Feature Films: Intimate Dramas and Excursions Into History

To fund the development of Czech feature films, the Czech Film Fund divided CZK 9 million (€355,000) among 14 projects selected from 29 applications in the latest grant period. These include upcoming movies by Martin Šulík, Olmo Omerzu, and Václav Kadrnka.

In a statement, the fund’s board praised the genre and thematic variety of the submitted projects, noting that directors presented vivid social and emotional themes (for instance, Omerzu’s Bird Atlas tells the story of an accountant working for a big company that embezzles a large sum of money), as well as intimate dramas about the lives of individuals (such as Saving One Who Was Dead, directed by Václav Kadrnka).

Several projects also featured historical themes, in particular Martin Šulík’s biopic about 13th-century princess Anežka Přemyslovna, and movies set in the 1940s and 1950s, including Money From Hitler (directed by Tomáš Mašín based on the Radka Denemarková novel). In Bloody Easter, set in post-World War II Sudetenland, director Jan Bušta takes a look at the Czech borderlands and the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia through the eyes of children.

The applications for funding included genre productions ranging from romantic comedies to the postmodern horror detective thriller (Sisters, directed by Vojtěch Mašek), as well as a Václav Havel biopic, directed by Slávek Horák.

Animated Films

In the field of animated film, the fund supported 4 out of the 6 submitted projects under development, for a total amount of €118,000. Two feature films and two short films received backing: Křišťáloví únosci (Crystal Planet, produced by Alkay Animation Prague, Vlny (Waves, produced by ARTNOK FILM), Babu v nočním městě (Babu in the Night City, produced by Produkce Radim Procházka), and Modrá zahrada (Blue Garden, produced by Hana Aurerová).

Documentaries in Development: A Journey to the Depths of a Soul, and to Somalia

In documentary film, a total of €689,000 was allocated, both to projects in pre-production and films already in production. The board distributed a total of €177,000 to 10 projects in the development category, including films from novice and experienced producers alike, presenting a rich variety of topics, ranging from portraits to current social issues to essayistic works. Intimate themes are explored in works by Lucie Králová (Naslouchači snů / Dream-Heeders, about dreams and the collective unconscious) and Kateřina Hager (Manželství / A Marriage, about the relationship between a Czech woman who uses a wheelchair and her Pakistani husband). Increasingly, Czech artists are choosing to work on topics set abroad, such as Petr Hojda’s Zapomenutá stopa (Forgotten Footprint), which aims to capture the persona of the current king of Cambodia, Norodom Sihamoni, and to use his story to show the relations between Czechia and Cambodia.

In Somalia, Jana Adert is filming and preparing Doctor Musa, about children living in the country’s capital of Mogadishu. And Artemio Benki maps the issue of human rights for Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltic countries after the Soviet Union’s collapse, in My Private Mongolia.

Documents in Production: Forman and Trnka Biopics

A total of 25 projects (with a Czech majority) were submitted in the documentary production category. Out of these, the fund’s board chose 14 projects, granting them a total of €511,710. A significant number of submissions deal with biographical or historical themes, and several address specific issues in contemporary Czech political, social, and economic life.

The biographies include Alchymická pec (Alchemical Furnace, by Adam Oľha), about Jan Švankmajer; Miloš Forman – Forman vs. Forman, by Helena Třeštíková; Sny o toulavých kočkách, about Petr Sís (Dreams of Stray Cats, by David Sís); and Jiří Trnka – Nalezený přítel (Jiří Trnka - A Long Lost Friend, directed by Joël Farges). The movie Bohu žel (Unfortunate, by Saša Dlouhý) deals with the topic of foreigners in Czechia, and Jana Andert’s Mosul is an account of the war between the Iraqi Army and the Islamic State in the Middle East.

Minority Coproductions

The fund also supported 13 minority coproduction projects, sharing €1,180,000 among them. The highest amount (€236,000) went to Medieval, directed by Petr Jákl and produced by Martin J. Barab (Double Tree Entertainment, US), Petr Jákl (WOG FilM) and Cassian Elwes (Elevated Films, UK). The story, set in the Kingdom of Bohemia at the dawn of the 15th century, is inspired by the life of Jan Žižka of Trocnov, one of seven generals in history never to lose a battle. €197,000 went to Amundsen, about the life of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, directed by Espen Sandberg and produced by SF Studios (Frederick Wikström Nicastro and Tim King) and Film Kolektiv (Pavel Berčík and Silvie Michajlová). €118,000 was granted to Let There Be Light, the story of a father who discovers that his teenage son has become involved with a fascist militia and is accused of bullying and killing a classmate. The project is directed and produced by Marko Škop (Artileria, SK), with Petr Oukropec (Negativ) the Czech coproducer.

Also receiving backing was The Humorist, the directorial debut by writer and screenwriter Michael Idov, which follows a week in the life of Boris Arkadiev, a fictional Soviet stand-up comedian, in 1984. Humorist is a coproduction between Russia (Artem Vasilyev, Metrafilms), Latvia (Andrey Saveliev, Aija Berzina, Tasse Film) and the Czech Republic (Artemio Benki, Sirena Film). The fund also gave support to the winner of works in Progress at KVIFF 2017: the Slovak-Czech film 107 Mothers, directed by Peter Kerekes, produced by Ivan Ostrochovský (SK), and coproduced by endorfilm (Cz) and Peter Kerekes (SK).

New Project Launched: Script Consulting Incubator

This project, initiated by the Czech Film Fund, is meant as both a training program for script consultants and a form of script development support for filmmakers. Selected script editor trainees will learn the trade from top international experts and at the same time consult on scripts supported by the fund. The program is being organized for the CFF by the MIDPOINT platform.

The incubator’s first phase runs from autumn 2017 to 2019. During this time, the fund will provide professional consulting to 12 feature film scripts and intensive training for 8 local script consultants. The chief mentor will be Gyula Gazdag, a Hungarian film director and screenwriter who has served as artistic director of the Sundance Director’s lab since 1997, creative advisor at the Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam for more than 10 years, and has worked with new talent at the Script Station of the Berlinale Talents since 2006.

Other tutors will include Anita Voorham from the Dutch Film Fund; Pavel Jech, former dean of FAMU; Franz Rodenkirchen, who regularly works with the TorinoFilmlab and other projects; and, last but not least, Czech director Jan Svěrák, the incubator’s initiator.

In December 2017, the first four screenwriters were selected for training: two graduates of screenwriting and dramaturgy at FAMU, Lucia Kajánková and Vít Poláček; editor and teacher Michal Reich; and screenwriter and author Milada Těšitelová, who is a doctoral student at FAMU and whose comic trilogy Plague is currently in pre-production as a feature film of the same name (produced by Sirena Film).