The Czech Lion will sweep through Rudolfinum on 6th March

Monday, 7th December, 2020

The annual awards of the Czech Film and Television Academy (CFTA) symbolized by the statuettes of the Czech Lion will head off to the hands of film makers on Saturday 6^th March 2021 in Dvořák’s Hall of Prague’s Rudolfinum for the twenty-eighth time. The Czech Television will traditionally broadcast the ceremonial gala evening live for their audience at CT1 channel at 20:10 pm. The host of the gala evening will be Václav Kopta for the third time. The time proven trio of the supervising director Marek Najbrt, the director of the gala evening Michael Čech and the stage designer Martin Chocholoušek will again keep a tight yet creative enough rein on the evening.

The Czech Lion enters its 28^th year with the visual by the Formaat studio. The nominations for the awards of the Czech Film and Television Academy for the year of 2020 will be announced on 18^th January 2021. The voting of the members of the academy started last week. You can find more information on the website www.ceskylev.cz.

The annual Czech Lion awards will be presented in altogether 21 categories in the upcoming year. In March next year, during the ceremonial gala evening the statuette of the Czech Lion can be newly awarded to the filmmakers of animated as well as short films. There are also some changes in the categories for television projects. The authors of television films, miniseries and series can be newly awarded also in the categories for the best acting performances in the leading as well as supporting roles and also in other categories such as cinematography or music, which used to be until this year designed only for the producers of feature films or documentary features. Both television categories are now open also for the works of art distributed on the Internet. “Despite the fact that the year of 2020 has brought some totally unexpected changes to our lives, the Czech film production has got something to offer,” says the managing director of the CFTA Tereza Rychnovská and she further explains: “More than 300 respected film professionals evaluate 22 feature films, 7 animated films and 18 short films during the 28^th annual awards. Out of the total amount of 32 documentary features released this year the preselection committee consisting of the members of the academy has chosen 15 movies, out of which only 14 fulfil the statutes of this year’s annual awards due to the situation with closed cinema theatres. The academics will vote about this selection in the first round (see the overview below). The academics are also voting about ten television works of art.” The presidium of the CFTA consisting of fifteen members annually awards a unique contribution to Czech cinematography and can also award an exceptional feat in the area of audio-visual arts.

In March this year most of the statuettes for the year of 2019 went to the film The Painted Bird by Václav Marhoul, which was also shortlisted for the awards of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which presents the Oscars. Now the film is nominated for the European Film Awards in the category of the best film. The CFTA offers a selection of the successful films from Czech cinematography online on the website /www.ceskylev.cz/cz/filmy-online.

The scenario of the ceremonial gala evening is still shrouded in mystery. “Just as in the last couple of years, our evening will depend on the elegant performance of the reliable host Václav Kopta,” reveals the supervisor of the Czech Lions Marek Najbrt and he also adds: “The ceremony of the last year took place right before the outbreak of the covid madness here and in all Europe. That is why I would like this year ceremony to put a symbolic as well as ceremonial end to this difficult era.“ Václav Kopta will host the Czech Lions for the third time and he comments on his role in a humorous way again: “When I was hosting the ceremonial gala for the second time I could freely announce: You cannot enter the same river twice! I took the risk and didn’t drown! So in March 2021 I will go swimming for the third time and I will only hope that the saying Three times and you are out! will not come true either. I am looking forward to meeting all the filmmakers as well as fans … let’s hope that the swimming pool will be open!” The visual of the upcoming annual awards was created by the studio Formaat and for the first time the statuette of the Czech Lion does not play the leading role but this task in the new design was also given to Václav Kopta. The view of the empty cinema theatre in the visual is not a coincidence.

The Czech Lions could not be realized without the support of our stable partners. For a long time now, the general partner has been the mineral water Magnesia from the company Karlsbad Mineral Water, which is part of the Mattoni 1873 Group. The main partner is innogy, the reliable and long-lasting energy of the Czech film. The main media partner is the Czech Television. The glassworks Rückl where the statuettes of the Czech Lion are produced also belong to the family of our partners.

The tower of strength is for the Czech Lions the company Mattoni 1873. „Mattoni 1873 remains to be a proud partner of the Czech film again this year. The natural mineral water Magnesia has been the partner of the Czech Lion awards for eighteen years and for the sixteenth time this year it will boost the power of the Czech Lion by the campaign with the holders of this award. We are glad we can play a part and help young filmmakers during their take-off,“ says Alessandro Pasquale, the executive director of the company Mattoni 1873, which co-organizes the Magnesia Award for the best student film awarded at the Czech Lion gala evening.

“Last year a good quality filmmaking swept the board and we were pleased by the great success of the film The Painted Bird, which the company innogy coproduced. We hope that the trend of presenting the awards to films of a great quality will continue in the year of 2021. innogy will still provide reliable energy for the Czech films in any case. We are still prepared to help the Czech film. In the year 2020 three of our films were distributed in the cinemas. I am curious if we manage to obtain further nominations and maybe another Czech Lion will go to a film coproduced by us,” said Martin Chalupský, the director of communication in innogy in the Czech Republic.

