The Czech Republic will send the film ‘Vlny’ (‘Waves’) by Jiri Madl to compete for Oscar nomination in the best foreign language film category, according to Silvie Markova from the Czech Film and Television Academy, speaking earlier to CTK.
Waves, inspired by the true story of a group of journalists from Czechoslovak Radio striving to provide independent news at any cost during the Prague Spring in 1967-68, had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in July, where it won the audience award, and director Madl also picked up the Blue Cube award for outstanding artistic performance.
In the Czech Republic, the film was seen by around 357,000 people in its first month of release.
The Czech Film and Television Academy was choosing between 13 Czech feature films. Waves won the vote ahead of ‘Amerikanka’ (Girl America), a fantasy drama by Viktor Taus, and ‘Mord’ (Our Lovely Pig Slaughter) by Adam Martinec.
The 97th Academy Awards ceremony will take place on 2 March 2025. The Oscar shortlist of 15 foreign films will be released by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on 17 December. The nominations will then be announced on 17 January 2025.
Madl, writer and director of the film, worked with the personal memories of the original members of the international editorial staff of Czechoslovak Radio, who appear in the film under their real names.
Madl’s previous film ‘On the Roof’ (2019) won the main award at the Mannheim international festival and the audience award at Karlovy Vary festival. As an actor, Madl won the Czech Lion award for his role in the film ‘Droneman’ (2020) by Petr Zelenka.
Last year, the Czech Republic submitted the film ‘The Brothers’ by Tomas Masin, the story of Ctirad and Josef Masin, who fought their way westwards from communist Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, but this film was not shortlisted.
‘Kolya’ (1996) by Jan Sverak is the only film from the Czech Republic to win the Academy Award. However, two Czechoslovak films won it earlier: ‘The Shop on Main Street’ (1965) by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos, and ‘Closely Observed Trains’ (1966) by Jiri Menzel.
‘The Painted Bird’ by Vaclav Marhoul was shortlisted in 2019, and ‘Charlatan’ by Agnieszka Holland in 2021.
