I. A Calendar»
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
2. 3.
The 18th Competition for Best Czech Advertisement – The Nutcracker 2009 (18. soutěž o nejlepší českou reklamu – Louskáček 2009), organized by the Art Director Club of the Czech Republic in collaboration with the Association of Communication Agencies in the Czech Republic (ASOCIACE KOMUNIKAČNÍCH AGENTUR ČR – AKA) and Association of Audiovisual Producers (Asociace producentů v audiovizi – APA), was held. For the awarded advertisements – see 18. soutěž o nejlepší českou reklamu – Louskáček 2009.
2. 3. - 14. 4.
At the University Gallery in Plzeň (Czech Republic) an exhibition was held entitled Behind the Scenes of the Feature-Length Puppet Fairytale In the Attic or Who Has a Birthday Today? The film’s creator, Jiří Barta, working since 2010 at the Institute of Art and Design of the West Bohemian University (Západočeská univerzita v Plzni), displayed at it his designs, decorations, puppets and other props used in the film.
3. 3.
Prague’s Lucerna cinema hosted the opening ceremony of the Czech feature film Market Chalet (Jarmareční bouda, 2010) by director Pavel Dražan.
3. - 5. 3.
The 12th coproduction forum of feature-length animated films – Cartoon Movie was held in Lyon (France). Fifty projects in various stages of development were presented – from concepts, project in development, films in production and even finished films. Three Czech films were among them – Jiří Barta’s combined feature and animated film In the Attic or Who Has a Birthday Today? (Na půdě aneb Kdo má dneska narozeniny?/Na povale alebo Kto má dnes narodeniny?, 2009, CR – SR – Japan) and the Hurvínek in Film (Hurvínek ve filmu) projects by Rolling Pictures (ROLLING PICTURES spol. s r.o.) and Tales from Gingerland (Příběhy ze Zázvorové země, dir. Tomáš Hubáček, 2013).
3. - 6. 3.
The 7th annual International Festival of Student Films – Zlín’s Dog 2010 (7. mezinárodní festival studentských filmů – Zlínský pes 2010) was held in Zlín (Czech Republic). The main theme of this year's festival was the book by English writer Lewis Carrol (27. 1. 1832 – 14. 1. 1898) Alice Adventures in Wonderland. The reason for this was its new 3D adaptation by American director Tim Burton entitled Alice in Wonderland (2010). The festival’s organizers prepared several known film interpretations of the Carrol novel, including Alice (1987, Switzerland) by Czech director Jan Švankmajer. The cycle that traditionally represents as the festival a retrospective of selected nation's films this year focused on French animation. A total of 63 films were entered in four competition categories. The most were entered in the classic animation section, there was also an abundance of films in the computer animation section. The category of feature films from the Visegrad countries featured seven films – all from the Czech Republic – and six films competed in the documentary category. Two awards remained in Zlín – see 7. mezinárodní festival studentských filmů – Zlínský pes 2010.
5. - 13. 3.
The Byron Bay Film Festival was held in Byron Bay (Australia). The Czech 3-D animated short film Tele-vision (r. Matthieu Jorrot, David Toušek, 2010) produced by Bohemian Multimedia, spol. s r.o. had its premiere here. It was made in collaboration between this studio and the French director Matthieu Jorrot. The production and 3-D animation itself was exclusively Czech. Individuals from Canada, Norway, Sweden, Spain and France helped with the design of figurines, the direction, music and sound effects and partly even with the modelling of 3D objects.
5. - 15. 3.
The 14th International Film Festival in took place in Sofia (Bulgaria). In the section of documentary works the international jury, chaired by Czech director Jan Šikl, awarded as the best film the Czech-Slovak-Austrian co-production Cooking History (Jak se vaří dějiny/Ako sa varia dejiny, 2009) directed by Peter Kerekes. The award entails not only financial remuneration but also an offer of Bulgarian National Television to purchase the rights to broadcast the film. The film was also the film of the month in Spain and in Chile.
6. 3.
Lucerna’s Large Hall in Prague was the venue for the 17th Annual Czech Lion Awards ceremony for films of 2009 (17. výroční ceny Český lev 2009). The ceremony was moderated by mime, actor and playwright Boleslav Polívka and actor Pavel Liška. For the awards – see 17. výroční ceny Český lev 2009.
9. - 31. 3.
