The Czechs, or the Czech people, are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, culture, history, and the Czech language.
The Czechoslovak New Wave is a term used for the Czechoslovak filmmakers who started making films in the 1960s. The directors commonly included are Miloš Forman, Věra Chytilová, Ivan Passer, Pavel Juráček, Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec, Jaromil Jireš, Evald Schorm, Hynek Bočan, Juraj Herz, Juraj Jakubisko, Štefan Uher and others. The movement was sometimes called the "Czechoslovak film miracle".
Karel Kachyňa was a Czech film director and screenwriter. His career spanned over five decades.
The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague is a university in the centre of Prague, Czech Republic, specialising in the study of music, dance, drama, film, television and multi-media. It is the largest art school in the Czech Republic, with more than 350 educators and researchers, and 1500 students.
Czech culture has been shaped by the nation's geographical position in the middle of Europe, the Slavic ethnicity of Czechs, influences from its neighbors, political and social changes, wars and times of peace.
Vojtěch Jasný was a Czech director, screenwriter and professor who has written and directed over 50 films. Jasný made feature and documentary films in Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, USA & Canada, and was a notable figure in the Czechoslovak New Wave movement of the 1960s. He is best remembered for his movies The Cassandra Cat and All My Compatriots, both of which won prizes at Cannes Film Festival. In addition to his film career, he taught directing at film schools in Salzburg, Vienna, Munich and New York.
The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague or FAMU is a film school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1946 as one of three branches of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. It is the fifth oldest film school in the world. The teaching language on most courses at FAMU is Czech, but FAMU also runs certain courses in English. The school has repeatedly been included on lists of the best film schools in the world by The Hollywood Reporter.
Witchhammer is a 1970 Czechoslovak drama film directed by Otakar Vávra and starring Elo Romančík. Based on the novel Kladivo na čarodějnice by Václav Kaplický, Witchhammer relates the story of the Northern Moravia witch trials of the 1670s, focusing on the priest Kryštof Lautner, played by Romančík, who falls victim to the witchhunt after opposing the trials. The film contains possible allegory about Communist show trials in Czechoslovakia.
Jan Žižka is a 1955 Czechoslovak film directed by Otakar Vávra. The film starred Zdeněk Štěpánek. It is sequel to Jan Hus. Plot takes place between 1419 and 1420. The central motif of the film is the escalation of the situation in Bohemia after the burning of master Jan Hus and the popular revolt against the papal authority and against the new King Sigismund. At the head of this rebellion is a priest Jan Želivský and the king's aide and later governor Jan Žižka. The film was followed by Against All.
Anna Čalounová-Letenská was a Czech theatre and film actress. During the 1930s and 40s, she appeared in twenty-five films. She was murdered in the Nazi concentration camp of Mauthausen.
The Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague is a public university located in Prague, Czech Republic. The university offers the study disciplines of painting, illustration and graphics, fashion design, product design, graphic design, ceramics and porcelain, photography and architecture.
Premonition is a 1947 Czechoslovak drama film directed by Otakar Vávra and starring Nataša Tanská and Rudolf Hrušínský. The film was screened at 1948 Locarno Film Festival.
The Václav Špála Gallery is a Prague gallery of mostly contemporary art. It is located at no. 59/30 Národní třída, in the New Town of Prague. The gallery holds exhibitions particularly of works by living Czech professional artists of the middle generation who are among the best painters, photographers, and sculptors on the art scene today. The exhibitions regularly alternate between works of painting, photography, and sculpture.
Czech animation has been a tradition for over 100 years. Czech animators are considered pioneers in film animation. Czech animation dates back to the 1920s, and its "Golden Era" spans between the 1950s and the 1980s. Notable Czech animators include Jiří Trnka, Karel Zeman, Břetislav Pojar, Jan Švankmajer, Vera Neubauer, Hermína Týrlová, and Jiří Barta. Czech animators have employed cel animation, cutout animation, puppet animation, and clay animation. 3D animation is seldom used due to lack of finances and trained 3D animators. This led to a decline in the years following 1989.
The Czech and Slovak pavilion houses the national representation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.
Martina Gasparovič Bezoušková is a Czech theatre and film actress and teacher.
CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel is a 2018 documentary film directed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur that focuses on the life and work of the Czechoslovak New Wave film director Jiří Menzel, and also explores the Czech and Slovak New Wave cinema of the 1950-70s.
