Golden Prague Festival Winners

GRAND PRIX
La Bohème
Producer: Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana
Justification: One of the most popular operas like we have never seen before: The production La Bohème directed by Mario Martone is creating a unique combination of film and stage performance integrating the orchestra and all the protagonists congenial within the film set. A young cast performing on the highest musical level and showing great acting scale. It is a courageous innovative project opening for a new experience of opera on screen.

CZECH CRYSTAL – RECORDINGS OF STAGE WORK
Alice Producer: François Roussillon et Associés
Coproducers: Opéra national du Rhin, France Télévisions, Mezzo, medici.tv
Justification: Alice is an extraordinary stage work, from one of the most enchanting stories in the world. We have in its protagonist the personification of this charm, a rigorous and original choreography, flanked by an excellent work of costumes and scenery. Steve Francois' realization takes us from start to finish into this world.

CZECH CRYSTAL – DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMES DEDICATED TO MUSIC, DANCE AND THEATRE
Xenakis: Revolution, Builder of Sound Producer: Cinétévé
Coproducer: ARTE Francie
Justification: Catching the audience from the first moment till the end: transforming the biography of one of the most important composers of the 20th century into an intense and attractive thrilling piece of television worked out perfectly in this outstanding documentary by Stéphanie Ghez. The film contextualizes the composer's life and combines graphic elements carefully with perfectly filmed interviews, archives and performances – all together giving the viewers a bigger picture of what music is all about.

CZECH CRYSTAL – RECORDINGS OF CONCERT PERFORMANCE
Vivaldi's (uncertain) Four Seasons / Open-Air auf der Insel Delos: Vivaldis (ungewisse) Vier Jahreszeiten
Producers: ARMIDA FILM GMBH
Coproducers: ZDF/ARTE
Justification: Vivaldi's Four Seasons transformed into a remarkable symbolic concert celebrating the beauty and fragility of planet earth. A young, talented international orchestra with the Ukrainian soloist Diana Tishchenko performing live on the Greek island of Delos where Apollo and Artemis were born. Reminding the audience all over the world that music is probably the only language expressing both: joy and concern for the future of our being.

SPECIAL MENTION FOR EXTRAORDINARY ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT
The Kaiser of Atlantis
Producers: Sebastián Alfie, Sintonía Media, Rosinante, Czech TV, De Productie
Justification: Der Kaiser von Atlantis tells a shocking but also fascinating story that gives insight into the power of music and the importance of art even under the most inhuman conditions. The film gives us a detailed and engaging portrayal of Viktor Ullman's strong artistic contribution created in Terezin during WW2 and shows us how his opera still has vitality and relevance.
 

AWARD OF THE DAGMAR AND VÁCLAV HAVEL FOUNDATION VIZE 97
The Kaiser of Atlantis
Producers: Sebastián Alfie, Sintonía Media, Rosinante, Czech TV, De Productie
Justification: We appreciate the exploratory nature of the film and the great courage to present an unknown opera together with a clarification of utterly unique circumstances of its creation in the Theresienstadt Ghetto during the World War II. The film pays tribute to the victims of the Holocaust, to the memory of Viktor Ullman, the composer, and Peter Kien, the librettist, and last but not least, it pays respect to culture, music in particular, and to artists who continue creating and expressing themselves regardless of the prevailing situation and its horrors. Perhaps it was the music and the opera they were working on that made their life in that bleak place meaningful and imbued them with hope. It perhaps fulfilled their days with work and routine. The film makes us muse on all of that.

CZECH TELEVISION PRIZE
Chopin. I Am Not Afraid of Darkness
Producers: Inbornmedia, Telewizja Polska S.A. (TVP), Play Button Media
Coproducers: The Adam Mickiewicz Institute / Culture.pl, National Center for Culture (NCK), Zacheta, RAPA Korea
Justification: The Auschwitz concentration camp, the border between the North and the South Korea and the city centre of Beirut. These are the places where one would not expect to hear music, yet there it is in full force. It is a remarkable film asking a question whether Chopin's beautiful melodies can lift the gloomy atmosphere of places affected by war and suffering. This movie has become highly topical given the current events in the eastern part of Europe.

EBU-IMZ OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
To Barbara Hannigan
Justification: This year's EBU-IMZ Outstanding Achievement Award will go to Barbara Hannigan, a soprano and a conductor who, as declared by Arild Erikstad, the IMZ President, is “one of the most remarkable and influential female artists of our era”.