The young jury from the age category 15 - 19 years selected the winning film. It is the film Wander to Wonder by Nina Gantz. Mary, Billybud and Fumbleton are three miniature human actors who appear in a children's TV show from the 1980s called "Wander to Wonder". After the death of the show's main creator, they are left alone in the studio. With their slowly disintegrating costumes and growing hunger, they continue to film ever stranger episodes for their fans. Frustration, deprivation, madness and a pile of dead flies grows. This existential version of a children's show full of mayhem and rot charms with precise puppet animation, dark humour and a touching story with a happy ending.
Jurors Ema Rymáčková and Klára Světinská sum up the jury's decision as follows: „One of the reasons why we decided on this film is definitely the amazing animation, which was very sophisticated, but we also agreed that this was a film that not only had beautiful visuals, but also a story, and both were nicely combined." „I really enjoyed debating the films and really felt like a juror with the others. I found it very interesting that even though there were a lot of us, we were able to agree in the end. I liked that we judged the films collectively," said seventeen-year-old juror Klára.
However, being a juror at the Young Film Fest is not just about debating films and deciding on the winner. During Saturday and Sunday, young jurors from both age groups participated in workshops that covered visual editing and manipulation, filmmaking with artificial intelligence, music and the importance of other tools in the context of AI, and a critical perspective on audiovisual production.
Congratulations to the directors of the award-winning films, and we hope we haven't seen the last of the young film enthusiasts who sat on the jury today!