2026 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Awards

The 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) concluded in the Czech spa town with a ceremony that awarded the Grand Prix — Crystal Globe to **Aung Phyoe’s *Fruit Gathering*. The Special Jury Prize went to Mads Mengel’s *The Guest***, starring Trine Dyrholm, Simon Bennebjerg and Josephine Park. Mengel also received the Best Director award for the same film. Other major honors included Best Actress Anna Schinz for *A Happy Family* (director Jan-Eric Mack) and Best Actor Ghassan Saad for *Pipes* (director Karim Kassem).

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In the Proxima competition, which showcases bold works by emerging and established filmmakers, Slovak director Martina Buchelová won the Grand Prix for *Lover, Not a Fighter*, while Japanese director Shuntaro Uchida earned the Special Jury Prize for *Incinerator*. The Best Director prize went to Efthimis Kosemund-Sanidis for *A Whole Person Almost*, and a Special Mention was awarded to Anna and Šimon Domcek for *33 Steps*. The Ecumenical Jury selected **Tonia Mishiali’s *The Lion at My Back*** as its Grand Prize.

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Jury members praised the winning films for their thematic depth and stylistic nuance. The main competition jury highlighted *Fruit Gathering* as a “lush and meditative portrait of work and friendship” that evolves into a “harrowing drama of obsession and queer desire,” and described *The Guest* as a “squirmingly funny yet precisely modulated drama” that raises questions about motherhood, filial duty and mental illness. The Proxima jury commended *Lover, Not a Fighter* for capturing “the quotidian moments and relationships that make up the substance of life” without resorting to gimmickry, and lauded *Incinerator* for its “deceptive simplicity” that conceals layers of poetry and profundity.

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• “a lush and meditative portrait of work and friendship before morphing, unexpectedly and organically, into a harrowing drama of obsession and queer desire.” — Main competition jury

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• “a squirmingly funny yet precisely modulated drama that subtly raises questions about motherhood, filial duty and mental illness.” — Main competition jury

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• “In a world of cinema where grandiose ambitions, particularly the masculine kind, are overvalued, this beautiful film arrives tenderly, gathering the quotidian moments and relationships that make up the substance of life into a film at once thrillingly familiar and original,” — Proxima jury (on *Lover, Not a Fighter*)

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• “The director understands what it’s like to be young — she pulls off the Gen Z style without making it gimmicky, a rare feat! — and that one never stops growing up, change is constant, bringing both wonder and loss.” — Proxima jury (on *Lover, Not a Fighter*)

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• “Here is a film of deceptive simplicity — its subtlety and lightness belie layers of poetry and profundity. The director beautifully adopts the perspective of an unusual young girl who says little, but senses everything; like a Richter scale, her face records the unspoken tensions and tremulations of everyone around her.” — Proxima jury (on *Incinerator*)

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