The 28th edition of the prestigious Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival concluded its industry program on Friday with the announcement of the New Visions Forum Award winners, celebrating groundbreaking cinematic and documentary projects from across Europe, North America, and beyond. Standing out among a competitive slate of international contenders, the Belgian family comedy project 6TM secured the top European honor, while the U.S.-Canadian retrospective investigation Searching for SmarterChild claimed the premier North American prize.

Held annually in the historic Czech town of Jihlava, the Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival has steadily grown into one of Europe’s premier platforms for creative documentary and hybrid cinema. Over nearly three decades, the festival has established itself as an essential incubator for daring cinematic voices, providing a vital bridge between Eastern and Western European filmmaking traditions while expanding its reach to global perspectives. This year’s industry platform once again reinforced Jihlava’s reputation as a launchpad for innovative storytelling, bringing together prominent producers, directors, and institutional leaders from around the world.

Main Facts and Top Winners of the 2024 New Visions Forum

The flagship winner of the European category, 6TM, is directed by Karim Akalay and produced by Walid Bekhti. Set against the sun-baked backdrop of the Cité Modèle—Brussels’ largest public housing project—the film unfolds across a single scorching summer through three distinct yet interconnected chapters. The narrative follows a diverse ensemble: two children searching for a magical lamp to prevent a disabled friend from eviction caused by chronically broken elevators; a teenage girl assembling a mismatched squad of neighborhood kids for a local soccer tournament; and a mother rallying her community to solve the mystery of stolen rain.

Described by its creators as a magical realist community resilience comedy, 6TM deeply impressed the festival’s international jury. The panel comprised Katrine Kiilgaard, managing director of Denmark’s CPH:DOX; Anda Ionescu, managing partner and producer at Romania’s Tangaj Production; and Robert Y. Chang, co-producer of American Documentary at POV in the United States.

In their official statement, the jury lauded the project’s innovative approach to contemporary cinema: “With its imaginative blend of magical realism, humor and social relevance, 6TM offers a fresh vision of European cinema. Rooted in lived experience and shaped through co-creation, 6TM challenges conventional representations and opens up new possibilities for who gets to tell stories, whose voices are heard, and whose sees themselves reflected on screen. We believe this approach holds extraordinary promise for the next generation of both audiences and filmmakers, demonstrating how cinema can become more inclusive and participatory.”

As the recipient of the New Visions Award for the most promising European project, 6TM secured substantial industry backing. The prize was awarded in cooperation with UPP, which contributed an in-kind grant for visual post-production valued at approximately €15,000, alongside Soundsquare, which provided comprehensive sound mixing and a final sound master estimated at €5,000.

On the North American front, the New Visions Award for the most promising U.S. project was presented to Searching for SmarterChild, directed by Lindsey Sitz and Zan Gillies, and produced by Erin Williams-Weir. Supported by a cash prize of $7,000 in partnership with AmDocs, the U.S.-Canadian feature-length project looks back to the year 2003 and the sudden cultural ubiquity of SmarterChild, an early online artificial intelligence chatbot that functioned as an anonymous digital confidant, sparring partner, and sounding board for an entire generation of internet users.

Chronology and Historical Context of SmarterChild

The conceptual framework of Searching for SmarterChild taps directly into the collective nostalgia and digital archaeology of the early 2000s web. Launched on platforms like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and MSN Messenger, SmarterChild interacted with tens of millions of users long before modern large language models or smartphone assistants existed. People routinely confided their deepest secrets, hurled insults, tested romantic lines, and anthropomorphized the primitive conversational software.

Twenty years later, as generative artificial intelligence permeates nearly every aspect of modern personal and professional infrastructure, the documentary asks a timely existential question: What does our treatment of the internet’s first chatbot reveal about human nature? By exhuming archival chat logs and confronting users with their cringe-worthy adolescent interactions, Sitz and Gillies explore themes of digital accountability, human empathy, and the psychological mechanisms that govern how humans relate to non-human entities.

The international jury praised the project’s prescient social commentary: “Searching for SmarterChild takes us back to the early days of the internet to confront one of the most pressing questions of our time: what does our relationship with artificial intelligence reveal about ourselves? By revisiting their interactions with one of the earliest chatbots of their childhoods, the filmmakers offer a perspective on today’s fascination with AI, challenging us to reflect not only on the technologies we create, but also on how we treat them and each other. The jury wishes to recognize the project’s promise to engage audiences through an original, entertaining and thought-provoking approach to a subject that will profoundly shape our collective future.”

