‘Barbarians,’ Robert Pattinson among 53rd Karlovy Vary Film Festival Winners

[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]

The Romanian meta-drama I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians is the Grand Prize winner of the 53rd Karlovy Vary Film Festival. The film’s title refers to the Council of Ministers, who, in the summer of 1941, started an ethnic cleansing on the Eastern Front. The film was a huge critical success with Variety calling it “blistering” and “acutely topical.”

The Brazilian/Argentinian film Sueño Florianópolis, from Ana Katz, won two awards – the Special Jury Prize and the Best Actress award for Mercedes Morán. The film details a family trip to Florianópolis with tales of first love, past lovers, fateful encounters, and fleeting joys interwoven in.

High-profile prizes went to actor Robert Pattinson, actor/director Tim Robbins and director Barry Levinson. Pattinson won the festival’s President’s Award and can currently be seen in Damsel with Mia Wasikowska and later this year in Claire Denis’ High Life. Robbins and Levinson were lauded for their Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema.

Earlier this week it was announced that Karlovy Vary world premiere Crystal Swan would be Belarus’s official submission for the Foreign Language Film Oscar race, the first country to announce.

Here is the full list of this year’s winners, some with cash prizes:

GRAND PRIX – CRYSTAL GLOBE ($25,000 USD)
I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians
Directed by Radu Jude
Romania, Czech Republic, France, Bulgaria, Germany, 2018

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE ($15,000 USD)
Sueño Florianópolis
Directed by Ana Katz
Argentina, Brasil, France, 2018

BEST DIRECTOR AWARD
Olmo Omerzu – Winter Flies
Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland, Slovakia, 2018

BEST ACTRESS AWARD
Mercedes Morán – Sueño Florianópolis
Argentina, Brasil, France, 2018

BEST ACTOR AWARD
Moshe Folkenflik – Redemption
Israel, 2018

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
Jumpman
Directed by Ivan I. Tverdovskiy
Russia, Lithuania, Ireland, France, 2018

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
History of Love
Directed by Sonja Prosenc
Slovenia, Italy, Norway, 2018

EAST OF THE WEST – COMPETITION

EAST OF THE WEST GRAND PRIX ($15,000 USD)
Suleiman Mountain
Directed by Elizaveta Stishova
Kyrgyzstan, Russia, 2017

EAST OF THE WEST SPECIAL JURY PRIZE ($10, 000 USD)
Blossom Valley
Directed by: László Csuja
Hungary, 2018

DOCUMENTARY FILMS – COMPETITION

GRAND PRIX FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM ($5,000 USD)
Putin’s Witnesses
Directed by Vitaly Mansky
Latvia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, 2018

DOCUMENTARY SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
Walden
Directed by Daniel Zimmermann
Switzerland, Austria, 2018

PRÁVO AUDIENCE AWARD
Rain Man
Directed by Barry Levinson
USA, 1988

CRYSTAL GLOBE FOR OUTSTANDING ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION TO WORLD CINEMA
Tim Robbins, USA, Barry Levinson, USA

FESTIVAL PRESIDENT’S AWARD
Robert Pattinson, United Kingdom

FESTIVAL PRESIDENT’S AWARD FOR CONTRIBUTION TO CZECH CINEMATOGRAPHY
Jaromír Hanzlík, Czech Republic

• Author
• Recent Posts

Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 85th Peabody Awards: ‘Hacks,’ ‘Ripley,’ ‘Say Nothing,’ Among Entertainment Nominees - April 17, 2025
• Sophie Hyde’s ‘Jimpa,’ starring Olivia Colman and John Lithgow, to Open Both NewFest and Frameline LGBTQ+ Film Festivals - April 17, 2025
• 2025 Tribeca Festival Television Lineup Includes World Premieres of ‘Smoke’ with Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett, ‘The Gilded Age’ Season 3 and More - April 17, 2025