26/09/2013 - Agniezska Holland will represent the Czech Republic in the race for the Oscar nomination, with a film originally developed for television

For the first time in history, the Czech Republic will be represented by a foreign director in the clash for the Best Foreign Language Film. Czech film and Television Academy outvoted domestic directors by choosing Polisg world-renowned filmmaker Agniezska Holland (read the interview) to compete for the Oscar with the film Burning Bush.

This historical representation is not the only oddity in this year’s nomination. The chosen film was originally developed as a television project for HBO. Later, the film was re-cut from three-part miniseries (240 minutes) into a cinematic version of 206 minutes and distributed into cinemas. One of the conditions for Academy Award nomination is that the film cannot be shown on TV or streamed online prior to the theatrical release. The lawyers of the Czech Academy insist that this rule was not violated as the theatrical version is considered a new film. The American Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences will inspect whether the stipulation was or was not respected.

Burning Bush follows an infamous act of self-immolation by a student, Jan Palach, in the protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1969. The film focuses on events following the desperate self-martyrdom through the lens of an attorney, Dagmar Burešová, on her quest to redeem the name of Jan Palach and his family in a trail against the Communist regime.

The Czech Republic already has a backup if Burning Bush isn’t allowed to compete. The new lascivious comedy The Don Juans by critically acclaimed director Jiří Menzel (who won Oscar in 1968 for Closely Watched Trains) is ready to step in if necessary. The last time the golden statuette appeared in the Czech Republic was in 1997 awarded for the film Kolja (directed by Jan Svěrák).