I. A Calendar»
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
3. 1.
The European Commission based in Brussels proposed the creation of a unified market for online music, films and games. Viviane Reading, the Commissioner for The Information Society and Media, issued a declaration stating that the commission will propose the creation of a unified market in this sector. The rapidly developing sector suffers from individual countries having various regulatory measures and the fact that no clear regulations exist to protect copyrights. In the future, the European Commission wants to focus on four main areas in which it would be appropriate to make changes. It wants to improve accessibility of online content, ease the licensing of this content, initiate greater cooperation in work on the mechanism that would allow better copyright protection including fair division of income for the creators of online content and to find solutions to Internet piracy.
3. 1.
The Czech-American co-production documentary film, Jan Saudek – Trapped by His Passions, No Hope for Rescue (Jan Saudek – v pekle svých vášní, ráj v nedohlednu, dir. Adolf Zika, 2007, CR – USA) premiered at Palace Cinemas Slovanský dům in Prague.
4. 1.
The last single screen cinema in Prague finished its existence with the screening of the Czech feature Václav (dir. Jiří Vejdělek, 2007). According to spokesperson Markéta Aulova, the closure of the cinema Sigma in Prague-Spořilov was brought about by long-term low attendance and the fact that the cinema was only able to operate with aid provided by the city.
7. 1.
Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová and Irish musician Glen Hansard received The Critics Choice award – a prize awarded by the BFCA (The Broadcast Film Critics Association) for the best song Falling Slowly from the film Once (dir. John Carney, 2007, Ireland – USA).
8. 1.
The Czech feature film, It's Gonna Get Worse (...a bude hůř, dir. Petr Nikolaev, 2007) went into distribution in Czech cinemas. The film, adapted from the novel of the same name by Jan Pelc, had been showing, in a non-traditional manner, from 7. 3. 2007, in clubs and pubs.
9. 1.
Two premiere screenings of the Czech comedy film, Wedding on the Battlefield (Svatba na bitevním poli, dir. Dušan Klein, 2008), took place at the Prague Lucerna cinema.
9. 1. - 3. 2.
The Cultural Centre in Brno put on an exhibition dedicated to the life and work of local writer Bohumil Hrabal (28. 3. 1914 – 3. 2. 1997) in the historic spaces of the Old City Hall (Bohumil Hrabal was born in Brno-Židenice). The pictures capture Hrabal’s childhood, life in the Prague Libeň neighbourhood and at his cottage in Kersko, meetings with famous personalities and the writer’s old age. A separate group of photographs consisted of photos from the film and theatre adaptations of Hrabal’s works. The photographs were created by well-known photographers such as Václav Chochola (31. 1. 1923 – 27. 8. 2005), Taras Kuščynskij (25. 5. 1932 – 27. 12. 1983) and even the curator of the exhibit, Hana Hamplová along with anonymous photographers. Visitors were also able to see the film A Day with Bohumil Hrabal (Den s Bohumilem Hrabalem) shot by Tomáš Mazal in 1994, which was shown consecutively at the exhibition. A series of screenings of the film adaptations of Hrabal’s works in the city’s Scala cinema, taking place from 25. – 29. 2., contributed to the complete portrait of the artist’s work. In addition to Hrabal’s novels adapted by director Jiří Menzel, there were also showings of the films Angel Eyes (Andělské oči, dir. Dušan Klein, 1994) and Pearls at the Bottom (Perličky na dně, dir. Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec, Evald Schorm, Věra Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš, 1965). The show was supplemented by the mid-length films A Dull Afternoon (Fádní odpoledne, dir. Ivan Passer, 1964), and Cruelties of Life (Sběrné surovosti, dir. Juraj Herz, 1965).
10. 1.
The vault film Images of an Old World (Obrazy starého světa, 1972, Czechoslovakia) launched the 14th annual travelling presentation Project 100 – 2008 (10. 1. – 31. 5. 2008) at the Aero cinema with the attendance, in person, of its creator, Slovak director Dušan Hanák. The organizers of the Project 100 have included the films Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (dir. Werner Herzog, 1972, Germany), Un chien andalou (dir. Luis Buñuel, 1928, France), Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (dir. Robert Wiene, 1920, Germany), Plac Zbawiciela (dir. Joanna Kos-Krauze, Krzysztof Krauze, 2006, Poland), Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (dir. Luis Buñuel, 1972, France), The New World, (dir. Terrence Malik, 2005, USA), La Montaña sagrada (dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973, Mexico – USA), Du levande (dir. Roy Andersson, 2007, Sweden), Zabriskie Point (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1969, USA) and Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand (dir. Bahman Ghobadi, Iran – France – Iraq, 2004), a war drama that was the first film to be shot in Iraq following the fall of Sadam Hussein. 13. 9. – 31. 12. Project 100 – 2008 continued in Slovakia.
