PAF Tachov - 31st year
International Festival of underwater video, photographs and children´s artwork
In all categories of this year´s festival participated 520 authors from 18 countries from all over the world. Most awards from festival competitions went to Czech Republic, Hungary and Belgium, which also won the festival Grand Prix.
"The photo competition had 9 categories and for the first time we were assessing registered photos in an electronic form," said chairman of the photo-jury Ladislav Smelík. "Jury agreed on majority of photographs and awarded relevant prizes, however I´m happy to say that quality of photographs was excellent" added Smelík.
The photo competition was dominated by three authors. Thomas Hackmann from Germany got three prizes, Czech author Richard Jaroněk gained in addition to partial award also title of the Champion of the Czech Republic in underwater photography and Christian Skauge from Norway won one of two main prizes of the festival - Top Photo PAF Tachov 2009 for best images in the category portfolio of the author.
Also the film jury had to deal with high quality of registered works. "As for the quality and technical level, this year was very balanced. We liked very much macro, but I´m personally a bit disappointed by lack of played underwater films" said chairman of the jury Kamil Vondrášek with the note that the difference between amateur and professional films has blurred.
"If I summarize briefly festival events, I can state that level of this year was excellent thanks to authors and their high quality films and photographs" said president of the Festival and Tachov´s diver Bohumir Kráčmar after the ceremonial evening.
Film competition dominated Belgians. Danny Van Belle, winner of last year´s Grand Prix, won the category of professional film makers. This year´s Grand Prix of the festival gained his compatriot Gino Rosiers.
"This was my first year in the Festival in Tachov. I was pleasantly surprised by level of the festival organisation. To be honest I did not expect such a high award in such a competition. But it´s an honour for me and at the same time motivation to come back next year", said winner of the film category Gino Rosiers.
