26/01/2015 - The country’s film critics have bestowed their awards upon domestic movies

Unsurprisingly, Czech film critics have named Petr Václav’s unbiased social drama The Way Out [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petr Václav
film profile], which follows the daily struggles of the Roma community, the Best Film of 2014 at the fifth Czech Film Critics' Awards during an evening ceremony on 24 January. The movie also snapped up three other prizes from its total of six nominations: Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actress (for Klaudia Dudová). Andrea Sedláčková’s sports drama Fair Play [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which had been nominated in four categories, did not win any prizes, but will be able to have another shot at the forthcoming Czech Lions on 21 February, where the title has been nominated in every category – and it’s only natural to assume that it will scoop at least some of them, since the Czech Film and Television Academy, the organisation behind the Czech Lions, voted to make Fair Play the country’s Oscar submission.

The winner of the Best Czech Documentary Award at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, Into the Clouds We Gaze by Martin Dušek, which depicts the subculture of car-tuning fans in northern Bohemia, also got a nod from the critics. Martin Finger received the Best Actor Award for his performance in the black comedy Krásno [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which he also co-penned with director Ondřej Sokol. Curiously enough, the Best Cinematography Award was handed to two lucky winners: Slovak Martin Žiaran for lensing the seemingly one-take film Hany [+see also:
trailer
interview: Michal Samir
film profile] (with its hidden cuts only serving to emphasise Žiaran’s work) and Jaromír Kačer for Places. The second most-nominated film, To See the Sea [+see also:
film review
film profile], a melancholic family drama narrated from a child’s point of view, by first-time director-screenwriter Jiří Mádl, received the RWE Award for the Discovery of the Year.

Here is the complete list of winners:

Best Film
The Way Out

Best Documentary
Into the Clouds We Gaze

Best Director
Petr Václav (The Way Out)

Best Screenplay
Petr Václav (The Way Out)

Best Cinematography
Jaromír Kačer (Places)
Martin Žiaran (Hany)

Best Actor
Martin Finger (Krásno)

Best Actress
Klaudia Dudová (The Way Out)

RWE Award for Discovery of the Year
Jiří Mádl (director and writer, To See the Sea)