Wiktor Grodecki

Screenwriting & Directing

Between 1994 and 1997, Wiktor worked on his “Europe in transition” trilogy – “Not Angels But Angels” (1994), “Body Without Soul” (1996) and “Mandragora” (1998) – Audience Choice Award at Palm Springs Nortel Int’l Film Festival 1998 (all films released in the U.S. and Europe). “Mandragora” was the first feature film depicting the fate of runaway kids in the Czech Republic – Grodecki had received a letter of recognition from President Vaclav Havel as well as several prizes at international film festivals.

After directing a Movie Of The Week for German TV Channel Pro7 “Ichwunsch dir Liebe” (English title “Wish List”)- written by Stewart Wade and starring Marianne Sagebrecht, Matthew Carriere, Catherine Flemming, Hark Bohm and Hardy Kruger Jr. – Grodecki returned to Poland to direct – “Insatiability” (Nienasycenie) based on the novel by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz – an epic, ironic tale about the collapse of Western Civilization as seen through the eyes of a confused young boy, growing up in today’s Europe… The film has been shot on sound stages in Vilnius, Lithuania and post-produced at the Barrandov Film Studios It was premiered at Berlin International Film Festival in 2004 and the same year Wiktor Grodecki has been awarded Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Indie Director in Los Angeles for “Insatiability”.

Between 1998 and 2012 Grodecki also worked as film producer on many US projects being developed and shot in Eastern Europe, working as a STUDIO DIRECTOR at Lithuanian Film Studios in Vilnius, developing Riga Film Studios in Latvia and cooperating with Film Studios in Yalta, Ukraine, Barrandov in Prague and Babelsberg in Berlin. He developed projects for Promark Group (Executive Producer David Bixler), Capital Arts (Executive Producer Mike Elliott), and Universal, among others. In 2012 he developed new studios in Vilnius, Lithuania SCREENPLAYS: Wiktor Grodecki is a member of the International Screenwriting Association. He wrote more than twenty full-length feature screenplays, including The Soul Of The Murdered Kingdom, Forefathers’ Eve, Anders.

He has recently completed two screenplays for CHINA – “King Without A Kingdom” (won the 9th place at the Table Read My Screenplay – Hollywood screenplay competition in 2018 and was shortlisted by Coppola at his American Zoetrope Script Competition in Jan 2019) and “Chinese Ark” – about the Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese involvement in the II World War. As well as HEXAMERON – an ironic tale about the condition of the human soul in today’s world told through the eyes of a Medieval monk being seduced by the Devil.

Radim Špaček

DIRECTING

RADIM ŠPAČEK was born in 1973 in Ostrava. For high school he chose The Prague Conservatoire, acting department. Great Czech director Karel Kachyňa cast him as a leading role of fragile teenager in film Little Girls and Crazy Guys (Blázni a děvčátka, 1989)

Three years later he was accepted to study directing on Prague Film Academy (FAMU). After he finished his first year he went to Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina under siege (1993-94). In production of Čestmír Kopecký (Czech TV) he shot his first film there – a semi-documentary story YOUNG MEN DISCOVERING THE WORLD (Mladí muži poznávají svět, 1996) about war life of young people. Film was chosen for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival competition.

He finished his studies with his second film RAPID EYE MOVEMENT (Rychlé pohyby očí, 1998).

For Czech TV he directed several programs – Artóza (2002-2004) on contemporary art, Etiketa (2004) on good manners, multicultural documentary series Kosmopolis (2005) or queer weekly show Q (2006). Also many documentaries and TV series.

Since 2003 till today he organizes (as Creative Director) annual PRAGUE BOLLYWOOD FESTIVAL.

With Bionaut Films Production he directed his third feature film WALKING TOO FAST (Pouta, 2010) which was awarded with 5 Czech Lion Awards and 5 Czech Film Critics Awards.

In 2012-13 he travelled to Afghanistan to work on documentaries INCOMING.

His fourth feature film is called PLACES (Místa, 2014, Bionaut Films).

In 2014 he directed his first theatre play in MeetFactory, Avram Yehoshua´s LOVER. He continued with work for stage in Řeznická Theatre (Mike Bartlett: COCK, 2016 and Mark St. Germain: FREUD’S LAST SESSION, 2018) as well as in La Fabrica (Per Olov Enquist: THE HOUR OF THE LYNX, 2017).

In 2017 he directed 4 episodes of acclaimed TV series SHADOW OF THE FERNS (Svět pod hlavou), Czech Lion Award for the best dramatic television series.

In 2018 he shot historical drama GOLDEN STING (Zlatý podraz), story of legendary first generation of young basketball players in Czechoslovakia during years 1938-1951.

Twelve-episode TV series SHADOWS IN THE MIST was premiered on Czech TV in January 2022.

Thomas Krivy

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Thomas Krivy, son of czech Parents brought up and raised in Germany gained experience as a camera assistent in Berlin and at the Babelsberg Studios before he entered the FAMU in Prague where he completed the regular camera course (MA).
Since then he worked on numerous narrative feature films, commercials, documentaries and music videos.
He is fluent in German and Czech, speaks English (TOEFL) and (a little) French.

Martin Prohazka

ANIMATION

Martin Prochazka was born 1954 in Prague.
He worked at the Barrandov Film Studios and for Laterna Magica.
From the year 1989 he works as a free lance Director of Photography.
Martin Prochazka worked with acclaimed animation film directors like Jan Švankmajer, Jiří Barta, Pavel Koutsky or Jan Balej.
He was also participating on various audiovisual projects, eg. for Laterna Magica, Muzeum Alma Ata or for the Muzeum of Kuwait.
He studied at the national Film school FAMU 1981-1986 where he gained his master degree in Camera Class.
He would later (from 2009 until 2018) join the University again as a lector for animation art and special effects photography.

