News

MIDPOINT & KVIFF Development Award
History of Illness
Writer/director: David Gašo
Producer: Marta Eva Mećava, Eclectica (Croatia)
This main industry prize includes a €10,000 cash award for further development. 

Jury statement:
"A film narrative is typically driven by characters, yet it can also take the form of a spatial and temporal fluid—shaped by its own color, form, and tone. We have chosen to highlight a charming film project in which human unease plunges into an absurd labyrinth where anxiety peers out from the corners of humor."

Connecting Cottbus Award
Radioamateur
Writer/director: Tomasz Habowski
Producer: Marta Szarzyńska, Watchout Studio (Poland)
The award includes an invitation to participate in the upcoming edition of the co-production market connecting cottbus.

Jury statement:
"We were really taken with this haunting and unsentimental story of a dinosaur and his broken tools of communication, and happy to find out there may still be someone at the other end of the line for him."

Eurimages Co-production Development Award
Battalion Records
Writer/director: Ștefan Bîtu-Tudoran
Producer: Diana Caravia, microFILM (Romania)
This prestigious award supports European co-productions with a €20,000 development grant.

Jury statement:
"We are pleased to award the Eurimages Co-production Development Award to a bold debut that confronts the decay of culture. Because sometimes, to make people listen, you must turn things upside down – and this absurdist heist comedy does so with rebellious energy."

Rotterdam Lab Award
Restless
Producer: Ondřej Lukeš, Beginner’s Mind (Czech Republic)
The award includes an invitation to participate in Rotterdam Lab 2026, supporting emerging producers in expanding their international networks.

Jury statement:
"Considering the right and accurate timing, his career and the potential of their projects in development, as well as the potential for internationalisation of their work, but also the conception of production, ambitions and growth. We would like to invite Ondřej Lukeš to attend Rotterdam Lab 2026."

Marché du Film Producers Network Award
Producer: Michelle Brøndum, Jante Films (United Kingdom)
Project: Soyboy (written and directed by Raphael von Blumenthal)
This award grants access to the Producers Network at the Marché du Film in Cannes 2026, supporting further networking and international opportunities for the producer.

We warmly congratulate all awarded participants and their teams. The outstanding success of MIDPOINT Feature Launch at KVIFF reaffirms the program’s long-standing commitment to identifying and nurturing bold new voices in European cinema.

MIDPOINT Feature Launch continues its journey in September with its final workshop, held in Plzeň within the Finále Plzeň Film Festival.

Photo by: KVIFF / Dita Havrankova