30/01/2017 - Olmo Omerzu’s film has topped the Czech Film Critics’ Awards, while I, Olga Hepnarová also swept a handful of accolades

Director Olmo Omerzu (left) and his producer, Jiří Konečný, at the awards ceremony

On the evening of 28 January, the Czech Film Critics’ Awards made their way into the hands of some deserving new owners. The domestic film critics hailed Family Film [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olmo Omerzu
film profile] by emerging Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu as Best Film of the Year. The movie follows two siblings as they cope with their newly acquired freedom when their parents go missing at sea. Staged as a Czech, German, French, Slovenian and Slovakian co-production, Family Film was also honoured with the Best Screenplay Award, for the script penned by the director and writer Nebojša Pop-Tasič. The Czech documentary Normal Autistic Film [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Miroslav Janek, which won the main prize at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival and also netted the Student Award, was also crowned Best Documentary by the critics.

Another critically acclaimed Czech film, I, Olga Hepnarová [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Tomáš Weinreb, Petr Kazda
film profile], won four awards. The duo of writer-directors behind the film, Tomáš Weinreb and Petr Kazda, shared the Best Director Award, while both filmmakers also received the Innogy Award for Discovery of the Year. The striking black-and-white cinematography by Adam Sikora, who lensed the dramatic biopic about the last woman to be hanged in Czechoslovakia for killing eight people as an act of revenge on society, also earned the title the Best Cinematography Award. The Best Actress Award for the lead of I, Olga Hepnarová, Polish actress Michalina Olszańská, rounded off the streak of trophies for Weinreb and Kazda’s powerful first-feature outing. The Best Actor Award was bestowed upon Miroslav Hanuš for his portrayal of a paranoid and xenophobic prison guard in Petr Václav’s harrowing parable We Are Never Alone [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petr Vaclav
film profile]. 

For this edition, the critics added a new category, Beyond Cinema, intended to recognise oeuvres outside of classic cinema distribution. Among the nominated titles were the short film Happy End by Petr Saska, a dark comedy narrated in retrospect; the webseries School Term, which takes place solely on the desktop of a student and revolves around online culture (a similar approach to the US series Web Therapy); and the dark miniseries Wasteland (read the news). In the end, Wasteland won the inaugural award. 

Here is the complete list of winners: 

Best Film
Family Film [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olmo Omerzu
film profile] – Olmo Omerzu 

Best Documentary
Normal Autistic Film [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Miroslav Janek 

Best Director
Tomáš Weinreb, Petr Kazda – I, Olga Hepnarová [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Tomáš Weinreb, Petr Kazda
film profile] 

Best Screenplay
Olmo Omerzu, Nebojša Pop-Tasič – Family Film 

Best Cinematography
Adam Sikora – I, Olga Hepnarová 

Best Actor
Miroslav Hanuš – We Are Never Alone [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petr Vaclav
film profile]

Best Actress
Michalina Olszańská – I, Olga Hepnarová

Innogy Award for Discovery of the Year
Tomáš Weinreb, Petr Kazda – I, Olga Hepnarová

Beyond Cinema
Wasteland – Ivan Zachariáš, Alice Nellis