SIR NICHOLAS Winton and Matej Mináč received special prizes for Nicky’s Family film at the International Film Festival The Spirits of the Earth, organised by the St John International University in Torino, Italy. It is already the 40th award for the film project that was made in cooperation with Czech and Slovak public-service televisions.
Winton, who saved 669 children, mostly Jewish, from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to safety in Great Britain on the eve of World War II received the Assisi Pax International prize, while the film’s director Mináč was awarded with a special prize of the St John International University and ASPIM Europe, the TASR newswire reported on October 27.
Nicky’s Family was screened on October 24 during the award-winning ceremony of the festival, whose art director is actress Eleonora Baldwin de Sica, granddaughter of Italian actor, scriptwriter and director Vittorio de Sica. The organisers of the festival appreciated the importance of the individual who was able to change history, as reported by TASR.
Winton, who celebrated his 105th birthday this year, meanwhile received the highest order of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion, on October 28 on the occasion of the 96th anniversary of establishing the first Czechoslovak Republic.
