Academia film started in Olomouc. The six-day festival of science and film ranks among the largest in Europe

“The program offers hundreds of items, from film screenings to lectures, workshops, concerts, exhibitions, recording of live podcasts and talks, as well as educational activities for schools and families with children,” AFO spokeswoman Martina Vyslužilová told Novinkám.

Expert juries will select the best films in three competition categories – international, Czech-Slovak and short film competition. Space is given to prestigious television productions and films that push the boundaries of documentary storytelling.

The creators of the best pictures will take away trophies in the form of a beauty view by glassmaker Martin Hlubuček. And $25,000 will go to the winner of the Camp 4Science professional workshop, which is an essential platform for meeting the world’s leading filmmakers.

Echo, time or trauma. These are the themes of the popularization-science film festival in Olomouc

Culture

The goal of the Academia Film Olomouc festival is to break down prejudices and stereotypes about “boring” educational films, as well as about natural, humanities and social sciences.

Current and former students of Palacký University are the driving force behind the organization. This year’s visual is based on retro aesthetics and typography. It evokes the golden era of theme parks.

This year, 190 films will be shown in cinemas. Viewers will see not only the competition films, but also a selection of films from the non-competition sections and in a special presentation. There will be sections Resilience, About Mushrooms and People, Dynasty: Dinosaurs, Nature and Nature, Walking, Hot Grip, Science in Pop Culture, Science on Czech Television and also Tribute to: Jane Goodall and Cormac McCarthy…

Photo: AFO

One of the sections of this year’s AFO will be about mushrooms and people.

350 festival guests will visit Olomouc. Among others, documentary filmmaker Kateřina Cizek, recipient of the Peabody and Emmy awards, or Hannah Critchlow, an internationally recognized neurologist. The program will also include an online lecture by top psychologist and world expert on altruism Abigail Marsh.

Peter McCoy, who co-founded the worldwide movement of radical mycology, will also take a personal look at AFO. Documentary filmmaker Anupama Srinivasan will also be coming.

Visitors will meet paleontologist Jingmai O’Connor, Czech sociologist Vojtěch Pecka and biologist Barbora Pafčo have also confirmed their participation. Leading British historian Chris Manias and paleontologist Daniel Madzia will also appear.