Production

Among the projects backed for production, the Council of the Czech Film Fund supported 5 short films. The highest amount in this call (EUR 240,000) received 9 Million Colors, produced by Jakub Košťál & Vratislav Šlajer of Bionaut and written and directed by Bára Anna Stejskalová, whose previous short, Love Is Just a Death Away, was nominated for Czech Lion award. In 9 Million Colors, Stejskalová tells an undersea love story, an origin of love between a beautiful and murderous shrimp and a hideous blind fish, that will change the ocean forever.

Two projects, which thematize the early stages of motherhood, were backed in this call. ANIMUMS, produced by Libor Meškal and Petr Babinec of Kouzelná animace, is a joint project of Adéla Kukalová, Eliška Oz & Veronika Pasterná Szemelová, three animators-mothers currently on parental leave. In their three short films, the writers/directors reflect on the radical change in their lives, reveal the overwhelming world of their children and try to defend the need for their own creation. While ANIMUMS was supported by the CFF with EUR 160,000, another mother-related short, First 365 Days by Hana Stehlíková, received EUR 36 000 for production. In her project, produced by Zuzana Kučerová of Frame Films, Stehlíková focuses on a neglected and downplayed topic – a postpartum depression.

Internationally acclaimed director Denisa Grimmová, whose animated feature Even Mice Belong in Heaven won Czech Lion Award and was nominated for European Film Award 2021, prepares a short film Fear. The project takes a grotesque approach to a highly topical issue, the fear of threats around us, fed by purposeful disinformation. Producer Vladimír Lhoták of Hausboot, who stood behind the Even Mice Belong in Heaven, was granted EUR 48,000 for production of Fear.

The smallest viewers are the targeted audience by project titled The Small Shoe, which is a collaboration between director Michal Žabka (Great Adventure of the Lucky Four), writer Aneta Žabková and producer Petr Horák of Alkay Animation Prague. The Czech Film Fund supported the project, which takes the viewrs into the world of two little goblins living in an old apple tree hidden from humans, with EUR 56,000.

Development

Established production company Bionaut received the amount of EUR 53,800 for development of animated feature Water Dragons on the Run (Vodní dráčci na útěku) targeted on both children and family spectators. The project, which tells an adventurous story of axolotls struggling with polluted nature, is written by Štěpánka Ansorge and directed by Filip Pošivač (Overboard!).

Director and producer Ondřej Moravec, who presented his autobiographical VR film Darkening at Venice Film Festival this year, joins forces with Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Kolbasa to create another powerful VR experience. Fresh Memories will allow the audience to experience the actual situation of ordinary people in war-torn Ukraine, presented through several stories. The Czech Film Fund backed the project with EUR 40,000 for development.

Another project that transcends the boundaries of the film screen, which was supported in this call for development, is 3-2-1 To the Moon!. Director Filip Veselý and producer Martin Jůza of production company Krutart continue to provide the space experiences, and after the previous film 3-2-1 Liftoff! (2021), which lifted children off the ground by a space rocket, this time they will take them to the moon. Czech Film Fund supported the project, which is designed not only for cinemas but also for fulldome projections in planetariums, with EUR 24,000.

Last but not least, Alkay Animation Prague (Petr Horák) received EUR 16,000 for development of Calamity Sarah (Sára Kalamita). Experienced animator and illustrator Galina Miklínová (The Oddsockeaters) will direct an adaptation of Eva Papoušková’s children book about an extraordinary little girl with supernatural abilities.