28/02/2006

The fairy tale continues for Bohdan Slama’s Something Like Happiness (see making of), which performed a veritable smash-and-grab at Czech cinema’s 2006 Lions Awards ceremony.

After its surprise victory at the 2005 San Sebastian festival, as well as the Jury Grand Prix at last month’s Premiers Plans Festival in Angers and the Best Film Award in Athens, Something Like Happiness scooped up seven Lions in Prague this weekend, especially in the top categories: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Tatiana Vilhelmova), Best Actor (Shooting star winner Pavel Liska – see interview) and Best Supporting Actress (Anna Geislerova, who won Best Actress at San Sebastian).

Produced by Negativ and Pallas Film, Slama’s feature (see Focus on film, and interviews with Slama and producer Pavel Strnad) has already been sold by Paris outfit Wild Bunch to Italy (BIM Distribuzione), Spain (Golem), Belgium, Luxembourg, German-speaking European territories (through a co-production deal), Greece, France, Hungary, the Baltic states, Rumania, Poland, Brazil, Mexico, Central America, Quebec, Israel and the US.

The 2006 list of winners:

Best Film
Something Like Happiness (Director: Bohdan Slama; producer: Pavel Strnad)

Best Director
Bohdan Slama (Something Like Happiness)

Best Screenplay
Bohdan Slama (Something Like Happiness)

Best Cinematography
Marek Divis (Something Like Happiness)

Best Editing
Jiri Brozek (The City of the Sun)

Best Sound
Michal Holubec (Wrong Side Up)

Best Original Soundtrack
Vladimir Godar (The City of the Sun)

Best Visual Performance
Eva Svankmajerova and Veronika Hruba (Lunacy)

Best Actress
Tatiana Vilhelmova (Something Like Happiness)

Best Supporting Actress
Anna Geislerova (Something Like Happiness)

Best Actor
Pavel Liska (Something Like Happiness)

Best Supporting Actor
Miroslav Krobot (Wrong Side Up)

Audience Award
From The Subway With Love (Director: Filip Renc)

(Translated from French)