21/04/2008

The 21st Finale festival of Czech films begins April 21 in Plzen, Czech Republic. The annual event is a competitive and comprehensive overview of Czech feature-length films released in the past year.

Twelve titles will compete for the Golden Kingfisher for Best Feature Film, including Olivier Dahan's internationally awarded La Vie en Rose, which was filmed in co-production between France, the Czech Republic and the UK.

Other films in competition include several titles that collect prizes at the Czech Lions awards in March: Alice Nellis’ Little Girl Blue (Best Film and Best Cinematography), Jiri Vejdelek's Vaclav (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor) and Tomas Vorel's Gympl (Best Supporting Actress). Bohdan Slama's Country Teacher is screening out of competition at the festival.

This year's Finale will also screen 15 documentaries in competition, including Berlinale Forum title Citizen Havel.

Festival director Ivan Jachim spoke highly of Czechs' role in European cinematography. "The filmmakers have always touched upon actual themes and a lot of them gained their success mostly in foreign countries. Today's filmmakers cooperate with European institutions and filmmakers and I hope they will be given more chances to work abroad," he said.

Feature films in competition:
Bobule (dir. Tomas Barina)
Chytte doktora (dir. Martin Dolensky)
Crash Road (dir. Krystof Hanzlik)
Gympl (dir. Tomas Vorel)
La Vie en Rose [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (dir. Olivier Dahan)
Medvidek (dir. Jan Hrebejk)
Movie (dir. Ivo Trajkov)
Nejkrasnejsi hadanka (dir. Zdenek Troska)
O Zivot (dir. Milan Steindler)
Posledni vlak (dir. Dana Vavrova, Joseph Vilsmaier)
Little Girl Blue [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (dir. Alice Nellis)
Vaclav (dir. Jiri Vejdelek)