The International Film Festival (IFF) “Water, sea & the oceans” is an competition festival of documentary films on a particular topic. Its objective is to present and award new films about the world of salt and fresh water, contributing to development of film reflecting the life in water environment and help to enlargement of ideas about environmental protection of water.

Festival motto: World ocean springs on the tops of mountains and in the depths of the Earth. Water fills lakes and flows in streams and rivers. It changes the face of the countryside with its sometimes horrifying power on its way to deep basins where it creates the largest area of our planet – seas and oceans. Nowhere in space can you find a planet as blue as the Earth. It has been a planet of water for nearly four billion years. A planet of deep and still unknown oceans of life…

A first year of the festival took place from 7th to 8th September 2004 in citi of Ústi nad Labem and its working title was “Days of the ocean”. In 2011, the festival moved to the town of Hluboká nad Vltavou, where it became one of the biggest cultural events, which is enjoyed by visitors not only from the surrounding area. The festival focuses mainly on young viewers, organizes screenings and discussions for local schools, which are also streamed to many schools throughout the Czech Republic.

During its long history, the festival has welcomed a number of distinguished guests from all over the world. Celine Cousteau, Cristina Zenato, Herbert Nitsch, David Hannan, Sir James Mancham and many others are just some of them.

The founder and president of the festival is the renowned Czech director and documentary maker Steve Lichtag

Awards & Prizes

Grand Prix
Best Salt Water Film
Best Fresh Water Film
Best Documentary
Best Environmental Film
Best Czech Film
Best Free Production

International Jury can also decide on another award.

Rules & Terms

ANY COMPETITION FILMS SHALL BE PROVIDED WITH:
- one filled-in application per each film
- film in a HD digital format (mp4, mov, mxf) with sufficient bitrate (at least 15Mb/sec for mp4)
- for projection we prefer DCP format (2K/4K, 24 fps, 5.1).
- a dialogue sheet with timecodes in English if the film is in another language than Czech or Slovak
- pictures from the film shooting – is not required, but maybe supplied to be used for broader promotion of the film
- other information (a portrait of the author, his/her biography, promotion material) – is not required, but maybe supplied to be used for broader promotion of the film

The Pre-selection committee, witch is the advisory body of the Festival Director selects the films for the competition and divides them into particular categories. The festival reserves the right to accept and invite also out-of-competition films of an extraordinary value for the retrospective or informative block.

The competition films will be evaluated by the International Jury appointed by the Festival Director. The decision of the Jury is final.

All films with accompanying materials can be used for a promotion of festival. They will not be used for commercial purposes.

Competition films will be projected for the public in the theatres designated by the organizer

A duly filled-in application will be considered as consent of the applicant to the conditions set in the festival statutes.

The festival organizer reserves the right to change the program scheme.