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Academia Film Olomouc (AFO) is an international science
,
Academia Film Olomouc was established in 1966 by the
and the Discovery Channel. In 2013, festival statutes were published defining the goals and purpose of the festival as well as its organizational structure.
Academia Film Olomouc (AFO) is an international science documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
festival in Olomouc
Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019).
Located on t ...
, Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
, held each April under the patronage of Palacký University. The focus of the festival is science and educational films from the fields of humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
, natural science and social science
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...
, as well as current scientific, artistic and technological advances. The festival features TV productions (BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...Discovery
Discovery may refer to:
* Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown
* Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown
* Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence
Discovery, The Discover ...
, PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
), podcasts, YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
channels, and on-demand broadcast, with the aim of science popularization. A variety of film specialists and scientists are invited to discuss current topics with audiences after film screenings, and at special lectures or workshops. The audience mostly consists of visitors with an interest in audio-visual production or science topics, university students, and high school students. The program also focuses on children with a special program block offering film screenings, workshops, and games.
AFO arranges an ongoing accompanying program for the general public. It consists of exhibitions, interventions and events in public spaces, as well as AFO Echoes, which screens films from the festival in cinemas.
History
Origin and early years
Academia Film Olomouc was established in 1966 by the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Czech: ''Československá akademie věd'', Slovak: ''Česko-slovenská akadémia vied'') was established in 1953 to be the scientific center for Czechoslovakia. It was succeeded by the Czech Academy of Science ...
, Short Film Prague and Palacký University, inspired by a festival of didactic films in Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
, Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, also held within the university campus. Short Film Prague, the main promoter of the festival from its beginning, had been producing educational film
An educational film is a film or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods.
History
Determining which videos should count as the first educational fil ...
s since the 1950s, by film-makers including Jiří Lehovec, Jan Calábek and Bohumil Vošáhlík. These films presented current scientific discoveries and innovations so as to be comprehensible to students and schoolchildren, as well as scientists, and gained an international reputation at the time. In addition, the 1950s and 1960s saw Czechoslovak State Film create a separate department dealing with similar topics.
The university and the film industry
The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, p ...
collaborated to introduce the general public to up-to-date scientific ideas. The festival in Padua became a model for staff at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Czech: ''Československá akademie věd'', Slovak: ''Česko-slovenská akadémia vied'') was established in 1953 to be the scientific center for Czechoslovakia. It was succeeded by the Czech Academy of Science ...
, who turned to Palacký University, known for an active programme of cultural events in the 1960s. The university professor Jiří Stýskal sponsored the first screenings of science documentary films in Olomouc with his colleagues Eduard Petrů, Alena Štěrbová and Miroslav Tomšů in 1966. Twelve months later, after its positive reception, the festival was given the name Academia Film.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the festival grew in size and popularity. Czechoslovak Television
Czech Television ( cs, Česká televize, italics=no ; abbreviation: ČT) is a public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic, broadcasting seven channels. Established after the Velvet Revolution in 1992, it is the successor to Czechoslov ...
participated in the festival, contributing educational films and shows to the festival program. Interest in AFO increased during the 1980s and the number of competition films grew. What started as a small university event became a festival that drew the attention of the wider public. AFO reacted to the growth of the video phenomenon in 1986 by including in its program one of the first video projections in Czechoslovakia. The festival expanded its program and gave space to video projection documenting scientific and technical procedures. The video programs got their own program block called Videoforum.
Post-Communism
In the 1990s, AFO became an international festival, but experienced a serious threat from the termination of state funding. While still receiving funding from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports,Czech Academy of Sciences
The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes back ...
, and the Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to:
*Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania)
* Ministry of Culture (Algeria)
*Ministry of Culture (Argentina)
*Minister for the Arts (Australia)
*Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan)
* Ministry of ...
, the festival was increasingly forced to rely on private sponsors. In 1999 Jan Schneider became the director of AFO, replacing Jindřich Schulz, the former vice-chancellor of Palacký University.
In 2001, the festival moved part of its operations to the Regional Museum, where a video forum, media forum and film bar were set up, with Schneider telling '' MF Dnes'' newspaper that the move was "a way of bringing the event closer to the audience". The festival was renamed as the International Festival of Documentary Films and Multimedia Educational Programs. In 2007, responsibility for organizing the festival was taken on by the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies of Palacký University, with Petr Bilík as the director, and they started working with JSAF, a non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...
(NGO) which organizes the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival
Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival ( cs, Mezinárodní festival dokumentárních filmů Ji.hlava), known as MFDF Ji.hlava or Ji.hlava IDFF, is a documentary film festival in Jihlava, Czech Republic, normally held in late October. T ...
. The festival changed its name to the International Festival of Science Documentary Films, with the motto "Watch and Know" defining the festival as an educational and science documentary film festival. Since then, AFO has been devoting more space to educational programs by organizations like the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...Program
Festival programming
The Programming team, consisting mostly of members of Palacký University, oversees the festival program. The program sections are connected to an umbrella topic which changes every year. The festival's focus isnon-fiction
Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...
documentaries related to scientific and socio-scientific topics, scientists, research results, ethical questions related to the boundaries of human knowledge, and access to education.
