Petr Václav (born 11 June 1967) is a Czech film director and screenwriter whose films have received many awards, both in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and internationally. He has lived in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

since 2003 and holds both French and Czech citizenship.

Life and works

Václav was born in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

in a family of music composer Jiří Václav (1940-2020) and film conductor Ljuba Václavová. He graduated from FAMU. His short documentary ''Paní Le Murie'' (''Madame Le Murie'') of 1993 was nominated for FAMU's Student Academy Award and won a prize for best documentary at the Internationales Festival der Filmhochschulen (Filmschoolfest) in Munich. Václav´s first feature film, ''Marian'' (1996) won the Silver Leopard and FIPRESCI Award at the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, ...

and other prizes at film festivals in

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

Belfort Belfort (; archaic german: Beffert/Beffort) is a city in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Northeastern France, situated between Lyon and Strasbourg, approximately from the France–Switzerland border. It is the prefecture of the Terri ...

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exte ...

, Bratislava and

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

. His second feature, ''Paralelní světy'' (''Parallel Worlds'') of 2001 was written in collaboration with the French screenwriter Marie Desplechin and selected for presentation at the

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; es, Festival Internacional de San Sebastián, eu, Donostia Zinemaldia) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in ...

. The film '' The Way Out'', released in France as ''Zaneta'', premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. It won seven

Czech Lion The Czech Lion Awards ( cs, Český lev) are annual awards that recognize accomplishments in filmmaking and television. It is the highest award of achievement in film awarded in the Czech Republic. The jury is composed of members of the Czech Fi ...

awards for the year 2014, including best film, best director, and best screenplay. Václav's film '' We Are Never Alone'' opened at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) in the Forum category and won the Tagesspiel Readers' Jury Award. He is finishing a new French-Italian co-production, ''Skokan'', which is now in post-production. His documentary '' Zpověď zapomenutého (Confession of the Vanished)'', which portrays the life of the Czech-Italian composer

Josef Mysliveček Josef Mysliveček (9 March 1737 – 4 February 1781) was a Czech composer who contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music. Mysliveček provided his younger friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with significant com ...

, was shown at the FIPA International Competition in Biarritz in 2016 and won the gold prize in its category (the ''FIPA d'or''). It is also the winner of the 2016 Trilobit Award. A biographical film based on the life of composer

with the title '' Il Boemo'' was opened at the

on 20th of September 2022. It originated in a Czech-Italian-Slovak coproduction, music in a collaboration with the Czech conductor

Václav Luks Václav Luks (born 14 November 1970) is a Czech harpsichordist, horn player, conductor, musicologist and pedagogue, founder and artistic director of the Prague baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 and of the vocal ensemble Collegium Vocale 1704. He ...

, artistic director of the early music ensemble

Collegium 1704 Collegium 1704 is a Czech early music orchestra and choir founded in 2005 by the Czech conductor, harpsichordist, and horn player Václav Luks. The Collegium Vocale 1704 is the affiliated vocal ensemble. Since 2007, the ensemble has been making re ...

and his soloists,https://film.moviezone.cz/il-boemo/ MovieZone.cz database Václav is a member of the

European Film Academy The European Film Academy is an initiative of a group of European filmmakers who came together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988. The Academy—under the name of European Cinema Soc ...

of Berlin and the

Czech Film and Television Academy The Czech Lion Awards ( cs, Český lev) are annual awards that recognize accomplishments in filmmaking and television. It is the highest award of achievement in film awarded in the Czech Republic. The jury is composed of members of the Czech Fi ...

. He was a pensioner of the

French Academy in Rome The French Academy in Rome (french: Académie de France à Rome) is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in Rome, Italy. History The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in ...

at the

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, ...

in 2010–11.

References

External links

*
Petr Václav
at ČSFD
Czech director Petr Vaclav, filmneweurope.com, June 13, 2014Petr Vaclav filmography on AlloCiné websitePetr Vaclav filmography on UniFrance website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaclav, Petr 1967 births Living people Czechoslovak film directors Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alumni Film directors from Prague Czech Lion Awards winners