The Festival celebrates creative documentary cinema and is largest event of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe.
The core of the festival programme consists of 7 competition sections: among the Ji.hlava IDFF’s competition sections are also the First Lights for documentary debuts, and Short Joy for the best short docs. But the festival does not shy away from unconventional documentary forms included as part of the experimental sections called Fascinations (international competition) and Exprmntl.cz (Czech focus).
The also provides Ji.hlava Industry Programme intended for professional filmmakers, Emerging Producers project - a showcase of the up-and-coming generation of European producers. Moreover, the Inspiration Forum is a platform that hosts distinctive figures from various walks of life which searches for new relevant topics and perspectives of our day and age.
Competition sections of Ji.hlava IDFF:
* Opus Bonum / International Competition
* Between the Seas / Central and Eastern European Competition
* Czech Joy / Czech Competition
* Fascinations / International Competition for Experimental Documentary Films
* Fascinations: exprmntl.cz / Competition for Czech Experimental Documentary Films
* First Lights / Competition for Emerging Filmmakers
* Short Joy / Competition for European Short Documentary Films (up to 30 minutes of running time)
* A Testimony on Politics / Competition section screening most important political documentaries
* A Testimony on Knowledge / Competition section offering a new definition of scientific documentary
* A Testimony on Nature / Competition section about nature and man as part of it and as its mortal enemy
Ji.hlava IDFF has been chosen by the European Film Academy (EFA) as one of the European documentary festivals to pre-select films for the European Award for the Best Documentary Film of the Year. Each of the festivals nominates one film directed by a European director and released in world premiere directly to EFA’s pre-selection. EFA considers all other world premieres of European films and may add them to the pre-selection.
Also, winners of the Short Joy award will be eligible for the pre-selection in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Academy Awards®.
Winners of the Best World Documentary Film award and Best Central and East European Documentary Film award will be eligible for the pre-selection in the Documentary Feature Subject category of the Academy Awards®.