In honour of Amnesty International’s 60th anniversary, IFF Prague – Febiofest will award the best film dealing with human rights issues

Amnesty International marks 60 years from its founding and 30 years of working in the Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia. The organization’s anniversary will be celebrated by the IFF Prague – Febiofest, held on 17-24 September 2021: for the sixth year in a row, the Amnesty International Febiofest Award will be granted to one of the competing films. The special selection will include works dealing with freedom, human rights, free speech, and the struggle for a dignified life.

The Amnesty International Febiofest Award was launched in 2016. The very first one was awarded to the Colombian-French-Uruguayan co-production The Silence of the River, and dedicated to the Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, then imprisoned for criticising the Russian annexation of Crimea. Last year, the trophy went to Mahnaz Mohammadi’s drama Son-Mother. Mohammadi is a film director and an important activist known for her fight for the rights of Iranian women. In 2019, visitors could sign a petition at the Amnesty stand at the heart of the festival, in support of the Russian human rights defender and member of the Open Russia movement Anastasia Shevchenko, who was under house arrest at the time. Through these and other actions, IFF Prague – Febiofest unequivocally declares its support to prisoners of conscience, artists and journalists unjustly incarcerated by dictatorships all over the world.