Moser and International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary Awards

The exclusive producer of the festival´s prices is traditionally glasswork Moser. Since the beginning of the festival the main price was always titled Crystal globe. Its shape has often changed. The present form of the girl lifting the crystal globe exists since the 36th International Film Festival in 2001.

Festival awards:

• crystal globe in the design with a girl holding a crystal ball in three sizes

1. the large golden trophy for the best film and for selected producers of film for the lifelong contribution
2. the large silver trophy presents the special award of the jury, the award for the direction, the award for the best woman and man actor
3. the small golden trophy for the winners of cathegories The best documentary film over 30 minutes and up to 30 minutes

• the crystal wafer is a special award for the films in the competition of both sections

Design of festival awards

The basic ideological form shape inhaled the art team of International Film Festival - Aleš Najbrt, Šimon Caban and Michal Caban. Its final form designed the famous photographer Tono Stano. Ema Černáková, second vicemiss of the Czech republik in the year 2001, became the model for the statue of a girl lifting the crystal globe. The statue´s work carried Martin Krejzlík under watch of Tono Stano.

The Crystal Globe Production

The Moser company produces the prices in the cooperation with the sculptural studio of Miloš Vacek, who creates these statues. The second part - crystal globe - comes from the skilful hands of masters studio led by Radek Vachousek. The prices are completed and glued namely by Jiří Khás.

The first phase of the production of the trophy is the production of the bronze statue, which  proceeds in the Prague studio of the sculptor Miloš Vacek. There is an interesting fact – the awards of the Academy of popular music are made in this studio. Production of the statues is a specific work, which is saved by the sculptor as a production secret, let´s mention just several remarks:

• The bronze is melted in a gas furnace including a small pan with the contents of about 80 kg of bronze. After several hours of melting and mixing, the pan is dispensed from the furnace and it is ready for casting.

• The forms for the casting are made of sand in a metal frame and dried in a stove, which is also in the studio of Mr. Vacek. After the cooling of the bronze the forms are divided into parts and the corpus of the statue is removed from them. The semi-product doesn´t remind of the beauty of the final look of the golden or silver statue at all.

• As soon as the corpus of the statue is cooled enough, the useless parts are removed and the procedure can continue with the surface adjustments, such as polishing by mild burnishers usually used in the technology of metal chasing to a high gloss, gilding or silvering.

The second part of the trophy - the crystal ball - is made in the Moser crystal manufactory.

• The molten glass is taken on the pipe and the centre of the ball is moulded. The centre is covered with a required mass of molten glass. The mass of the glass receives its general shape and then the final shape of the ball is formed by the wooden shaping block with the exact radius. After partial cooling, the ball is broken away from the pipe and cooled in a cooling furnace. After complete cooling, the head is removed, the place after removing the head is polished and the whole ball is polished to a high gloss.

• The final phase of the production of the Girl with the crystal bowl is the completion of the trophy, which means adhering of the ball to the bronze statue with the glue hardened by the UV radiation.

VIP visitors

The glass manufactory has been visited by many important personalities connected with the Karlovy Vary International film festival. The beauty of the hand made crystal glass and the splendid products of the glassmasters were admired by for example Claudia Cardinale, Gina Lollobrigida, Whoopi Goldberg, Ornella Muti, Gérard Depardieu, Václav Havel, Robert Redford and many others from the range of the film actors and creators.

See the photogallery of VIP's of IFF Karlovy Vary

The copy of the main festival award is displayed in the new museum in the Moser glass manufactory in Karlovy Vary - Dvory.

Technical specification of the large festival trophy:
- total height 42cm
- height of the statue without the ball 39cm
- total weight 5kg
- weight of the statue without the ball 3,2kg
- the ball with the diameter of 11,5cm is made of lead free sodium-potash crystal and is adhered to the statue in three points.

Technical specification of the small festival trophy:
- height 26 cm
- diameter of the ball 7 cm
- weight of the ball 742 g
- weight of the statue with the ball 1,650 g

Detailed information about the International film festival available at http://www.kviff.com