The Czech Film Center’s activities at the 26th annual Finále Plzeň
Prague, 22 April 2013 – The Czech Film Center has expanded its activities this year at the festival of Czech films Finále Plzeň. In addition to the Czech/German evening of short films Fein.KOšt, which introduces a young generation of filmmakers, it has also contributed to the preparation of the extensive Industry Days programme in the form of two key activities. One of them is the catalogue of upcoming Czech films. Fifteen of these will be presented to the professional public at the festival. The second event is a panel discussion entitled Cooperation between MDR and Czech Television: Do We Share Common Stories? Here representatives of the German and Czech public TV broadcasters will talk about their newly-established cross-border cooperation.
The Czech Film Center will once again be presenting a fresh batch of new Czech short films at the Finále Plzeň festival. Apart from that, however, the most interesting short films from neighbouring Germany will also be presented in accordance with the orientation of this year’s festival. Under the name Fein.KOšt filmgoers in the Dance Hall in Měšťanská Beseda will see four films from this year’s collection Czech Short Films Vol. 4 together with five films from neighbouring Saxony on Thursday 25 April from 9 p.m.
The program is based on the series of successful evenings of short film, which the Czech Film Center has been showing for three years in Dresden together with Germany’s AG Kurzfilm, an association bringing together German film schools, festivals, short film distributors and other institutions from this area, and from the last fall in Prague as well. The name Fein.KOšt is a play on words as well as a paraphrase of the German phrase Feine Kurzfilme im Ost (or “Fine shorts in Ost cinema,” which is the cinema in Dresden in which the evenings in question are held). The Plzeň programme section is also the result of cooperation with AG Kurzfilm. It is also supported by German Films which, like the Czech Film Center here in the Czech Republic, is involved in the promotion of local titles in Germany. The short films that will be representing the Czech Republic include the animated short Ham Story by Eliška Chytková, Martina Nagyová’s live-action Paradigm and the documentary The Last Summer by Juraj Klaudíny. All of these titles were created at the Faculty of Multimedia Communications of Tomas Bata University in Zlín (FMK UTB). The last Czech representative is the animated film In vino veritas by Aneta Žabková Kýrová from Prague’s Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts. These films will be joined by a collection of five German shorts – Olaf Held’s live-action Short Film, the documentary Blueberries-černé jagody by Maja Nagel, Ralf Kukula’s animated Pretty Anna-Lena, the live-action On Wheels to the Horizon from Michael Chlebusch and Susann Maria Hempel’s experimental The World in Stillness Clouded. The Czech and German filmmakers will be presenting their films in person at the projection. More information about the films can be found in the attached pamphlet.
Panel discussion about new cooperation between Germany’s MDR and Czech Television
The traditional panel discussion reflecting the current news concerning Czech film and this year’s orientation on Germany will be appearing in the upcoming Industry Days programme. The professional discussion, which is meant for film professionals and journalists, will be on the theme: Cooperation between MDR and Czech Television: Do We Share Common Stories? The panellists representing the public broadcasters Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) and Czech Television will be talking about the newly-established cross-border cooperation, different television formats and possible joint projects. Jan Maxa (Czech Television’s Director of Programme Development and Programme Formats), Tomáš Baldýnský (Creative Producer for Czech Television’s Film Centre), Silke Heinz (MDR’s commissioning editor for Documentary work: Politics, Past and Present), Meike Götz (MDR’s commissioning editor for Television fiction, TV-series and Productions for Children) will be participating as panellists. The discussion will be held on Thursday, April 25th from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. in the LOUNGE (1st floor) of the Měšťanská Beseda in Plzeň and it will be moderated by the German producer and representative of German Films for Eastern Europe, Simone Baumann.
12th annual Presentation of New Czech Films and catalogue
The 12th presentation of fifteen film projects in various stages of preparation will take place on Friday April 26th from 11 a.m. in the Small Hall. Among the fifteen projects there will be an instersting mixture of genres and cooperation’s: The drama about the Mašín brothers, So Far So Good, directed by Tomáš Mašín, is being produced by the new company Film United from successful producer Rick McCallum, who also contributed to Episodes I to III of the Star Wars series. Václav Kadrnka’s second feature film Little Crusader will be presented in person by the director and screenwriter. Producer’s Kateřina Černá and Pavel Strnad from Negativ will be presenting the new film from director Andrea Sedláčková, Fair Play, which originated as a Czech-German-Slovak coproduction. Producer Julietta Sichel is coming with director Marta Nováková to present her second feature film 8 Heads of Madness, which has already started shooting. Nowhere, the debut of director Miroslav Krobot, which is being produced by Ondřej Zima from Evolution Films, will also be there. Producer Tomáš Vach is coming from the Ore Mountains directly from the filming of director Štěpán Altrichter’s graduate film Julius Schmitke, which managed to obtain Czech and German coproduction partners. In connection with Zoom: Germany the presentation will conclude with two projects that German producers looking for partners in the Czech Republic are coming to present.
This year’s Czech-English catalogue of Upcoming Czech films, the goal of which is the long-term mapping of the development of Czech feature and animated films, contains almost ninety Czech project currently under preparation. The catalogue contains complete information about the projects that are currently in the development, production or postproduction phases and serves year-round to promote Czech film, primarily abroad. It will be available at Finále Plzeň and then also in electronic format on the www.filmcenter.cz web pages.
Contact:
Jana Černík, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., tel: +420 724 329 949
Markéta Šantrochová, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., tel: +420 724 329 948
