The winning feature film in the Competition Section was announced july 9th during the course of the closing ceremony of the 40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
The festival’s grand prix, the Crystal Globe, was awarded by a unanimous jury to the Polish film My Nikifor (Mój Nikifor) and the trophy was presented to the director Krzysztof Krauze and producers Juliusz Machulski and Wojciech Danowski. The Special Jury Prize was won by the Israeli film What a Wonderful Place (Eize makom nifla). The award for Best Director was won by Krzysztof Krauze for My Nikifor.
This year’s award for Best Actress went to the Polish actress Krystyna Feldman, who starred in the title role of My Nikifor. The jury divided the Best Actor Award between Luca Zingaretti for Come into the Light (Alla luce del sole) and Uri Gavriel for What a Wonderful Place. The jury gave a Special Mention to Sion Sono, the director of the Japanese film Noriko’s Dinner Table (Noriko no shokutaku).

My Nikifor is based on the life of Epifan Drowniak, famed naïve painter Nikifor Krynicki, who was discovered in 1960 by another painter, Marian Wlosiński. The latter was working on the décor of the spa buildings in Krynice where Nikifor offered his paintings to the spa guests. From there, Nikifor settled into Marian’s workspace. The academic painter started to look after him, fascinated as he was by the purity and grace of the primitive painter’s artistic manifestations. In his effort to understand the phenomenon of the physically and mentally disabled man, Marian gave up his own work and even his family life. Devotedly, not demanding any response or sign of gratitude, he secured a social foundation for Nikifor, and in 1967 organized an exhibition at a prestigious Warsaw gallery.... The film takes its style from Nikifor’s naïve manner of seeing, and the protagonist is played by 80-year-old Krystyna Feldman with perfect empathy.

Krzysztof Krauze (b. 1953, Warsaw). After studying camera at film school in Lodz (1978), he went on to direct for Semafor Studio (1978-83), Irzykowski Film Studios (1983-85) and the TOR creative group (1985-91). His short and medium-length work has often been awarded at festivals, and Krauze was made a member of the European Film Academy in 2001. His debut, New York — 4 A.M. (Nowy Jork — czwarta rano, 1988), took a Bronze Lion at the Polish FF in Gdynia. Then came Street Games (Gry uliczne, 1996); it picked up the Special Jury Prize at the same fest. His next film, Debt (Dług, 1999), which screened at Karlovy Vary, won the Golden Lion and the Critics’ Prize at the Polish FF in Gdynia, capturing Eagles for Best Screenplay and Director at the Polish Film Awards, and Best Director at the Philadelphia IFF. My Nikifor (Mój Nikifor, 2004) took four years to realize

In the course of the nine days of the 40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 12,112 accredited visitors attended, of which 8,473 were holders of Festival Passes, 361 were filmmakers, 968 were film industry professionals and 569 were journalists.