From 2 to 27 June 2021, Prague’s Světozor, Bio Oko, Aero, and Pilotů cinemas, plus several outdoor cinemas and cinemas throughout the country, hosted the sixteenth edition of the Pragueshorts Film Festival, organized by the team behind the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

The festival’s 20 sections showed more than 113 of the best and most interesting short films from 38 countries. The festival’s juries chose the best international and Czech shorts and the best experimental film in the LABO section, and viewers chose the winners of the Audience Award for all festival sections and in the Ultrashorts category.

This year’s international competition featured 37 films from 29 countries. The three-member international jury, which presented an award for Best Film in the International Competition along with a financial reward of 3,000 euros, consisted of Pavel Sladký (film critic and film journalist, Czech Republic), Ondřej Provazník (screenwriter and director, Czech Republic), and Louise Højgaard Johansen (festival programmer, Denmark).

The award for best film in the National Competition, along with a financial award of 2,000 euros, went to director Cristina Groşan’s Along Came a Prince. The national jury also awarded a Special Mention to Delimitation by director Tereza Vejvodová. The jury consisted of Andrijana Sofranić Šućur (producer, Serbia), Olga Lamontanara (producer, festival consultant, Italy), and Jan-Ole Gerster (director and screenwriter, Germany).

The jury decided that the award should go to Filipiñana (dir. Rafael Manuel, Philippines, Great Britain). The international jury also awarded two Special Mentions. The first went to The End of Suffering (A Proposal), the second Special Mention went to 16 December. This year’s Audience Award goes to British director Theo Rhys for Stuffed. The new Ultrashorts competition section, in which viewers chose from ten films, was won by the six-minute film The Ostrich Politic. The first ever award for best experimental film in the festival’s LABO section was presented by a jury consisting of Sára Vondrášková a.k.a. Never Sol (musician and producer, Czech Republic), Michal Cimala (artist, sculptor, and designer, Czech Republic), and Tomáš Souček (photographer, Czech Republic). From the nine films in competition, the jurors decided that the award for best experiment film would go to Blue Honda Civic.