International Competition Jury Awards

The jury for the International Competition award two prizes in this category: the International Competition Jury Award for Best Director and the International Competition Jury Award for Best Film. The jury comprises film experts from both the Czech Republic and abroad. 

Zane Balčus

Zane Balčus

Zane Balčus is the head of the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries, a co-production pitching event in Riga, Latvia. Balčus has an extensive experience in management and curatorial fields in different organizations in the field of cinema – she is, among other activities, the managing director of Riga Film Museum, programmer of Riga International Film Forum Arsenals. Zane is a researcher and has co-authored several books on Latvian cinema, she writes academic articles, and is a freelance film critic.

She has been a FIPRESCI jury member at IDFA, ZagrebDox, member of the international jury of the goEast International Film Festival, Best Nordic film jury member at Nordisk Panorama.

Lea Glob

Lea Glob

Lea Glob is a Danish filmmaker and director. In her films you often find strong women, and a preference of seeing beauty and humor in the absurd and often pretty rough existence of human beings. Her 2022 film Apolonia, Apolonia won best film at IDFA, and in 2023 Best Documentary at Göteborg IFF, One World Iff, Hong Kong Iff among others, and got shortlisted for the Oscars.

In 2024 Glob was awarded the Carl Th. Dreyer honorary Grant for outstanding artistic achievement in film. Her works focus on the body and she uses the camera as as a way to ask questions tied to identity, gender and ones place within society and nature.

Mark Jonathan Harris

Mark Jonathan Harris

Mark Jonathan Harris is a three-time Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and award-winning author. Among the many documentaries he has written, produced or directed are The Redwoods, which won an Oscar for Best Short Documentary (1968); The Long Way Home, Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary (1997); and Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, which won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 2000.

40 years he taught filmmaking at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, where he held the Mona and Bernard Cantor Chair in Production. Mark Jonathan Harris’s collection of short stories, Misfits, was published in October 2023. 

Other Juries

International Competition Jury Awards

The jury for the International Competition award two prizes in this category: the International Competition Jury Award for Best Director and the International Competition Jury Award for Best Film. The jury comprises film experts from both the Czech Republic and abroad. 

Václav Havel Jury

In the Right to Know category, the film that makes an exceptional contribution to the protection of human rights is selected to receive the Václav Havel Jury Award for the Best Film. The jury is composed of prominent human rights defenders and international representatives of the non-governmental sector or institutions.  

Czech Competition Jury

The jury selects the best Czech or co-production documentary from the previous or current year to receive the Czech Competition Jury Award for Best Film.  

Competition of Immersive Films Jury

This jury awards the Immersive Film Competition Prize to the virtual reality project that demonstrates the most significant societal impact within its category. Evaluation criteria include the use of contemporary immersive technology and tailored narratives aimed at raising awareness of human rights issues. The jury is made up of artists, theorists, journalists, and experts in the fields of immersive and gaming art, as well as virtual reality.

Regional Jury

The regional jury comprises two representatives nominated by our regional partners. The nominees are chosen from One World’s fans and supporters in the relevant town. The jury is then supplemented by the holder of the Golden Projectionist title, which is awarded by our platform Promítej i ty!. The winning film will be included in the selection of documentaries included in the Get Your Audience! programme in 2023. 

Student Jury

Each year, we select a group of secondary school students who are actively involved in the One World in Schools programme. During the festival, they select the best film from the One World for Students category. The winning film is announced during the gala closing event and receives the Student Jury Award. 

Audience Award for the Best Film

Viewers can vote for their favourite documentary. The top-rated film will receive the Audience Award. Voting takes place directly in the cinemas with the use of tablets. You can rate the film by marking one to five stars, where five is the highest rating and one the lowest. 

Abakus Foundation Audience Award for Exceptional Discussion

Audience members select the post-screening discussion that has been the most rewarding for them, and which best supplemented the screened film. The voting takes place next to the cinema auditorium exit with the help of a tablet or QR code.

The award was supported by the Abakus Foundation.

Children Jury

The award will be given for the first time ever in the One World for Children category for a short film that is part of the morning school screenings. It will be selected by the pupils themselves who are involved in the year-round One World activities in schools.