Lubomír Beneš (7 November 1935,

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

– 12 September 1995, Roztoky) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games ...

, director, and author, best known as the co-creator of ''

Pat & Mat ''Pat & Mat'' (Czech and Slovak: ''Pat a Mat'') is a Czechoslovak slapstick stop-motion animated series created by Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek. The characters first appeared in the theatrically released short ''Kuťáci'' (''Tinkers ...

'', an animated series about two highly inventive, yet incredibly clumsy handymen neighbours.

Life and career

Lubomír Beneš grew up in

Hloubětín Hloubětín (, german: Tiefenbach) is a district of Prague located from the centre, belonging mostly to Prague 9, with parts of it also belonging to Prague 14 and Prague 10. There were 10,704 people living in this area in 2001. The area, first ...

, a suburb of

. As a child, he was artistically talented, so his parents paid for private art lessons, in which he studied drawing, painting and writing. He began working in animation in the late 1950s in the animation studios of ''Krátký Film Praha''. After winning a competition he was accepted to the animated film studio ''

Bratři v triku Bratři v triku is a Czech animation studio founded in 1945. Later in 1956, it is now a subsidiary of Krátký film Prague. History The studio was founded in 1945. It was responsible for many award-winning films such as Munro. Famous animators such ...

'' after his military service, where he became acquainted with various animation techniques. He worked in SFX on the animated film like Gallina Vogelbirdae by Jiri Brdecka In 1967, he transferred from ''

'' to the ''Loutkovy Film Praha/Jiří Trnka Studio''. There he created and directed his first film, ''Homo'' (Man) in 1969. Beneš’s first puppet film, ''Beg your pardon'' ( cs, Račte prominout), was made in 1974. He directed over a hundred short films, mostly puppet

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animation, and many of them for children. Some of his films also used cutout techniques. During the 1970s and 1980s, Beneš worked on numerous TV projects for the state channels

Československá televize Czech Television ( cs, Česká televize, italics=no ; abbreviation: ČT) is a public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic, broadcasting seven channels. Established after the Velvet Revolution in 1992, it is the successor to Czechoslov ...

(ČST) Praha and ČST Bratislava. His most popular animated series for ČST were '' ... a je to!'' (... and that's it!) (28 episodes, 1979–1985) and '' Jája a Pája'' (21 episodes, 1986, 1987, 1995). From 1990, he worked in the aiF Studio, which he had founded together with his son Marek, Pat & Mat co-creator Vladimír Jiránek and producer

Michal Podhradský Michal (; he, מיכל , gr, Μιχάλ) was, according to the first Book of Samuel, a princess of the United Kingdom of Israel; the younger daughter of King Saul, she was the first wife of David (), who later became king, first of Judah, ...

. There, he produced and directed 14 new ''

'' episodes in 1992 and 1994, which were highly successful and broadcast internationally. The animated films made by aiF were also broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

. Beneš directed, produced and wrote animated films in his studio until his death in 1995. His studio declared

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

four years later.

Awards and prizes

His films won several prizes abroad and at home. ''The King and the Dwarf'' ( cs, Král a skřítek) won several prizes, including The Silver Carnation at the Sitges Film Festival, Silver in the

Odessa International Film Festival The Odesa International Film Festival ( uk, Оде́ський міжнаро́дний кінофестива́ль) is an annual film festival held in the middle of July in Odesa. Since 2016 the festival program has consisted of three parts: ...

, and the Silver Mikeldi in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

. ''The Record Player'' ( cs, Gramofon) from ''...A je to!'' won the Prize for the Best Film for Children at the 6th festival in

Espinho, Portugal Espinho () is a city and a municipality located in the Aveiro District, Portugal. It is located in both the Greater Porto and the Metropolitan Area of Porto, 16 km from its city centre. It is one of the smallest municipalities in Portugal and ...

. ''Uneven Fight'' ( cs, Nerovný souboj) won the Main prize at the Vancouver Film Festival. ''With a Smile'' ( cs, S úsměvem) won the main prize, Golden Dancer, in

Huesca Huesca (; an, Uesca) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and of the comarca of Hoya de Huesca. In 2009 it had a population of 52,059, almo ...

. The 38th ''

'' episode, ''The Cyclists'' ( cs, Cyklisti), animated by

Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

, participated in the " Annecy '93" (

Annecy Annecy ( , ; frp, Èneci or ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy, south of Geneva, Switzerland. Nicknamed ...

, France) animation festival competition, and was invited to a number of other international festivals. ''The Cyclists'' was also included in the selection "The Best of Annecy '93" by

Cinémathèque Québécoise The Cinémathèque québécoise is a film conservatory in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its purpose is to preserve, document, film and television footage and related documents and artifacts for future use by the public. The Cinémathèque's collectio ...

(

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), Museum of Fine Arts (

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(

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

(

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) and presented by these institutions in their autumn 1993 show. The 44th ''

'' episode, ''The Billiards'' ( cs, Kulečník), animated by František Váša, was selected for the " Annecy '95" competition, and invited to many other international film festivals. ''The Billiards'' won two prizes at the World Animation Celebration in Agoura,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, in March 1997: 1st prize, Best Animation for a Daytime TV Series and 2nd prize, Best Stop Motion Professional Animation.

Personal life

Beneš lived in Roztoky, near Prague. He was married with his wife Vera Smetanova-Benesova, and had a son and daughter. His son Marek is the current director of the Pat & Mat series.

References

External links

Pat & Mat official website

Website of Lubomír Beneš' aiF Studio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benes, Lubomir 1935 births 1995 deaths Czech animators Czech film directors Czech animated film directors Czech animated film producers Czech musicians Czech puppeteers Artists from Prague