Ji.hlava 2026

Jury Statement:

Within a highly globalised debut section, this film struck us as the most authentic. It’s an honest portrait of an unforgiving metropole that still gives space for spiritual connection, artistic creation and existential reflection. The filmmaker dares to depict his immediate surroundings as being in damnation. Yet, his generous gaze makes us believe that salvation still seems within reach. For this delicate balance, the first ever FIPRESCI award at Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival goes to Journey (Mobembo) by Eli Maene.

One of the leading European documentary film festivals and the largest event of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe, it was conceived in the minds of a group of high school students in the Czech city of Jihlava in 1997. Since then, each autumn the Ji.hlava IDFF brings together hundreds and thousands of viewers, directors, producers, film critics, journalists, and friends of documentary cinema to spend several days “thinking through film”. Ji.hlava IDFF is among the festivals whose winners are eligible for the pre-selection of the Academy Awards® and the European Film Award. Our jury of three will present the FIPRESCI award to a film in the First Lights section for best world documentary debut or second feature.