The Student’s Jury of Prix Bohemia Radio chose its winners
Just like in the previous years of the Prix Bohemia Radio festival, an independent jury from the ranks of students also sat this year and, regardless of the rankings of the professional jury, chose its favourites from all the entered shows in the individual categories.
The student’s jury was an integral part of the festival for the fourth year. Students from Palacký University in Olomouc, the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, Tomas Bata University in Zlín and Masaryk University in Brno sat in the jury. The three-member commission chose the winner in each of the competition categories, which are Drama, Documentary, News Report and Multimedia.
In the Drama category, the jury members Barbora Dolanová, Ielyzaveta Nazarenko and Kristýna Synková awarded the production of Paul Plamper's radio play The Impossibles under the direction of Aleš Vrzák. They particularly highlighted the timeliness of the theme, which they see as very important and beneficial for the public. „Through three plot lines, which develop according to the selection of the child’s embryo, they present the issue of manipulation of the foetus as highly controversial. We see the main idea of the work in a kind of moral dilemma, which the listener also feels. Thanks to this effect, the theme affects the listener. In this we see an ideal way to present this theme to the general public,” the members of the juries stated with regard to their choice.
According to the student jury, the victorious Documentary this year belongs to Alena Blažejovská and her work The Man Who Plants the Trees. Blažejovská succeeded with the aforementioned documentary in the last year of the AudioREPORT competition, where she also won first place in the Documentary category. „We particularly appreciated the sound component and the way in which the author coped with the composition of the work. The sound component of this documentary works with a wide palette of noises and atmospheres, which pleasantly illustrate not only the environment, which is a central point of the theme, but also uses various transitions to create the story of the editor that visits a forester in various phases of the season,” clarified the jury members Simona Šustková, Barbora Jančeová and Pavel Vrtěl.
The jury also unanimously agreed that choosing only one winner from many original entries was not at all easy. „We would also like to highlight the documentary by Tereza Reková, Music in the Cursed Wood, which also had an elaborate musical foundation. A pleasant positive mood permeated the entire plot. We enjoyed how the theme did not only focus on the music world, but also seeped into normal life,” the jury of the Documentary category added.
The jury comprised of Radka Kmochová, Nikol Patíková and Kristýna Sudková named Martina Pouchlá's Onkalo as the best News Report, pointing at the suitably-chosen theme, clean sound processing and striking editing work. „First and foremost, it features a theme that currently resonates: what to do with nuclear waste? The solution is the Onkalo nuclear waste storage site in Finland, which the author of the news report personally visited, virtually transporting the listeners to a site hundreds of kilometres distant with her experience and description of everything, keeping them listening to the very end thanks to the captivating reporting. The theme also extends to the Czech Republic, because there is also talk of such a storage site here, as well,” Nikol Patíková added on behalf of the student jury.
It was a difficult decision in the Multimedia category, but the award ultimately went to Magdaléna Petráková’s project Luhačovice Sound Map. According to the student jury, comprised of Ondřej Zedníček, Kristýna Motyčáková and Martina Lusková, the project has great potential to bring intergenerational activity supporting local tourism. „Its benefit is especially evident in connecting a real place with a radio play, which strengthens the effect of the genius loci and ascribes the site a new context. Thus, with its multimedia overlap, it surpasses the other submitted works, plus it has an unprecedented local character,” emphasised jury member Kristýna Motyčáková.
The jury also praised the projects Divided by Freedom for its complexity, sophistication and courage to break down myths about society and Salad Bowl of Prague, which contributes to a more positive perception of the integration of immigrants in a creative manner.
The jury members praised the thematic and stylish diversity of the competing works throughout all the categories. Many of them showed the persistence and courage of their authors and the ability to inform about often controversial subjects.
