Jiří Menzel

One of the most successful Czech theatre and film directors, and one of the few Czech filmmakers to receive the prestigious Academy Award. In the 1960s, he became one of the founders of the Czechoslovak New Wave. His very first feature film, Closely Watched Trains (1966), based on a novel by his favourite author Bohumil Hrabal, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Another of his films, My Sweet Little Village, was nominated for an Oscar in 1985. Between 1977 and 1979, he was a member of the Jára Cimrman Theatre ensemble, and together with Smoljak and Svěrák he co-directed the beloved film Seclusion Near a Forest. From the 1970s onwards, he also devoted himself to theatre directing at the Činoherní klub and the Vinohrady Theatre.