The Crystal Globe since 1948: The story of the famous film award’s journey

Two icons representing tradition, mastery, and creativity, marching side by side for decades. The result of this collaboration is one of the most beautiful symbols of modern filmmaking: the Crystal Globe.

This year, the festival celebrates its 80^th birthday, and Moser is an inherent participant. It’s at the glassworks that the awards are created, later to be received by the most prominent personalities of worldwide cinematography.

The statuette that became a symbol

For the past 26 years, the Crystal Globe has taken the form of an elegant young woman standing on her toes, holding a crystal globe overhead. Her appearance wilfully evokes the Art-Nouveau and Art-Deco styles – the era when cinematography was born.

The award was designed by artist and photographer Tono Stano, who made the statuette in 2000, and Miss Czech Republic finalist Ema Černáková acted as the model. To complete the design, she had to deliver an uncommon, nearly acrobatic performance. To observe the muscles stretching into the perfect pose, Stano had the model hang upside down. A pulley was used to hoist her up into the air, while Ema held out the globe in her hands. And that’s how the photos were taken and then used to design the festival’s now-iconic award.

Following Stano’s design and under his personal guidance, Martin Krejzlík modelled the statuette. And thus, a piece was born that today ranks amongst the most incredible and stunning film trophies around the world.

The Crystal Globe took many different shapes

The award’s semblance today isn’t the only one used throughout the festival’s history.

The first Crystal Globes were handed out during the festival’s inaugural competition, held in 1948. The festival itself actually started two years earlier, but the first two years were non-competitive.

The original Crystal Globe was created by glass designer Václav Hanuš from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. It was a traditional-style globe, made of crystal, and sat upon a marble pedestal.

In those days, an array of other trophies accompanied the main award. The Best Actor and Actress were given Moser vases, while the Peace Prize, for example, took the form of a silver branch decorated with garnets, and the Labour Prize was a bronze sculpture called The Harvest, depicting a farmer with a sack of apples or potatoes. Throughout the festival’s varying eras, other trophies were given, such as the Struggle for Freedom, Social Progress, and Friendship Between Nations. However, the Crystal Globe remained the main award, considered most valuable and prestigious.

Even during the 1990s, the award sported a different look than today. While keeping the same name, the award took the form of a crystal spa wafer, presented in a round box designed to look like a film reel. Visitors of the Moser Museum, located on the grounds of the glassworks in Karlovy Vary, can see this unique artefact for themselves, alongside the same award used today.

Mastery hidden in every orb

Producing the Crystal Globes is a display of the Moser glassmakers’ extraordinary artistic talent. Each globe is made of lead-free crystal, distinguished by its purity, hardness, and optical properties. Working at the furnace, the glassmakers take the red-hot molten glass and brilliantly form it into a round shape. Then it’s time for the cutters to whittle it down to the absolutely perfect dimensions. Each crystal orb must fit in the statuette’s hands precisely down to the millimetre.

Once cut, the globes are polished to a high gloss, which gives them their characteristic sparkle. The statuette is 34.5 cm tall and weighs 2.6 kg, with a diameter of 9.1 cm. Each piece is an original, created by dozens of hours of careful handiwork.

Even renowned director Miloš Forman was enamoured by the beauty of this award. He originally took home the trophy when it appeared as a spa wafer, but he later exchanged it for the new statuette of the young woman holding a globe.

Crystal Globe winners. From Karlovy Vary, then around the world

Every year, the creations of Moser’s glassmakers travel from Karlovy Vary into the hands of film legends, joining them on their journeys around the world.

For instance, Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, Susan Sarandon, Judi Dench, John Malkovich, and Julianne Moore all left the festival with their own Crystal Globe.

The star of the festival’s short films

The Crystal Globe is more than just an award. It’s gradually transformed into one of the main symbols of the festival, even featuring as the main character in its unique short films.

For instance, these micro-stories have seen the likes of Danny DeVito, Andy Garcia, Jude Law, Helen Mirren, Mel Gibson, Zdeněk Svěrák, Věra Chytilová, Jiřina Bohdalová, and Jiří Menzel acting alongside and playing with the award.

Celebrating the mastery of glassmaking and filmmaking

The collaboration between the Moser glassworks and KVIFF is more than just a producer-organiser partnership. It’s a celebration of honest craftsmanship, artistic creativity, and the desire to achieve exceptional results.

Just as filmmakers strive for perfection on the silver screen, so too do Moser glassmakers in the molten glass and crystal. And it’s within this union that the awards are born year over year, embarking from Karlovy Vary into the world as a symbol of Czech craftsmanship, elegance, and tradition.