2024-09-11 19:52:34
The members of the Czech Film and Television Academy selected screenwriter and director Jiří Mádl in the category Best Foreign Film Waves to compete for the American Oscar. They made the announcement on Tuesday. The drama is inspired by the true story of a group of journalists from the international editorial staff of Czechoslovak Radio and their determination to bring independent news at any cost in August 1968.
Waves had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary festival, where director Mádl won the Blue Cube award for outstanding artistic performance. Cinemas began screening the film on August 15. Since then, almost 357,000 people have seen it, and its sales are close to 62 million crowns.
The members of the academy, which also awards the Czech Lion awards, voted for 13 Czech feature films and documentaries submitted by their producers. Behind the Waves were placed in alphabetical order the films Amerikánka, which cinemas are just starting to screen, and Mord.
The 97th Academy Awards ceremony will take place on March 2, 2025. The shortlist of 15 foreign works will be announced by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on December 17, and the nominations themselves on January 17 next year.
The author and director of the film, Jiří Mádl, worked with the personal memories of the original members of the international editorial staff of the Czechoslovak Radio, who appear in the film under their real names. In addition to Jiří Dienstbier played by Vojtěch Kotek, they are Věra Šťovíčková played by Tatiana Pauhofová, Luboš Dobrovský played by Martin Hofmann, Jan Petránek embodied by Petr Lněnička or Milan Weiner played by Stanislav Majer. The author entrusted Vojtěch Vodochodský with the main role of the Czechoslovak Radio technician, who in the stormy 1960s must decide what is important to him and his brother in life.
Czech Oscar nominations
Mádl made his debut as a director and screenwriter with the title Pojedeme k morí, which earned him three nominations for the Czech Lion and won several awards at international festivals. His second feature film was On the Roof, which won the main prize at the Mannheim festival, the audience prize at the Karlovy Vary festival and was nominated for the Czech Lion in seven categories. As an actor, Mádl first appeared in front of the camera in the film Snowboarders from 2004. He won the Czech Lion for his role in the film Modelář by Petr Zelenka.
Last year, the Czech Republic submitted the film Brothers directed by Tomáš Mašín, which tells the story of the escape of the Mašín brothers from Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. However, he did not make it to the shortlist.
So far, only two Czechoslovak and one Czech film have won the golden statuette of the American Academy, in the 60s of the last century Obchod na korze by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, two years later Jiří Menzel’s Watched Trains and Jan Svěrák’s Koljo in 1996.
Six other works made their way to the nominations: in the 1960s, they were Loves of a Blonde and Hoří má penenko directed by Miloš Forman, two decades later Vesničko má středisková by Jiří Menzel, and after the revolution the General School by Jan Svěrák, We have to help each other by Jan Hřebejka and Želary directed by Ondřej Trojan.
Václav Marhoul’s film The Painted Bird was selected for the Oscar shortlist in 2019, and Agnieszka Holland’s The Charlatan two years later. The Czech Film and Television Academy was founded in 1995 and has 405 members.
Video: Mafia practices of the government, censorship. I don’t understand that it’s coming back, says the star of the film Waves (September 10, 2024)
Spotlight moment: I was walking along the boulevard and ran into it, says Vodochodský | Video: Team Spotlight