The 4th film festival Europe around Europe was held in Paris (France) where the Czech-Slovak-Austrian documentary film Cooking History (Jak se vaří dějiny/Ako sa varia dejiny, dir. Peter Kerekes, 2009) was screened.
10. - 14. 3.
Stockholm (Sweden) held the 10th Tempo Documentary Film Festival. The festival’s programme included a screening of the Czech-Slovak-Austrian film Cooking History (Jak se vaří dějiny/Ako sa varia dejiny, dir. Peter Kerekes, 2009).
10. 3. - 16. 4.
The 12th International Festival of Documentary Films on Human Rights – One World 2010 (12. mezinárodní festival dokumentárních filmů o lidských právech – Jeden svět 2010) took place in Prague. The festival’s centre in Prague was, as traditionally, Lucerna cinema, with films also screened in the cinemas Světozor, Evald and Atlas, at the French Institute, the Municipal Library (MĚSTSKÁ KNIHOVNA V PRAZE) and at Archa Theatre. This year’s festival opened with the Iranian film Green Days (2009). Its director, twenty-one-year-old Iranian Hana Mahmalbaf, who had to leave her country or face arrest, received the Courage Award for her film at the International Film Festival in Venice 2009. In addition to Prague, the festival took place at various times in another 29 towns and cities of the Czech Republic till 16. 4. Altogether 101 documentaries from 30 countries were shown. The programme traditionally consists of two competition categories – the Main Competition and You Have a Right to Know – and several thematic categories such as: Focus on Iran, Green Appeals, Panorama, Tolerance – Intolerance, Through a Woman’s Voice, In Pursuit of My Dreams and Czech Documentaries. International juries decide on the winners in the competition categories. Viewers of the One World festival had in 2010 the opportunity to see select documentaries on-line via streaming on the Czech Television (ČESKÁ TELEVIZE) website from 15. 2. to 31. 3. Films for secondary and basic school students were also screened in all towns and cities where the festival was held. A new feature of this year's festival was the programme How Do You Get Your Audience?, which allowed anyone to actively become involved in circulating One World documentary films. Thanks to educational projects, the festival films are also incorporated in the tuition programmes at Czech basic and secondary schools. The One World festival is now also trying to have documentaries dealing with human rights included in the tuition system on the tertiary level of Czech education. The objective of the History, Film and Human Rights project is to create original seminars led by students of master-degree and doctorate programmes of humanities departments to work with One World documentary films to contribute to a reflection on matters concerning the violation of human rights through a human perspective. A two-day seminar for project participants was held during the festival. Each year People in Need (Člověk v tísni, o. p. s.) presents the Homo Homini award to individuals who merit it for asserting human rights, democracy and a non-violent solution to political conflicts. For 2009 this award went to Madzhid Tavakoli and Abdullah Momeni, imprisoned Iranian student leaders and symbolically along with them to the Iranian pro-reform student movement spanning two generations. For awarded Czech films – see 12. mezinárodní festival dokumentárních filmů o lidských právech – Jeden svět 2010.
11. 3.
The Prague Divadlo Na Jezerce theatre hosted the premiere of the play Divided We Fall (Musíme si pomáhat) that Petr Jarchovský and Jan Hřebejk made a theatre version of based on theirs eponymous film (2000). Jan Hřebejk also directed the theatre performance. The leading role of Čížek was played by Jiří Macháček whose wife was played by Lenka Vlasáková and Miroslav Vladyka played the role of Horst.
11. - 13. 3.
Conspiracy theories, religious manipulation, medial lies, political and corporation games were the subjects of Cinema Conspiracy – screening of conspiracy films, held at Aero cinema in Prague. The three day festival offered films divided into section entitled It’s Not Really Like that, Manipulation of Faith and the Zeitgeist Day. The first section included the film The Worlds Greatest Conspiracy Theories (dir. Eamon O‘Connor, 2004, Great Britain) and video The Obama Deception: The Mast Comes Off (dir. Alex Jones, 2009, USA). The second section featured the film Religulous (dir. Larry Charles, 2008, USA) based on the satirical view that religion is a serious breakdown of thought. In the next film The Root of All Evil? (dir. Russell Barnes, 2006, Great Britain) Oxford professor Dawkins explains why religion is the root of all evil. A unique event was held on 13. 3. as part of Cinema Conspiracy. On that day fans of the film Zeitgeist (from the German Spirit of the Times) came together at different places around the world. The basis of this worldview is an understanding of the integrity and correlation of all elements to that which people call life). They expressed their support for the search from new alternative views and approaches to politics, economics, society and the environment. The programme included a screening of the film Zeitgeist: Addendum (dir. Peter Joseph, 2008, USA), discussions and talks on major themes.
