The eighth edition of the Future Gate Festival took place in September and October 2021, offering over 30 films in four film sections. The traditional film competition, the legends section and the documentary section were newly supplemented by student films. The eighth edition of the festival responded to the current coronal crisis and introduced the post-apocalyptic genre.
The coronavirus has presented our world with a new challenge. Our civilisation faces not only a health threat, but also an economic and socio-political threat. Humanity has proven to be much more vulnerable than we thought. But Covid-19 is not the first real threat humanity has faced. Filmmakers have been presenting their apocalyptic visions for many years. The nuclear consequences of a possible World War III or the fear of viruses of alien origin have been replaced in recent decades by more realistic threats such as the devastation of nature, global warming or water shortages. It seems that the greatest threat to humanity is humanity itself. Will we live in a world similar to the Mad Max series? The theme of the festival was to draw attention to current and future problems related to human activity. The post-apocalyptic sub-genre offers plenty of food for thought and quality filmmaking at the same time. The festival will present various forms of the end of the traditional world and will also show what such a destruction would actually look like, how to prevent it and what needs to be changed. The theme will resonate in the selected films and the accompanying programme (talks, lectures, school programme, art installations). We would also like to thank our main partners because without them the festival would not be possible: JRC, Zážitky.cz, Figures.cz, MindMaze Prague, Canon, IS Produkce, SupremeXP, Stardust Production and last but not least Prusa Research. The Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Prague, Brno, Pilsen and the Municipal District of Prague 1. Zdeněk Hřib of Prague and Markéta Vaňková, Mayor of the Statutory City of Brno.
Festival competition
An international jury of three will selected the best film from 5 genre-diverse films: DEMONIC, LAPSIS, PAUL W.R.S’ LAST JOURNEY, UNDERGODS and IN THE SHADOWS. The jury also decided on the best student science fiction films. The members were storyboarder Kurt van der Basch, dramaturge and director of the Aero cinema Jiří Flígl and scientist Jan Lukačevič. Viewers voted for the Audience Award winner. The awards were thematically produced by the Prusa Research 3D printing company. The Main Festival Competition: Best Film: Lapsis (dir. Noah Hutton) Audience Award: Demonic (dir. Neill Blomkamp) Student's Film Competition: 1. 🥇 Ant Hill (dir. Marek Náprstek) 2. 🥈 Red Cap F30.2 (dir. Jakub Vrbík, Patrik Balonek, Matěj Sláma) 3. 🥉 I Heard the Moon-Lady Weaving (dir. Vasco Viana)
Kurt van der Basch
Kurt van der Basch, 1975, a storyboarder and illustrator living in Prague, grew up in the coastal region on the east coast of Canada, where he studied classical piano. In 1999, he joined the film and television industry as an office assistant, but soon began designing and illustrating props, working as a set painter and later conceptualizing and illustrating props and sets for "Alien vs. Predator" and Terry Gilliam's biographical fantasy film "The Brothers Grimm." With his talent for quick drawings, Kurt took up storyboarding in 2003. Since then he has applied his drawing skills to a wide range of media in Europe and the United States, from production illustrations for music videos for Janet Jackson, Kanye West and Madonna's 2009 "Sticky and Sweet" tour to storyboards for the monumental reboot of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" directed by J.J. J.J. Abrahams' 2015 film "Star Wars". Kurt's most recent projects include the enthusiastically anticipated fantasy series "Lord of the Rings".
Jiří Flígl
The current director of Prague's iconic Aero cinema, festival dramaturge and former film publicist. He co-creates the programme of the Shockproof Film Festival and the Summer Film School, and in the past, he has also collaborated with film and TV series events Serial Killer, Filmasia, Febiofest and Fresh Film Fest. He has contributed essays to the anthologies Krev, slzy a sperma: Čítanka filmového braku (Blood, Tears and Semen: ABC Book of Trash Cinema) and Made in Japan: Eseje o současné japonské popkultuře (Made in Japan: Essays on Contemporary Japanese Pop Culture). His articles on cinema and video games have appeared in Cinepur, A2 and Aktuálně.cz. A few years ago, he co-founded the website about Asian films Rejže.cz. He has also worked as a TV dramaturge for Czech Television.
Jan Lukačevič
Jan Lukacevic serves as a NATO2030 Young Leader, a member of Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's Advisory Board. Since 2017, he has been working at the Academy of Sciences, and in addition to his PhD studies at the IFF UK, he founded the Marsonaut laboratory, a project for growing plants in Mars-like conditions. He also brings science to the general public on social media, where he is one of the most successful popularizers in the Czech Republic. He works at the Neuron Foundation as Neuron Founder. For his earlier research under the European Space Agency, he was selected by Google and the Financial Times for the New Europe 100: a list of 100 people from Central and Eastern Europe with the greatest influence on our future.
Foreing guests
Neill Blomkamp
South African writer and director Neill Blomkamp moved to Canada at the age of 18, where he began his career as a visual effects artist in film and television. He is best known for co-writing and directing District 9 (2009), Elysium (2013), Chappie (2015) and his latest feature film, Demonic (2021). Since 2015 he has been developing experimental films for his independent studio Oats Studios. Notable works include Rakka (2017), Firebase (2017) and Zygote (2017).
Chino Moya
Madrid-born, London-based Chino Moya takes a multi-genre approach to his work, combining filmmaking, photography and comic book writing. His short films, music videos and commercials have been screened competitively at festivals around the world and have won several awards, including Cannes Lions. Moya directed the music video Digital Witness for the St. Vincent star, which was voted one of the 10 best music videos by Rolling Stone magazine in 2014 and was featured in the Times Magazine. In addition to his film work, Chino Moya has just released a comic book, Flat Filters, and his latest photography book, Monosodium Glutamate, is due out at the end of the year. At the Future Gate Festival in Prague and Brno, Moya will personally present his feature debut, Undercover Gods.
Danielle Kummer
Danielle Kummer, born in North London, studied Film and Media at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and has been working as a cameraman and editor in London for the last 8 years on short films and promo videos. She made Intruder on Stage with director Lucy Harvey, it is their first feature length documentary.
Marc Fehse
Marc Fehse is a trained art director with a background in Film & Design. Due to his love for moving and non-moving images he studied design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Braunschweig. Before his undergraduate studies he spent one semester in Los Angeles, where he worked in various companies and schools. After 20 years working in the music sector, he founded the film and design agency Marctropolis, realizing various advertising and feature film projects. Its clients include Volkswagen, Siemens, Red Bull, ARD, ZDF, Universal, New Yorker and others. His own film productions include "Sex, Dogz and Rock 'n' Roll", "Spores", "The Power of Soul", "Sky Sharks". Attached to the agency is a publishing company that successfully releases audio books and radio plays. Marc has won two Lionel Design Awards and his publishing work has been awarded Best Radio Play of the Year several times! Eight years ago he founded the genre film festival "Cinestrange". Star guests in recent years have included Dario Argento, Joe Dante, John Badham...
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