The creators of this year’s Prague Science Film Fest competition programme were choosing from a pool of almost nine hundred films. The resulting selection will offer the visitors a wide range of topics from the field of natural sciences. The festival revolves around the landscape and approaches it from different angles. The goal is to understand the role of humans within the landscape and imagine what it looked or would look like without them.
Bacteria, soil, water, wind, birth, exploitation and taxidermy. The ČZU Campus will once again play a host to the show of popular science documentary films presenting both overall and up-close observations about the landscape and its inhabitants. Zdeněk Rychtera, the Head of Programming, says that the thirteen films selected for the competition are praised for their original storytelling and yet unexplored and controversial topics. “Films like River or Ode to Nature present an establishing shot of the landscape. In contrast, we have the cinematic portrait of Luma, the dairy cow, with the eloquent title Cow, or The North Drift documentary narrating a story of plastic on its journey across the seas and oceans. These two films take a closer look at the human influence on the landscape. But it is never a unilateral critique or an unequivocal celebration of human action. It is an ambivalent discourse which does not offer one correct point of view or one answer, but tries to bring about a deeper understanding of nature as a whole,” says Rychtera. Therefore, it is no surprise that the audience will enjoy film introductions and post-screening debates with special guests. The foreign films from all over the world competing in the festival will also be joined by the Czech documentary Let There Be Water! directed by Karel Žalud.
In addition to the thirteen competition films, the programme will also include morning film screenings for schools and a subtle echo of another partner festival Academia Film Olomouc (AFO), under the patronage of Palacký University. This means there will be two prizes, one for the winner of the PSFF competition and the joint Grand Prize of $10,000, which will find its winner among both the PSFF competition selection and film selection screened during the spring festival in Olomouc.
We will see you from 10 to 13 October at the ČZU Campus, the Festival Centre, where you can enjoy the films and share the film experiences with others. We at the PSFF look forward to meeting the students and employees of the University as well as the general public. The entire programme and all screenings are free of charge.
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PSFF 2022 Competition Films
Allergy Alert: Paranoia in Our Immune System (France, 2022)
Let There Be Water! (Czech Republic, 2021)
The Two Faces of Tomorrow (UK, 2021)
France: A Journey Through Time (France, 2021)
I Miss You, Marius (Hungary, 2022)
Cow (UK, 2021)
Le peuple des Airs (France, 2021)
Ode to Nature (Germany, 2021)
Osprey: Sea Raptor (USA, 2021)
After Nature (Denmark, 2022)
River (Australia, 2021)
The North Drift (Germany, 2021)
The Invisible Extinction (USA, 2022)
