MEET DAVID ONDŘÍČEK

Director, screenwriter and producer, one of the most distinctive post-revolution Czech directors. He debuted with the film Whisper (Šeptej, 1996) followed by Loners (Samotáři, 2000), which was produced by his own company Lucky Man Films. Next came the comedy One Hand Can't Clap (Jedna ruka netleská, 2003) and the film Grandhotel (2006), which premiered at the Berlinale film festival. His film In the Shadow (Ve stínu, 2012) took all of the main awards at the Czech Film Critics’ Awards and at the annual Czech Lion Awards, and was the Czech Republic’s nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2013, David Ondříček received Variety magazine’s 10 Directors to Watch award, which recognizes the most noteworthy directors of the previous year. David Ondříček worked as an executive producer on the new film by Petr Zelenka Lost in Munich and Anthropoid by Sean Ellis. In 2018 he directed two-part film Dukla 61. Currently, his new biopic about Emil Zátopek, famous Czechoslovak runner who won 3 gold medals at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, is in the Czech cinemas. Zátopek was one of the greatest runners of the 20th century and was also known for his brutally tough training methods.