13. 1.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Los Angeles (USA) awarded a Golden Globe for Best Actress in theMusical/Comedy category to French actress Marion Cotillard for the lead role in the French-British-Czech co-production La Môme/Edith Piaf (dir. Olivier Dahan, 2007). The announcement of the laureates for the 65th jubilee year took place at a press conference, as the traditional ceremony was cancelled due to the Hollywood screenwriters strike.
15. 1.
Jan and Zdeněk Svěráks presented a preview screening of their film, Empties (Vratné lahve, dir. Jan Svěrák, 2007, CR – Great Britain – Denmark) in person in Potsdam (Germany) at the Thalia Arthouse cinema.
15. - 17. 1.
The Millennium Gallery in Prague held an exhibition entitled The World of Jiří Brdečka and His Friends. At the opening, the life and work of the screenwriter, director, prose stylist, film critic and journalist Jiří Brdečka (14. 12. 1917 – 2. 6. 1982) was brought closer to the public in text form by his daughter, publicist Tereza Brdečková. The exhibition which the gallery prepared for what would have been the artist’s 90th birthday, displayed photographs of his friends and colleagues, scenes from his apartment along with sculpture and costume designs for his films. Brdečka’s animated films were shown during the exhibition at the Millennium Gallery.
17. - 27. 1.
The Sundance Film Festival, a film festival of international independent films, was held in Park City, Utah. Czech actress and member of the Těšín Theater company, Kristýna Maléřová, attended. Maléřová starred in the film Absurdistan (dir. Veit Helmer, 2008, Germany), which was included among the films competing at the festival. The film was the first major film role for Maléřová. The film was shot over a period of two months in Azerbaijan and Georgia. It was not, however, one of the festival films to receive an award.
18. 1.
The National Film Archive presented a series of documentary films at its Ponrepo screening hall at Bio Konvikt on the occasion of the 80th birthday of director Zdeněk Kopáč (20. 1. 1928) that included, among others, the films Mozart’s Fantasy (Mozartova fantazie, 1967) and Double Trial (Dvojí proces, 1962).
21. - 27. 1.
The 43rd year of the International Film Festival in Soluthurn took place at which the film Prager Botschaft (dir. Lutz Konermann, 2007, Germany) was shown. It is an experimental film about reflections of the past and capturing the turning point of an epoch in September 1989, when the Czech metropolis was flooded with East German emigrants with the hopes that they would be able to get to the West through the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Prague.
23. 1.
The winners in the second round of the RWE Transgas Film Foundation & Barrandov Studio competition were announced in Prague. The foundation honoured the script Light as a Breath (Lehká jako dech), by Anna Mikulková, anattendee of the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. The script deals with the problem of anorexia. In the film stories category, the chamber drama of screenwriter Anna Vovsová, The Short and Long Road (Krátká a dlouhá cesta), and a story called Time Enough Until Midnight (Do půlnoci času dost) by Ctibor Rybár both received grants. Kateřina Vašků, a student of the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno, was also among the finalists, with the screenplay One Underlined (Jedna podtržená).
23. 1.
The opening ceremony of the feature film At Your Own Risk (Na vlastní nebezpečí, dir. Filip Renč, 2008, CR – Romania) took place at Village Cinemas Anděl multiplex in Prague.
24. 1.
A show of Czech-German Film Heritage commenced at the National Film Archive’s Ponrepo screening hall at Bio Konvikt in Prague with the film Der Mädchenkrieg (dir. Alf Brustellin and Bernard Sinkel, 1976, Germany).
25. - 29. 1.
The Magic Eight Film Festival took place at the Ořechovka cinema with the participation of the City of Prague 6. The Magic Eight in the Czech 20th Century History, reflecting the hopes as well as sad events, dedicated to the years ending in the number 8, as recorded by Czech cinematography. The festival programme included, among others, screenings of the film The Stolen Frontier (Uloupená hranice, dir. Jiří Weiss, 1947), The Victorious People (Vítězný lid, dir. Vojtěch Trapl, 1977), The Joke (Žert, dir. Jaromil Jireš, 1968), All Good Countrymen (Všichni dobří rodáci, dir. Vojtěch Jasný, 1968), The Star Called Wormwood (Hvězda zvaná Pelyněk, dir. Martin Frič, 1964) and documentary film Elective Affinities (Spřízněni volbou, dir. Karel Vachek, 1968). Accompanying the festival was an exhibition of period political satire in the cinema’s foyer.