13. - 21. 3.
Viewers of the Internet film portal www.docalliancefilms.com were able to see documentary films nominated or awarded at The 17th Annual Czech Lion Awards 2009 (17. výroční ceny Český lev 2009). The portal’s operators offered the free streaming of the films Auto*Mate (Auto*Mat, 2007) by director Martin Mareček, Citizen Havel Rolls Another Barrel (Občan Havel přikuluje, 2009) by directors Jan Novák and Adam Novák, and the film Welcome to North Korea! (Vítejte v KDLR!, 2009) by Linda Jablonská and a twenty-minute sample from the documentary Forgotten Transports – To Poland (Zapomenuté transporty – Do Polska, dir. Lukáš Přibyl, 2009). The film was rewarded with the prize of Czech film critics and a Czech Lion for best documentary film of 2009.
17. 3.
The Czech feature film Women in Temptation (Ženy v pokušení, 2010) by director Jiří Vejdělek had its ceremonial premiere in eight screening rooms of the CineStar Anděl multiplex in Prague.
17. - 20. 3.
Bratislava (Slovak Republic) hosted the 3rd annual International Festival of Student Films Early Melons 2010. The programme featured many student films created in the Czech Republic, not only in the separate block entitled Czech Student Film, but also in another programme section. Films screened in the Czech Student Film block included those by Lenka Zemanová, Silvia Šiveňová, Matej Mazák, Denisa Faltýnková, Eva Delinčáková, Robert Hloz, Ľubica Sopková, Jitka Svozilová, Vojtěch Dudek, Martin Jůza, Veronika Mikalová and Jan Brož.
18. - 23. 3.
The 34th International Film Festival was held in Cleveland (USA). The festival’s programme included a screening of the Czech-Slovak-Austrian film Cooking History (Jak se vaří dějiny/Ako sa varia dejiny, dir. Peter Kerekes, 2009).
19. 3.
Czech Television (ČESKÁ TELEVIZE) announced the results of Czech Television’s 4th annual screen First Good competition designated for Czech film school students. First Prize was not awarded, second prize went to the screenplay of The Man from the Stage (Muž z jeviště) by Josef Tuka, a student of Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Filmová a televizní fakulta Akademie múzických umění v Praze).
19. - 21. 3.
Veselí nad Moravou (Czech Republic) held its Seminar of Iranian Films (Seminář íránských filmů). Each year the seminar provides film audiences with the chance to see films of a country that are rarely shown. This year’s seminar was devoted to Iranian film. There were 14 feature length films and two documentaries screened. Audiences could have seen some of the films at various film festivals, others were screened on cinemas or broadcast on television. Other films were provided by the Iranian Embassy. Better known Iranian works were represented by films such as Ta’m e guilass (dir. Abbás Kiárostamí, 1997) introduced in Czech film distribution, a novelty was the psychological thriller Hamoun (dir. Dariush Mehrjui, 1990). The seminar also included an exhibition of photographs by Jiří Sladký from Iran and his lecture, and a performance of the Iranian music group Hamdel that plays traditional Iranian music.
19. 3. - 22. 9.
The 13th Days Frankofonie 2010 (13. dny Frankofonie 2010) which the Czech Republic celebrates along with other members of the European Union, were held. The days culminated with the Francophonia Festival organized by representatives of the France offices and other Francophone countries and held in Prague and other regions of the Czech Republic. The festival's central theme was “development”, the main genre was animated film and the documentary programme. The National Film Archive’s Ponrepo screening hall at Bio Konvikt in Prague (Národní filmový archiv) presented on 19. 3. as part of these days two French films: Rue cases negres (1983, France) by Euzhan Palcy and Le Point de jour (1948) by director Louis Daquin.
20. 3.
Actors Assocation (Herecká asociace) presented the Thálie Awards for 2009 (Cena Thálie 2009) at the National Theatre in Prague. For results – see Cena Thálie 2009.
21. 3.