The main media partner of the Czech Lions is the Czech Television, who also supports Czech cinematography significantly. “Last year, thirty-seven films in which Czech Television took part were premiered. Including the film The Painted Bird that dominated the Czech Lions as it won nine of them and is now going to fight for the European Film Award. This year we have managed, in spite of the pandemic, to present twenty-seven new feature films, documentary features as well as animated films. Among these was the historically most successful Czech documentary Caught in the Net, the feature film  Havel or the autobiographic drama Charlatan, which is sent to fight for an Oscar for the Czech Republic,” says the general director of the Czech Television Petr Dvořák and he adds: “Czech Television is simply the most important partner of the local film production and we do not slacken our key efforts to support Czech cinematography even in this unfavourable situation.”

OVEVIEW OF THE CATEGORIES OF THE CZECH LION ANNUAL AWARDS

1. best feature film
2. best director
3. best screenplay
4. best cinematography
5. best music
6. best film editing
7. best sound
8. best stage design
9. best costumes
10. best makeup and hairstyling
11. best actress in a leading role
12. best actor in a leading role
13. best actress in a supporting role
14. best actor in a supporting role
15. best documentary feature
16. best television film or miniseries
17. best television drama series
18. best animated film
19. best short film
20. unique contribution to Czech film
21. exceptional feat in the area of audio-visual arts

28^th CZECH LION – PRESELECTION OF DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

11 barev ptáčete (11 Colours of The Bird), directed by: Vojtěch Kopecký

Alchymická pec (Alchemical Furnace), directed by: Jan Daňhel, Adam Oľha

Český žurnál – Vojna Ztohoven (Czech Journal - Voina Ztohoven), directed by: Petra Nesvačilová

FREM (FREM), directed by: Viera Čákanyová

K2 vlastní cestou (K2: My Way), directed by: Jana Počtová

Kdo jinému jámu - Rudolf Slánský, directed by: Martin Vadas

Kiruna - překrásný nový svět (Kiruna - A Brand New World), directed by: Greta Stocklassa

Meky (Meky), directed by: Šimon Šafránek

Můj otec Antonín Kratochvíl (My Father Antonin Kratochvil), directed by: Andrea Sedláčková

Na krev (Blood, Sweat and Tears), directed by: Erik Knopp

Postiženi muzikou (Two Roads), directed by: Radovan Síbrt

Pouť krkonošská (Pilgrimage to the Mountains), directed by: Karel Čtveráček

V síti (Caught in the Net), directed by: Barbora Chalupová, Vít Klusák

Ztracený břeh (Lost Coast), directed by: Jiří Zykmund

28^th CZECH LION - SUBMITTED ANIMATED FILMS

Až na konci světa (At the End of the World), directed and main design by: Martin Kukal

Barevný sen (A Colourful Dream), directed and main design by: Jan Balej

Divoké bytosti (Wild Beasts), directed by: Marta Prokopová, Michal Blaško, main designer: Marta Prokopová

Jáma (The Pit), directed by: Markéta Smolíková Kubátová, main designer: Stanislav Sekela, Martin Pošta, Peter Harakaly

Jsme si o smrt blíž (Love Is Just a Death Away), directed and main design by: Bára Anna Stejskalová

Lístek (Leaf), directed and main design by: Aliona Baranova

Mlsné medvědí příběhy (Hungry Bear Tales), directed by: Kateřina Karhánková, Alexandra Májová, main designer: Filip Pošivač

28^th CZECH LION – SUBMITTED SHORT FILMS

Agent 00 Mise Palermo (Agent 00 Mission Palermo), directed by: Theodor Hoidekr

Anatomie českého odpoledne (Anatomy of a Czech Afternoon), directed by: Adam Martinec

Bonacha (Bonacha), directed by: Jan A. Václav

Co jsi říkal? (What Did You Say?), directed by: Jakub Volák

Dluh (Debt), directed by: Ondřej Novák

Hranice (Frontier), directed by: Damián Vondrášek

Muž, který připojil trinitrotoluenovou nálož k mixážnímu pultu (Man Who Connected Bomb to a Mixing Counter), directed by: Luboš Kučera

Perla (Watersprite), directed by: Jakub Kouřil

Pripyat Piano (Pripyat Piano), directed by: Eliška Cílková

PROJEKT (The Project), directed by: Josef Burant

Protihráč (Opponent), directed by: Ondřej Erban

Terezínské stíny (Shadows of Theresienstadt), directed by: Miloš Zvěřina

Trans*- Fipah (Trans*- Fipah), directed by: Filip Štoček, Štěpán Svoboda

Trans*- Viktor (Trans*- Viktor), directed by: Filip Štoček, Štěpán Svoboda

Visitor (Visitor), directed by: Pavel Bartovský

Vše nejlepší, lásko (Happy Birthday, My Love), directed by: Jana Nemčeková

Vyměnila jsem si směnu (Swithed Shifts), directed by: Luboš Kučera

Ženy, které nespí (Women Who Do Not Sleep), directed by: Jakub Dvořák