26. 1.
In Beroun (CR) at the Mír cinema, the 8th annual TRILOBIT Beroun 2007, Vladislav Vančura Prize and Honourable Mention FITES – Czech Film and Television Union, Czech Literary Fund Foundation and the Town Beroun for Original Czech Film and Television Works were held, at which the prizes were given to the creators of original Czech film and television work. Winners were chosen by a seven-member jury, FITES – Czech Film and Television Union, led by Zuzana Kopečková. MC for the evening was actress and chanson singer Ester Kočičková. FITES – Czech Film and Television Union awarded the Vladislav Vančura award to screenwriter and director Petr Weigl for lifelong achievement at home and abroad for his award-winning artistic development of musical dramatic form in film and television. At the ceremony FITES also announced the recipients of TRILOBIT anniversary awards for original domestic work in film and television. Director Petr Nikolaev received an award for his film It's Gonna Get Worse (...a bude hůř, 2007). A TRILOBIT award also went to the group of authors Tomáš Kudrna, Kateřina Volná and Erik Tabery for their attempt at concrete critical analysis of the development and state of the domestic political scene in recent years in their documentary film Governing, Don’t Disturb! (Vládneme, nerušit!, dir. Tomáš Kudrna, 2007). An award also went to documentary filmmaker, Lukáš Přibyl for his personal contribution to the filling in the blanks in historical memory with his four part documentary series Forgotten Transports (Zapomenuté transporty, 2007 – 2008), which bears witness to the deportation of Jews to the Baltics, and to Petra Všelichová for the mid-length television documentary film Name of the Crime (Zločin jménem Katyň, 2007), in which she raises awareness regarding one of the greatest crimes of recent history and gives testimony to the political-historic hypocrisy of the world. A TRILOBITE was awarded to documentary filmmaker and screenwriter Pavel Koutecký (10. 6. 1956 – 13. 4. 2006) In memoriam and Jaroslav Hovorka for the final segment that is about the background of the music festival Written for Prague Spring, Opus No. 3 (Psáno pro Pražské jaro, Opus 3, 2007), which follows the creation of a piece of art as a merging of talent, humility and hard work of artists and performers with a deep understanding for the creative act. The jury gave a special award to Čestmír Kopecký for his many years of inventive production work, without which current Czech film and television would be missing numerous creative steps. Honourable mention awards were given to director Ladislav Kaboš for the documentary Friends for Death (Kamarádky na smrt, 2007), Pavel Štingl for the documentary portrait of Boris Rösner (25. 1. 1951 – 31. 5. 2006), shot during the last three years of the actor’s life and entitled Boris Rösner’s Theatre of Crazy Dramas (Divadlo bláznivých dramat Borise Rösnera, 2006), Alena Činčerová for the television documentary Farmers (Sedláci, 2007) and Ljuba Václavová and Jiří Václav together with geologist Václav Cílek for their original method of refreshing historical memory through the form of documentary essay entitled, Tree-Lined Paths as Part of Our Countryside (Aleje jako součást naší krajiny, dir. Ljuba Václavová, 2007).
30. 1.
The premiere of the Czech period-transgressing feature-length documentary Citizen Havel (Občan Havel, dir. Pavel Koutecký, Miroslav Janek, 2008), took place at the Palace Cinemas Slovanský dům in Prague.
30. 1.
Irena Ondrová, the mayor of Zlín (CR) announced that the Zlín City Hall has decided to preserve the operation of the Velké Cinema and the Květen cinema in Zlín-Malenovice even following the April opening of the first multiplex in the Zlín region which became a part of the multi-function Golden Apple centre, built in the centre of the city. The Velké Cinema is a protected historic building, built by the Baťa company in Zlín in 1932. The original capacity of the cinema exceeded 2, 500 seats. The current number of seats, 1, 010, places this cinema among the largest cinemas in the Czech Republic.
31. 1. - 6. 2.
A screening of current Scandinavian films took place at the Evald cinema in Prague. The show was divided into three programme sections. The Debut section was dedicated to beginning directors whose films received awards at international festivals. The Masters section presented films by renowned directors and the Women’s View section focused on the work of female directors. Among the films presented were the titles Nói albínói (dir. Dagura Kári, 2003, Iceland), Laitakaupungin valot (dir. Aki Kaurismäki, 2006, Finland – Germany – France) and Italiensk for begyndere (dir. Lone Scherfigová, 2000, Denmark).