discovering fresh talents

PRAGUE YOUTH FILM FESTIVAL

December 21-23, 2023

JURY 2022

Among the esteemed international Jury of the Prague Youth Film Festival were:

Jana Aurora — Czech Film Commission representative. Prior to her work on the commission, Jana had worked as a literary agent representing foreign publishers and authors on Czech, Slovak and Slovene publishing markets.

Mark Bliss — an acclaimed cinematographer, who lived and worked extensively in Australia and the Czech Republic. He has shot countless commercials, music videos, award-winning documentaries and 9 feature films. His feature “Standing Up For Sunny” won the prestigious award in Australia AACTA for Best Indie Film and the Best Independent Feature Film at the AFI awards, while his latest film “Remains of the Wind” was presented on Special Screenings last year in Cannes.

Vojtech Rynda — film journalist currently working for Tyden and Instinkt magazines as well as their web portals.

Matty Brown – director — as a film director, Matty Brown’s visual and emotional style is like a colorful tornado exploring the emotional facets of his audience. Having the most Vimeo Staff Picks in the world, Matty’s very signature style has sent a shockwave through the film industry influencing other creatives to adopt his unusual techniques. Matty is Emmy-nominated and has been featured in various festivals and publications around the world such as Tribeca Film Festival, Sundance, New York Times, 60 Minutes, Ellen, The Atlantic Magazine, Indiewire, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, etc.

René Richter – DOP — a Director of Photography for numerous award-winning campaigns and movies. As cinematographer, René worked on 17 feature films, to name few: Punk Love (Director: Nick Lyon),The White King (Director: Alex Helfrecht, Jörg Tittel), Head Full of Honey (Director: Til Schweiger) or Manta Manta 2 (Director: Til Schweiger).

THE FESTIVAL

The Prague Youth Film Festival’s mission is to highlight and provide a boost to emerging filmmaking talents.

MANY CATEGORIES

Short narrative films (ages 15-25), student shorts (15-35), top ten under 10 (ages 4-9), first-time features (ages 15-25), narrative features (under 35), documentary short films (15-25), documentary features (under 35).

GREAT OPPORTUNITIES

Get your work seen by industry professionals in one of Europe’s cultural capitals, receive tons of exposure, network with other filmmakers and producers, link up with our international media partners to further your career!

WIN AWARDS

Our jury will choose winners in all the categories. Awards and prizes from our sponsors will be presented at a special gala following the weekend of PYFF screenings.

about us

PYFF organizers: Paul & Petra Ratner

PYFF co-producer: Pavlina Saward

Petra & Paul Ratner have been organizing film festivals for over a decade. They produced the Prague 48 Hour Film Project (48HFP) from 2011 till 2018, starting it from scratch and growing the contest to 84 teams. Over 10,000 people have visited 48 HFP screenings over the years, garnering millions of views online. The winners of Prague 48 HFP have also won international awards, showing their films at Cannes and at prestigious film events in the United States. Numerous winners have gone on to successful careers in film and television.

In their work in organizing festivals in the Czech Republic, Petra and Paul worked closely with such corporate partners as Canon, Stella Artois, Jameson, Nova Cinema, Czech Television, ČEZ Group, Copy General, Magnesia, Voyo, Panavision, Bonton Film, Kinobox.cz, Radio One, Radio Spin as well as the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Czech Tourism, Czech Consulate in the United States, Czech News Agency, and the Czech Film Commission.

Petra is now also the Director of Events and Marketing for the acclaimed Sarasota Film Festival, a 25-year-old renowned film festival in Sarasota, Florida in the United States, with a yearly attendance of 50,000 people. Paul is the Managing Director for the same festival.

Paul also organizes the International Screenlife Contest for Bazelevs Entertainment, the company of the acclaimed director and producer Timur Bekmambetov.

Paul & Petra have previously worked on the jury of the Santa Fe Film Festival, while Paul worked for several years as a programmer and digital reporter for the Slamdance Film Festival. Both are also award-winning filmmakers in their own right, having won dozens of awards at film festivals worldwide for their narrative and documentary work like “Moses on the Mesa” and “The Caveman of Atomic City”.

Pavlina Saward started her filmmaker career as a Production Assistant on the TV series “Lovejoy”. Since then she has worked in various film production positions like Production Coordinator, On Set Coordinator and Production Manager.<
She has worked on 19 Feature Films, including “Mission Impossible,” “Fatherland,” “Dungeons & Dragons,” “From Hell” and “Bourne Identity.”
Aside from Feature Films and TV movies, Pavlina also worked on more than 130 commercials as a Production Manager. For the last 10 years, she’s been running the Agency Driven By Creatives,which represents international directors, cinematographers, production designers and photographers.
Pavlina has also been one of the judges on the 48 Hour Film Project in Prague for a number of years.
She lives in Prague with her two children and husband Nick, who is an executive producer.