The festival program has four main areas: competition, thematic section, Industry 4Science for the professional public, and the accompanying program of concerts, exhibitions, and performances. The festival competition is based around films pre-selected by the programming team, who review current productions in the science documentary field and approach relevant production groups such as the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers. In 2017 there were about 4000 films submitted for the competition, with about 40 of them selected for their respective competition categories. Expert juries made up of Czech and international authors, producers, scientists and publicists, choose the winners of the competition categories.
The stated aims of AFO are:
* To present science, research and technology to the general public as fascinating and crucial fields of human activity and inherent part of our culture and society.
* To approach the broad public with current as well as future burning issues of our civilization, planet and space.
* To connect the academic sphere and scientific institutions with professionals from television and film industry and other cultural institutions.
* To support creation of new educational films, TV broadcasts and other multimedia formats.
* To encourage and form active and critical thinking audiences.
Festival awards
The festival competition is divided into several categories. Thousands of films from all around the world are submitted every year. The dramaturgy team makes a shortlist of films to be presented to the juries and the festival audience. *AFO Statutory Awards **The RCPTM award for the Best International Science Documentary film - awarded by a panel of Czech and international experts **The innogy award for the Best Czech Science Documentary Film - awarded by a panel of Czech and international experts **Award for the Best Short Science Documentary Film - awarded by a panel of Czech and international experts **Award for contribution to the popularization of science (individual) - granted by the AFO dramaturgy team **Award for contribution to the popularization of science (institution) - granted by the AFO dramaturgy team *AFO Non-Statutory Awards **Audience Award, decided by a vote of the festival audience and chosen from all films across festival competition categories. **The Palacký University Student Jury Award – student representatives of each faculty choose the best film from all competition categories.Thematic sections
Besides the festival competitions, the main content of the festival program is presented through thematic sections, each of which are related to the annual umbrella topic of that year's festival. Every dramaturge curates one of the thematic sections for which they select films, TV shows, lectures, workshops, guests and an accompanying program. AFO Junior, targeting children and youth, is one of the regular thematic sections, run in cooperation with the Na Cucky Theatre, Fort Science and ČT Déčko TV channel. It includes screenings, thematic workshops, virtual reality, basic filmmaking techniques, and animation workshops.Accompanying program
The festival organizers also run an accompanying program, which runs during the festival as well as the rest of the year, consisting of exhibitions, workshops, screenings, and site-specific events. Over the years, the accompanying program has features exhibits such as a huge ice cube in the festival graphic design on Horní náměstí, virtual reality shows in Auditorium Maximum, AFO graffiti and street art around Olomouc, outdoor screenings at the square, or 3D printer demonstrations. Throughout the year, AFO Kino film screenings are organized in cooperation with Kino Metropol. The AFO Echoes program puts on showings of films from the main festival in other cities and towns, in venues such as observatories, schools, cafés, and cinemas. The festival also has a music program, presenting Czech and foreign musicians who connect music and science.4Science
The 4Science program section focuses primarily on professional networking in the field of education and science documentary films, connecting scientists, filmmakers and audio-visual industry representatives. This section consists of Camp 4Science and Industry 4Science. Camp 4Science is a six-day educational workshop for beginner filmmakers and new film projects which focus on science popularization through science and non-fiction documentary films. The workshop program covers technical procedures, creation of narratives in documentary films, special approaches to documentary production and financing. Industry 4Science brings together audio-visual industry representatives with science experts, who then share their knowledge of technical innovations, transformation of audiences and their habits, or future topics to be covered. The aim of this meeting is to establish new cooperation among the participating TV channel productions and production groups.Festival guests
The festival regularly features high-profile guests from the fields of science,cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...
and television production
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
. Recent guests have included: Albert Barillé, the French creator of the series '' Once Upon a Time...'' (2007); British BBC documentary maker Nigel Marven
Nigel Alan Marven (born 27 November 1960) is a British wildlife TV presenter, naturalist, conservationist, author, and television producer. He is best known as presenter of the BBC miniseries '' Chased by Dinosaurs'', its sequel, '' Sea Monsters ...
(2008); Jeff Lieberman
Jeff Lieberman (born October 16, 1947) is an American film director and screenwriter, known for his cult horror and thriller films ''Squirm'' (1976), '' Blue Sunshine'' (1978) and '' Just Before Dawn'' (1981).
Biography
Jeff Lieberman was bo ...
, the American host of the Discovery Channel show ''Time Warp
Time travel is a common theme in fiction, mainly since the late 19th century, and has been depicted in a variety of media, such as literature, television, film, and advertisements.
The concept of time travel by mechanical means was popularize ...
'' (2009); Andrew Holtz, author of the book ''The Medical Science of House, M.D.''; the undersea filmmaker Steve Lichtag; and the British filmmaker and biologist David Barlow, who films the inside of human bodies. In 2013 Richard Saunders was invited to be a member of the "World Competition Jury" for the 48th festival. He also gave a lecture on the claims of water divining as part of the "Pseudoscience" block and a lecture and workshops on origami as part of "The Beauty of Numbers" block.
References
{{Authority control Film festivals established in 1966 Documentary film festivals in the Czech Republic Spring (season) events in the Czech Republic 1966 establishments in Czechoslovakia External LinksAcademia Film Olomouc
Homepage of the festival