Six nominations for the Czech Film Critics AWard, which will be handed out for the fifth time on 24 January at Prague’s Archa Theater, have been garnered by director Petr Václav’s film "The Way Out" (Cesta ven). Jiří Mádl’s debut "To See the Sea" (Pojedeme k moři) received five nominations and Andrea Sedláčková’s "Fair Play" received four.
All three films have made it into the running for the prestigious categories of Best Film, Best Direction and Best Screenplay. Klaudia Dudová, the actress who portrayed the main character in "The Way Out", has been nominated in two categories.
"The Way Out", directed by Petr Václav and produced by Jan Macola, Miloš Lochman and Karel Chvojka, tells the dramatic story of a young Romani woman looking to escape her life in an excluded community. "Fair Play", produced by Kateřina Černá and Pavel Strnad and directed by Andrea Sedláčková, returns to the topic of the abuses of doping in sports during the socialist regime.
Mádl’s film, "To See the Sea", produced by Miroslav Šmídmajer, is an insight into the apparently idyllic world of children which adult secrets then unpleasantly interfere with. Nominations for best documentary film include "Gottland", comprised of five separate shorts by hopeful directors from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), "Into the Clouds We Gaze" (K oblakům vzhlížíme) directed by Martin Dušek, and "The Magical Voice of a Rebel" by an iconic figure of Czech documentary film, Olga Sommerová.
The RWE Prize for Discovery of the Year is being competed for by the actor Jiří Mádl’s debut as a director and screenwriter for "To See the Sea"; by the main actress in the film "The Way Out", Klaudia Dudová; and by the director and screenwriter Tomáš Pavlíček for his original feature-length debut, "Totally Talking" (Parádně pokecal). Dudová is also nominated in the category of Best Peformance by an Actress.
Other films received nominations primarily for the best performance category, such as Tatiana Vilhelmová in the bitter comedy "Nowhere in Moravia" (Díra u Hanušovic). "This year’s nominations by Czech film critics were equally balanced when it came to Best Performance by an Actor, where there are also five nominations: Bolek Polívka for the film ‘Everyday Angels’ (Andělé všedního dne), Matěj Hádek in the love story ‘The Storyteller’ (Pohádkář), Martin Finger in the black comedy ‘The Beautiful’ (Krásno), Ondřej Nosálek in the romance ‘We2’ (My2) and Petr Šimčák from the film ‘To See the Sea’ (Pojedeme k moři)," Ms Donátová of the Czech Film Center said.
The films "Hany" and "Places" (Místa) were each nominated for best cinematography, by Martina Žiaranová and Jaromír Kačera, respectively. The Czech Film Critic Awards will be presented at the Archa by moderator Václav Moravec for the second year in a row.
Czech Television channel 2 will broadcast the ceremony live. The awards are given by a professional organization of film journalists and publicists.
Voting for nominees takes place in two rounds. Amost 50 members of the Association of Czech Film Critics voted during the first round.
The results will also be published on the association’s website. The Czech Film Critics Award has been given to dozens of artists over the past four years.
Only two have received it twice, the cinematogrpaher Vladimír Smutný for the films "Kooky" (Kuky se vrací – 2010) and "Flower Buds" (Poupata – 2011) and the actress Simona Babčáková.
Babčáková won for her performances in the films "The Greatest Czechs" (Největší z Čechů – 2010) and "Long Live the Family" (Rodina je základ státu – 2011). The winners of the other, "competing" annual awards from the Czech Film and Television Academy, the Czech Lion (Český lev), will be announced in Prague’s Ruldofinum theater on 21 February.
