The Czech film critics have once again weighed up the local productions of the past year at an annual ceremony established as a counterbalance to offset the more conservative Czech Lion Awards. The domestic critics assembled for the ninth edition of the prizes, where they voted the biopic drama Jan Palach [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Robert Sedláček (see the news) as Best Film, thus confirming the predominance of the biopic genre in domestic cinematic output. Indeed, Toman (see the news), another period biopic, currently leads the nominations for the Czech Lion Awards. The minimalistic social horror Domestique [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Adam Sedlák
scheda film] and the coming-of-age road dramedy Winter Flies [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Olmo Omerzu
scheda film] emerged as the runners-up for Best Film, at least in the critics’ eyes, and therefore went home empty-handed. When the War Comes [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Jan Gebert, a portrait of Slovakian youngsters engaged in a paramilitary group and their self-imposed leader, a budding autocrat, won the Best Documentary Award. Slovenian-born, Prague-based filmmaker Olmo Omerzu took home the Best Director Award for the aforementioned Winter Flies, repeating the success from last year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Tomáš Pavlíček and Lucie Bokšteflová were presented with the Best Script gong, for the dramedy Bear with Us [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: Tomáš Pavlíček
scheda film], directed by Pavlíček.

Along with Domestique, Winter Flies and Bear with Us, another film introduced at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Moments [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: Beata Parkanová
intervista: Beata Parkanová
scheda film] by newcomer Beata Parkanová, received recognition – more precisely, for its female lead, Jenovéfa Boková, who scooped Best Actress. Veteran Slovakian thesp Martin Huba netted Best Actor for his portrayal of the first president of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, in another biopic, Talks with T.G. Masaryk [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], the directorial debut by Jakub Červenka, based on the book by Karel Čapek. Červenka’s docudrama, depicting the conversations between the president and author Čapek, was also named Discovery of the Year. 

The art direction on the last feature by legendary filmmaker and surrealist Jan Švankmajer, Insect [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Jan Švankmajer
scheda film], courtesy of the director and his son, was hailed as the Best Audiovisual Achievement. The Beyond Cinema Award, a category that serves to reward outstanding oeuvres outside of the traditional film distribution circuit, went to Ondřej Hudeček, the up-and-coming director of the award-winning short film Peacock, who is currently working on his ambitious fiction feature debut, Bohemian Rhapsody (see the report), and veteran producer Jon Weinbach, who served as co-writers on The Nagano Tapes: Rewound, Replayed & Reviewed, the first instalment in a series of Olympic Channel documentaries produced by Steven Spielberg collaborator Frank Marshall. 

Here is the complete list of winners:

Best Film
Jan Palach [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] – Robert Sedláček (Czech Republic/Slovakia)