Waves by Jiří Mádl will fight for the Czech Republic to win an Oscar

Tuesday, 10th September, 2024

Prague, 10^th Sept 2024 – Every year the members of the Czech Film and Television Academy (ČFTA), which is also behind the annually awarded Czech Lions, vote about the candidate of the Czech Republic for the Oscar in the category of the Best International Feature Film. To fight for the prestigious award in the 97^th annual awards of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the academics have chosen the film Waves by the screen writer and director Jiří Mádl. The period drama commemorates the events of the fatal year of 1968 when the former Czechoslovakia was occupied by the armies of the Warsaw Pact within the framework of the so-called comradely help. The film is inspired by a true story of a group of journalists from the international editorial office of the Czech Radio and their determination to publish independent news for any price. The world premiere of this film was at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It was officially released in the cinemas on 15^th August where it has so far been seen by more than 350 thousand viewers.

The voting of the academics about the candidate for the Oscar took place from 30^th August to 8^th September and the academics were choosing from 13 Czech feature films submitted by their producers. Just behind the film Waves there were the films Girl America and Our Lovely Pig Slaughter (mentioned in the alphabetical order).

The ceremonial gala evening of the 97^th annual awards of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences will take place on 2^nd March 2025. The shortlist of the 15 selected international films will be published by the Academy on 17^th December of this year and the nominations will be revealed on 17^th January 2025.

In his so far most ambitious film Jiří Mádl uncovers the real events of that period in a baleful spy thriller about the importance of the family, about the fight for freedom and about one recording that can change the course of history. At the time of Prague Spring the journalistic icons of the well-known editorial office of the international events of the Czech Radio are led by Milan Weiner and they are joined by Tomáš, who is taking care for his underage brother after the loss of their parents. However, he is not aware of the fact that the reporters here are targeted by the secret police. Tomáš then has to face the difficult dilemma if he is to endanger his brother or to lose his face and moral integrity. The director chose Vojtěch Vodochodský to play the lead role and there were also Stanislav Majer, Martin Hofmann, Vojtěch Kotek, Táňa Pauhofová or Marika Šoposká cast for the film. Jiří Mádl had been working on this film for more than 10 years.

Jiří Mádl made his debut as the director and screen writer with the film To See the Sea, which earned three nominations for the Czech Lion Awards and obtained a number of awards at international film festivals. His second feature film is the movie On the Roof, which won the main award at the International Film Festival in Mannheim and also the award of the audience at the MFF Karlovy Vary and has been nominated for the Czech Lion awards in seven categories in total. As an actor Mádl appeared in front of the camera for the first time in the film Snowboarders in 2004. He was further cast in the film by Michaela Pavlátová called Night Owls, Four Suns by Bohdan Sláma or Wolf from the Royal Vineyard Street by Jan Němec. For his performance in the film Droneman by Petr Zelenka Mádl was awarded the Czech Lion. Jiří Mádl has also been cast in a number of foreign productions, for example in the film The Play by Alejandro Fernández Almendras, Die Ermittlung by Rolf Peter Kahl or Charlotte, eine von uns by Rolando Colla.

Last year the academics chose the film Brothers directed by Tomáš Mašín as the candidate for the Oscar for the Czech Republic. So far only two Czechoslovak and one Czech film have managed to obtain the iconic golden statuette award of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: The Shop on Main Street (1965) by Ján Kádár and Elmar Klos, two years later the film Closely Watched Trains by Jiří Menzel and Kolya (1996) by Jan Svěrák. Six more films have managed to get among the nominees: The Loves of a Blond (1966) and The Firemen’s Ball (1968) by Miloš Forman, My Sweet Little Village (1986) by Jiří Menzel, The Elementary School (1991) by Jan Svěrák, Divided We Fall (2000) by Jan Hřebejk and the last time Želary (2003) by Ondřej Trojan. Shortlisted for the Oscar was in 2019 the film by Václav Marhoul The Painted Bird and two years later the movie by Agnieszka Holland called Charlatan.