Vladimír Michálek (born 2 November 1956 in

Mladá Boleslav Mladá Boleslav (; ) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 47,000 inhabitants. It lies on the left bank of the Jizera (river), Jizera River. Mladá Boleslav is the second most populated city in the region. I ...

) is a Czech

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

Life

Michálek graduated from Czech film Academy ''FAMU'', Prague, in 1992. Starting during his academic study he was filming documentaries. He joined the

Barrandov Studios Barrandov Studios is a set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe. Barrandov has made several major Hollywood productions, including ''Mission: Impossible (film), ...

as assistant director, where he worked with Andrew Birkin ( Burning Secret),

Reinhard Hauff Reinhard Hauff (born 23 May 1939) is a German film director. His works, which were mostly carried out in the late 1960s to early 1990s, are known for their social and political commentary. '' Stammheim'', which is based on the activities of the R ...

Ted Kotcheff William Theodore Kotcheff (; April 7, 1931 – April 10, 2025) was a CanadianUS Director Ted Kotcheff Granted Bulgarian Citizenship. Bulgarian Justice Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva on Friday granted citizenship to Ted Kotcheff, a US director bor ...

( The Shooter),

Margarethe von Trotta Margarethe von Trotta (; born 21 February 1942)Hans Helmut Prinzler, ''Chronik des deutschen Films, 1895–1994'' (Stuttgart and Weimar: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 1995), p. 149. is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been ref ...

and Bernhard Wicki. He has four children.

Work

1994 was the year of the release of his first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

, ''Amerika'', a free adaptation of the Kafka novel. In 1996 ''Forgotten Light'' followed, a film adaption of the

Jakub Deml Jakub Deml (20 August 1878 – 10 February 1961) was a Czech Catholic priest and writer. Life Childhood and youth Jakub Deml was born in Tasov (okres Žďár nad Sázavou), Tasov near Třebíč, Austria-Hungary, now the Czech Republic on 20 A ...

novel. The film ran on the

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (, KVIFF) is an annual film festival held in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has become Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern Eur ...

, as did this next movie, ''Sekal Has to Die'', two years later. The latter won ten Czech Lion awards, including Best Direction, and succeeded ''Forgotten Light'' as the Czech

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

-nominee.Press release for Autumn Spring
(PDF) As with ''America'', he wrote the screenplay for his film ''Angel Exit'' 2000. The film won the 2002 Daring Digital Award on the

Jeonju International Film Festival Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF, ) is an Asian film festival based in South Korea. It was launched in 2000 as a non-competitive film festival seeking to introduce independent and experimental films to the general public and focusing ...

. Autumn Spring (2001), starring

Vlastimil Brodský Vlastimil Brodský (15 December 1920 – 20 April 2002) was a Czech actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films, and is considered a key figure in the postwar development of Czech cinema. One of his best-known roles was as the title charac ...

in his last role, received favorable reviews, including in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

and

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

. It won a number of prizes, such as the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2003 The Comedy Festival, as well as the Audience Awards of each the 2002

Cleveland International Film Festival The Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) is an annual film festival based in Cleveland, Ohio. CIFF is the largest film festival in Ohio and among the longest-running in the United States. The festival is held at Playhouse Square, the lar ...

, the 2002 St. Louis International Film Festival and the 2003

Sedona Film Festival The Sedona International Film Festival (SIFF) is an annual, eight-day film festival in Sedona, Arizona. The festival was founded in 1994. History In 2023, the festival was listed on ''MovieMakers "20 Great Film Festivals in Vacation Destinat ...

. He is also working for TV productions such as the 2003 series ''Záchranári''. He directed the music videos for the song ''Černí andělé'' (''Black Angels'') by the band

Lucie Lucie is the French and Czech form of the female name Lucia. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Lucie Ahl (born 1974), British tennis player * Lucie Arnaz (born 1951), American actress * Lucie Aubrac (1912–2007), member of ...

,Vladimír Michálek
at fdb.cz (Czech). and Chinaski's ''Podléhám''.

Filmography

Documentary Films

* ''In the Temple of Nature'' (1987) * ''The Painful Silence'' (1990) * ''Oh Mr. Anderson'' (1992)

Feature films

* ''Amerika'' (also screenplay, 1994) * '' Forgotten Light'' (''Zapomenuté světlo'', 1996) * ''

Sekal Has to Die ''Sekal Has to Die'' (, ) is a 1998 Czech film directed by Vladimír Michálek. It was the Czech Republic's submission to the 71st Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee.Margaret Her ...

'' (''Je třeba zabít Sekala'', 1998) * ''Prague Stories'' (compilation contribution, also screenplay, 1999) * '' Angel Exit'' (screenplay written with

Jáchym Topol Jáchym Topol (born 4 August 1962) is a Czech Republic, Czech poet, novelist, musician and journalist who became a laureate of the Czech State Award for Literature in October 2017 for his novel ''A Sensitive Person'' and his life work to date. ...

, ''Anděl Exit'', 2000) * ''Autumn Spring'' (''Babí léto'' 2001) * ''Of Parents and Children'' (also screenplay, ''O rodičích a dětech'', 2008) * ''City of Birds'' (''Město ptáků'', upcoming)Cinema Soleil Productions
City of Birds

TV films

* ''Jistota'' (1999) * ''Lovec a datel'' (2004) * ''Pískovna'' (2004)

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michalek, Vladimir Czech film directors Czech screenwriters Czech male screenwriters 1956 births Living people People from Mladá Boleslav