Eleven Czech Lions for "Burning Bush"

Burning Bush, a film directed by Agnieszka Holland, received a total of eleven Czech Lions, the awards of the Czech Film Academy for 2013.

Czech Lions in Eleven Categories

Agnieszka Holland’s Burning Bush received a total of eleven Czech Lion awards for 2013. The film was recognized in the following categories: Best Film, Best Director (Agnieszka Holland), Best Cinematography (Martin Štrba), Best Screenplay (Štěpán Hulík), Best Music (Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz), Best Supporting Actress (Jaroslava Pokorná), Best Editing (Pavel Hrdlička), Best Sound (Petr Čechák, Marek Hart), Best Production Design (Milan Býček), Best Costume Design (Katarína Hollá), and Best Make-Up (Zdeněk Klika).
Burning Bush was nominated for the Czech Lions in 14 categories. Last year, Ve stinu (In the Shadow), a Czech-Polish-Slovak co-production directed by David Ondříček and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, received nine Czech Lions awards.

Burning Bush

Burning Bush is the first feature film about Jan Palach, a Czech student who set himself on fire in central Prague on January 16, 1969, protesting against the passiveness of society in the face of the Prague Spring and the invasion of Warsaw Pact forces in Czechoslovakia. The film focuses on the struggle of Palach’s parents with the authorities after his death. The film’s main protagonist is Dagmar Burešová, the attorney who defended Palach’s good name in court.

Seven Awards of Czech Film Critics

Earlier this year, Agnieszka Holland’s Burning Bush received the awards of the Czech Association of Film Critics in seven categories: Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Music, Best Supporting Actress, and the Award for Discovery of the Year (Štěpán Hulík).

The Road to the Oscars®

Produced by HBO, Burning Bush is a mini-series directed by Agnieszka Holland that screened and received multiple awards at international film festivals. A theatrical of the film was released in cinemas in several countries, including the Czech Republic and Israel. The Czech Republic decided to nominate Burning Bush as its Academy Award® candidate, however the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected the film on procedural grounds.

Czech Lions

The Czech Lions are the Czech equivalent of the Polish Film Awards (Eagles). The awards jury is made up of members of the Czech Film and Television Academy (CFTA). This year marked the 21st edition of the awards.

Further details about the Czech Lions are available at: kultura.idnes.cz.

Paulina Bez

Translated by Karolina Kołtun