Renew: 12/09/2022 09:56
Issued by: 12/09/2022, 09:05

Prague – The Czech Academy of Film and Television (ČFTA) will send director and screenwriter Petr Václav Il Boemo to the Oscar competition in the Best Foreign Film category. Silvie Marková notified TK today on behalf of the academy. Narrative historical film featuring 18th-century Czech composer Josef Mysliveček. The film will have its world premiere in the main competition of the San Sebastian Film Festival, which kicks off on Friday. The film will be released in Czech theaters on October 20.

FTA, which is behind the awarding of the Czech Lion, selected academics from 15 Czech feature films and documentaries submitted by their producers. Petr Václav’s films are followed in alphabetical order by Victim directed by Michal Blašek and Světlonoc directed by Tereza Nvotová.

The Oscar shortlist of 15 foreign films will be announced on December 21, and the nominees will be announced on January 24, 2023. The 95th Academy Awards ceremony is set for March 12, 2023.

Director Petr Václav has been preparing the film Il Boemo for more than ten years and has written the script. It describes the fate of one of the most famous Czech composers, Josef Mysliveček, who in his time was able to establish himself in competition with Italian composers. Alongside Vojtěch Dyk, he cast actresses Barbara Ronchiová, Elena Radonicichová and Lana Vladyová in the lead roles.

World opera soloists such as Philippe Jaroussky, Simona aturová, Raffaella Milanesiová or Emőke Baráthová performed the Myslivečka opera aria in the film to the accompaniment of the Czech baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 under the direction of conductor Václav Luks. The film was shot in the Czech Republic and Italy and is a Czech-Italian-Slovak co-production.

Last year, academics sent David Ondříček’s film Zátopek for the Oscars. So far, only two Czechoslovak films and one Czech film have won the gold statuette of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1965 Ján Kádár and the Elmar Klos Shop in the Corridor, two years later Jiří Menzel’s Closely Supervised Train and in 1996 in Jan Svěrák’s Koljo. Six other films were nominated for nominations: Lásky jedne plavovlásky (1966) and Miloš Forman’s Hoří má harvestko (1968), Jiří Menzel’s Vesničko má středisková (1986), Jan Svěrák’s Public School (1991), Jan Hřebejk’s Must Help (2000jk) ) ) and most recently elary Ondřej Trojan (2003).

Director and screenwriter Petr Václav is a graduate of the FAMU in Prague. Already in 1996, her feature debut Marian won a number of awards abroad, including the Silver Leopard at IFF Locarno, director awards in Angers, Belfort, Tehran, Bratislava and was nominated for the Czech Lion. In 2001, the film Parallel Worlds was followed, which reached the final of the Sundance Institute/NHK Award screenplay competition and was screened in the competition section of the San Sebastián festival.

The next film Cesta ven was screened in 2014 at the Cannes Film Festival, in the ACID section, and thus became the festival’s first Czech premiere in 23 years. The film won seven Czech Lions, including best film, screenplay and director. His last film to be shown in Czech theaters was the highway film Skokan from 2017.

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