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Ji.hlava industry awards go to ‘6TM’ and SmarterChild chatbot film
Variety reported Friday that “6TM” and “Searching for SmarterChild,” a documentary about an early internet chatbot, won top New Visions industry prizes at the Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival.
- New headline Was: “Magical Realist Tale ‘6TM’ and ‘Searching for SmarterChild,’ About One of the Earliest Chatbots, Win Top Industry Awards at Ji.hlava Festival”
- Our desk filed its story
Two documentary projects, including a film about the early internet chatbot SmarterChild, won the top New Visions industry awards at the Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival on Friday, Variety reported1.
“6TM,” directed by Karim Akalay and produced by Walid Bekhti, received the New Visions Award for the most promising European project1. Variety described the Belgian work as a family comedy in three chapters, using magic realism and set over one summer in Cité Modèle, Brussels’ largest housing project1.
The European award was presented with UPP and Soundaquare, which Variety said donated visual post-production and sound finishing valued at about 15,000 euros and 5,000 euros1. The jury included Katrine Kiilgaard of CPH:DOX, Anda Ionescu of Tangaj Production and Robert Y. Chang of American Documentary at POV1.
The New Visions Award for the most promising U.S. project went to “Searching for SmarterChild,” directed by Lindsey Sitz and Zan Gillies and produced by Erin Williams-Weir, Variety reported1. The U.S.-Canadian film, according to that account, returns to 2003 and the creation of SmarterChild, an online chatbot that users treated as a confidant two decades before large-scale AI products1.
That prize was presented with AmDocs and included $7,000 in cash, Variety said1. The festival also gave the APA World Excellence Award to Danish producer Signe Byrge Sørensen and named additional New Visions Forum winners, Variety reported1. Independent confirmation from the festival website was not in the reporting reviewed here.