An award for intellectual freshness and openness to all thing news was presented in Most (Czech Republic) at the Young for Young festival to Czech theatre and film actress Luba Skořepová.
24. 3. - 27. 4.
The Lucerna cinema and Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Prague hosted the Bulgarian Film Days. An exhibition of film posters was opened in both venues. The dozen of films included feature, documentary, animated and experimental films. The screening opened with the film by Stefan Komandarev Svetat e golyam i spasenie debne otvsyakde from 2008. It was made in co-production with Bulgaria, Germany, Slovenia and Hungary and received six of the ten festival prizes. The Bulgarian Film Days also included a meeting of Bulgarian filmmakers with FAMU (Filmová a televizní fakulta Akademie múzických umění v Praze) students and a concert of Bulgarian film music.
25. 3. - 16. 4.
Prague and other cities in the Czech Republic (6. – 16. 4.) hosted the The 17th International Screening of Film, Television and Video – FEBIOFEST 2010 (17. mezinárodní přehlídka filmu, televize a videa – FEBIOFEST 2010). The centre of the Prague festival was the Cinestar Anděl multiplex, although films were also screened at Lucerna and Ponrepo – the screening hall of the National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv) at Bio Konvikt. The broadly conceived programme included films of all genres, lengths and formats and brought a selection of the most interesting works made around the world in 2009. There were retrospectives and profiles of filmmakers, the thematic sections the Cinema of personalities, Asian cinema, Latin American cinema, Gay and Lesbian films, Iranian films, experimental films Against the Current, New Polish films, FEBIOFEST Junior – films with children in leading roles, new European films and others. The festival was visited by major film personalities, including German actress Hanna Schygulla, the recent recipient of an “honourable” Golden Bear from Berlinale 2010 for lifelong achievement. She introduced at the Febiofest her older film Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1978, Germany) shot by Reiner Werner Fassbinder (31. 5. 1945 – 10. 6. 1982), with whom she often worked. At the 17th MFF FEBIOFEST (17. mezinárodní přehlídka filmu, televize a videa – FEBIOFEST 2010). Hanna Schygulla received a Kristián award for lifelong achievement. The same award went to Swiss actor Bruno Ganz and British director Hugh Hudson. Other foreign guests included German director Sherry Hormann, French director Gaspar Noé and Slovak actor Martin Huba. One festival sidebar was the exhibition on Polish-French film director Roman Polanski consisting of photographs from his films and work films. The Febiofest Music Festival presented over forty concerts and performances of groups. The Grand Prix of the FEBIOFEST Junior, held concurrently, was formed by people from all areas of Czech society and choosing from European competition films on the Turkish-German film by director Miraz Bezar Min dit: The Children of Diyarbakir, 2010, Germany – Turkey). FEBIOFEST was held in Slovakia on (26. 3. – 27. 4.). For the awarding of Czech films – see 17. mezinárodní přehlídka filmu, televize a videa – FEBIOFEST 2010.
26. 3.
The 2nd Annual Slovak awards of the ASFK (Assocation of Slovak Film Clubs) were announced. The best club film of 2009 went to Marko Škop’s film Osadné Village (Osadné) shot in Slovak-Czech co-production.
27. 3.
The results of the TýTý – Týdeník Televize reader’s poll of the favourite TV personalities and programmes for 2009 were announced. For results in the individual categories – see TýTý – anketa čtenářů Týdeníku Televize o nejoblíbenější tváře a pořady obrazovky za rok 2009
31. 3.
The awards of the Slovak film critics for 2010 given by the Club of Film Journalists of the Association of Slovak Journalists for audiovisual works, publication activities and film distribution for 2009 were awarded in Bratislava (Slovak Republic). The award for a feature-length Slovak or co-production film for the cinema went ex aequo to the films Broken Promise (Nedodržený slib/Nedodržaný sľub, 2009) shot by director Jiří Chlumský in Czech-Slovak co-production and Peace in the Soul (Pokoj v duši, 2009) by director Vladimír Balko that was also created in Czech-Slovak co-production. For Slovak feature-length and medium-length film journalists awarded ex aequo the films Cooking History (Jak se vaří dějiny/Ako sa varia dejiny, dir. Peter Kerekes, 2009, CR – SR – Austria) and Osadné Village (Osadné, dir. Marko Škop, 2009, SR – CR). The Slovak film critics’ awards were announced for the eighteenth time.