Celebrating Industry Excellence and International Partnerships

In addition to the primary competitive prizes, the Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival recognized veteran Danish producer Signe Byrge Sørensen with the prestigious APA World Excellence Award. Sørensen, widely celebrated for her instrumental role in producing critically acclaimed, Oscar-nominated documentary features such as The Act of Killing and Flee, was honored for her monumental contributions to international film production and her enduring influence on world cinema standards.

The festival’s extensive roster of New Visions Forum industry awards underscored the truly global scope of contemporary documentary development, forging strategic partnerships with major international film institutions, training labs, and residency programs.

Complete List of New Visions Forum Award Winners

The 2024 edition distributed accolades across a diverse array of cross-border collaborations, fostering new co-productions and professional development pathways:

Cannes Docs – Marché du Film Award:

• Iridescence – Directed by Dominika Kovácová and Kilhan Wittock; Produced by Matej Sotník and Klára Tasovská (Slovakia, Belgium, Italy)

DAE Award:

• Monument of Revolution – Directed by Mladen Ivanović; Produced by Tamara Puizina (Montenegro, Croatia)

Docs Connect Taskovski Training Award:

• Planet A – Directed by Emelie Mahdavian; Produced by Charlotte Hailstone (United Kingdom)

Docs by the Sea Award:

• Daughters of the Pit – Directed by Anshul Chauhan; Produced by Mina Moteki and Anshul Chauhan (Japan)

Eurodoc Award:

• If Only the Pines Could Speak – Directed by Yelyzaveta Myshkalenko; Produced by Diana Nazaruk (Ukraine)

Jacob Burns Film Center Award:

• Planet A – Directed by Emelie Mahdavian; Produced by Charlotte Hailstone (United Kingdom)

Lightdox Award:

• Male Fantasies – Directed by Max Bowens; Produced by Ryan Krivoshey and Sam Hewison (United States)

Meditalents Residency Award:

• The 13th Fish – Directed by Sara Stijović; Produced by Sara Stijović and Marija Vlahović (Montenegro)

Sheffield DocFest Networking Award:

• A Spectre Is Haunting Europe – Directed by Robo Mihály; Produced by Anna Mach Rumanová and Alena Kapinajová (Slovakia, Czech Republic)

RAFF Residency Award:

• Words We Never Say – Directed by Agnieszka Zwiefka; Produced by Agnieszka Zwiefka and Iza Igel (Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Spain)

Bratislava Industry Days Award:

• If Only the Pines Could Speak – Directed by Yelyzaveta Myshkalenko; Produced by Diana Nazaruk (Ukraine)

Broader Impact and Industry Implications

The strong emphasis on collaborative, cross-border, and socially conscious storytelling at this year’s Ji.hlava festival highlights a broader structural shift within the documentary and independent film sectors. As traditional funding models face increasing economic pressures across Europe and North America, industry platforms like Ji.hlava’s New Visions Forum have become vital lifelines for emerging filmmakers attempting to secure early-stage financing, technical grants, and international co-production partners.

Projects like 6TM exemplify a growing demand for inclusive, participatory filmmaking that actively engages local communities in the creative process. By breaking down conventional hierarchies between director and subject, productions rooted in co-creation are reshaping European cinematic landscapes, proving that stories originating from marginalized or underrepresented urban environments can achieve both critical acclaim and commercial viability.

Simultaneously, the recognition of technology-focused investigations like Searching for SmarterChild demonstrates the documentary community’s urgent engagement with the psychological and societal ramifications of rapid technological acceleration. As artificial intelligence systems rapidly evolve from the rudimentary text-based interfaces of the early 2000s into sophisticated generative neural networks, filmmakers are increasingly positioning themselves as cultural archivists and ethical watchdogs, interrogating the digital behaviors that define modern human existence.

With substantial post-production support, cash grants, and residency placements secured, the winning projects of the 2024 Ji.hlava New Visions Forum now enter their next phases of production with enhanced global visibility. As these films progress toward completion, they carry forward the festival’s core mission: expanding the boundaries of cinematic language while fostering a more inclusive, globally connected community of filmmakers and audiences.