Aung Phyoe's Fruit Gathering won the Crystal Globe at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Saturday, claiming the main prize at one of Central Europe's most storied competitive festivals. The film, which premiered in the Crystal Globe competition on July 10, is the first Myanmar production ever to screen at KVIFF.
Fruit Gathering follows San Kyi and Theint Theint Oo, two young women working at a textile factory in Yangon over the course of eighteen months. Shot by cinematographer Thaiddhi, the film maps the slow formation of queer desire in a country where intimacy and love between women remain socially unacceptable. The title is drawn from a Rabindranath Tagore poetry collection. The film is a co-production between Myanmar, Czech Republic, and France.
The Special Jury Prize and Best Director went to Mads Mengel for The Guest, starring Trine Dyrholm. Anna Schinz won Best Actress for Jan-Eric Mack's A Happy Family, honored by the jury for her performance as "a mother driven to desperate extremes." Ghassan Saad won Best Actor for Pipes, directed by Karim Kassem.
In its 60th year, the festival presented honorary Crystal Globes for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema to Juliette Binoche and Dustin Hoffman. Jeffrey Wright received the Festival President's Award.