The student film Baba /2008/ by screenwriter and director Zuzana Špidlová has won the Cinéfondation grand prize – the Prix de la Cinéfondation – at this year’s International Film Festival in Cannes, which closes on May 24, 2009. The movie, which was made as an undergraduate exercise at the Film and TV Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), was selected to represent the Czech Republic in the prestigious festival’s official program, in the educational section Cinéfondation. The sensitively shot story with precise acting performances tells of a young girl and her gravely ill 85-year-old grandmother.

The Cinéfondation section, which was launched in 1998, inspires and supports the next generation of filmmakers from around the world. This year, the section featured 17 movies from various countries. Baba was awarded the top prize by its five-member jury headed by British director John Boorman, the creator of the legendary fantasy film Excalibur /1981/.

As we informed in our last press release, Baba, which won the best film and best director awards at FAMUFEST 2008, tells an intimate story of interpersonal relations. Zuzana Špidlová is currently working on her graduate film – her feature-length debut, which she intends to make as a coproduction with France. The Cinéfondation prize should help her to bring the story, set in France and currently in development, to the silver screen. The first version of the screenplay for Zuzana Špidlová’s next movie should be completed in September of this year.