of KVIFF
This year’s festival is on track to top the attendance figures of the last pre-pandemic edition in 2019, according to artistic director Karel Och.
Karlovy Vary 2022 awards
Crystal Globe competition
Grand Prix – Summer With Hope (Can-Iran) dir. Sadaf Foroughi Special Jury Prize – You Have To Come And See It (Sp) dir. Jonas Trueba Best director – Beata Parkanova for Word (Cze-Slovak) Best actress – Taki Mumladze, Mariam Khundadze ex-aequo for A Room Of My Own (Geo-Ger) Best actor – Martin Finger for Word (Cze-Slovak) Audience award – PSH Neverending Story (Cze) dir. Stepan FOK Vodrazka
Proxima competition
Grand Prix – Art Talent Show (Cze) dirs. Adela Komrzy, Tomas Bojar Special Jury Prize – La Pieta (Sp-Arg) dir. Eduardo Casanova Special Jury Mention – The Uncle (Cro-Serb) dirs. David Kapac, Andrija Mardesic
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Sneak Peek: Sadaf Foroughi’s SUMMER WITH HOPE
SUMMER WITH HOPE follows Montreal-based Foroughi’s earlier festival hit, Ava, and shares elements of that earlier film’s coming of age theme in Iran. Her debut was one the most nominated films at the most recent Canadian Screen Awards.
Foroughi on the set of 'Ava'. Photo Credit: Shahin Azma.
As a filmmaker who has lived in and traveled to multiple countries and regions before settling in Canada, her films explore the effects of national borders, while seeking to challenge those boundaries and recognize our shared humanity.
“A coming-of-age chamber drama, which portrays the adventure of an adolescent swimmer and his single mother in Iran today. We are not separate from the world in which we live. We are snails, as Milan Kundera puts it beautifully, and the world our spiral shell. In this spiral shell, what brings us closer together and helps us to better understand each other is to share our worldview through our stories. Film, as one of the powerful mediums of storytelling, enables me to analyze the relation between characters, their possibilities in this world, and how much more similar than different we are, regardless of geographical and cultural boundaries." (Source: CFC - Canadian Film Center)