ZDENĚK MAREK – střihač

FILM EDITING

In 2000, he graduated in editing at the FAMU in Prague. He gained his experience working with directors in various genres. Among the feature films in distribution, we can mention SILNÝ KAFE (dir. Börkur Gunnarson, 2004) or PANIC JE NANIC (dir. Ivo Macharáček, 2005). He also has experience with fiction in collaboration on the TV series LETIŠTĚ (2006), PŘEŠLAPY (Cold Feet, 2009) or ZÁZRAKY ŽIVOTA (2010).
From the short edge of his work we can mention the historical drama AUSTERLITZ ADVENT (directed by Josef Abrhám Jr., 2017).
He also collaborated on animated works. E.g. for Czech Television of the animated series Maria Procházková EVROPSKÉ PEXESO (2008) and after its success also ČESKÉ PEXESO (2010). He participated in Jan Bubeníček’s animated films PIRÁT(2002) or the combined animation KRVAVÉ HISTORKY (short story KAKTUSÁK, 2013).
The main focus of his work is documentary production. At this level he worked with prominent personalities of Czech documentary. We can mention the films of Jan Gogola Jr. as NONSTOP (1999), DENÍKY BABIČKY NĚMCOVÉ (2000) or I LIKE A BORING LIFE (2010). He was awarded the Fipresci Prize at the 50th Film Festival in Krakow (he was part of the five-part Czech-German project Breathless, Dominance of the Moment).
Among other works we present MOTOCYKLENÍ (dir. Markéta Ekrt Válková, 2000), BABIČKA, HLUČÍŇÁCÍ, KRÁVA A JÁ (dir. Marek Sklář, 2001), ŽIVOT BEZ ŠKATULKY (dir. Theodora Remundová, 2009). The most famous work is probably the first documentary reality show ČESKÝ SEN (directed by Vít Klusák, Filip Remunda, 2004), which won the Czech Lion for the best documentary on the domestic stage and was also distributed abroad and also at festivals like Sundance Film Festival of Michael Moore).
We also present a film from the international Graffiti scene GIRL POWER (dir. Sany, Jan Zajíček, 2015) with a lot of screening over the world.
(https://www.punkfilm.cz/reference/features-and-tv/girl-power)

Zdeněk Marek has acting experience – both theater (RS Vpřed, Sklep) – and film experience (Pražská 5, Vrať se do hrobu, Díky za každé nové ráno).
He also plays bass guitar.

Vladimír Holomek

Cinematography

Vladimir Holomek (born in 1956 in Zlin, Czechoslovakia) – is one of the most famous and prolific Czech cinematographers, an active member of the Czech Society of Cinematographers and a professor of cinematography at numerous universities, including FAMU in Prague. – He shot more than 80 films for cinema and television, 70 TV mini-series, more than 20 documentaries, and other film forms, working with such directors as Vit Olmer, Dusan Klein, Fero Fenic, Wiktor Grodecki, Jaroslav Soukup, Vladimir Drha, Karel Smyczek, and others. – He is currently working on a new mini-series for Czech television as well as a feature film for an international co-production to be shot in Prague, finding nevertheless the time to teach cinematography at the Barrandov Film School. He loves to take his students to his set while shooting – believing that the practical lessons are the most important for future filmmakers.

Viktoras Radzevicius

Cinematography

Viktoras Radzevicius was born on the 8th of April, 1955. In 1981-1986 he studied at Moscow national institute and graduated from Camera Operator studies becoming Director of Photography. Since 2012 he is an associate professor in the Cinematography Department at Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.

In 1997, at the festival “Kinošok” he got A. Knežinskis’ award for the movie “Wolf teeth necklace”. In 1998 he got main prize for visual solutions in Rouen movie festival in France. Once more, in the year 2000, he won A. Knežinskis’ award in the festival “Kinošok” – this time for the movie “Elze’s life”. He also got many awards for working on the movie “Vortex” – award for best camera operator work at the international film festival “Black nights” in Tallinn, Lithuanian Cinematographer Association Award “Oak” for the best work of the year, an award for best operator’s work in an International Movie Festival in Kiev and a prize for best operator’s work at feature film festival “Debošir” in Saint Petersburg. In 2015 V. Radzevičius got an Honour award “Carry your light and believe” from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. Feature films filmed by V. Radzevičius include: “Uninvited” (1985, dir. I. Alimpijev, Russia), “Something has happened” (1986, dir. A. Pozdniakov), “I am” (1989, dir. S. Motiejūnas, R. Lileikis), “The Year ends with a Sunset” (1990, dir. O. Ditkovskis), “Flashed by Lightning” (1995, dir. A. Puipa), “Wolf teeth necklace” (1997, dir. A. Puipa), “Elze’s life” (1999, dir. A. Puipa), “Insatiability” (2003, dir. W. Grodecki, Poland), “What the guys feared or Sex in a Small Town” (TV series, 2003-2005, dir. W. Grodecki, Poland), “Zero” (2006, dir. E. Vėlyvis), “Vortex” (2009, dir. G. Lukšas )

Mimi Violette

Art Direction

Mimi Violette is an artist with substantial experience in art direction, production, props and graphic design for low to high budget projects. She has done design work notably on Spider-Man: Far from Home, Amazon’s: Carnival Row series, Ron Howard’s National Geographic series: Genius (with Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson) ––which included 500 various sets… also Britannia: featuring Kelly Reilly (True Detective) and David Morrissey (The Walking Dead), Lee Tamahori’s: Emperor, with Adrian Brody, TV series: Crossing Lines (200 sets) with Donald Sutherland and Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones), and Xaviar Dolan’s: The Death and Life of John F Donovan with Kit Harrington.

Mimi received her BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Interior Design and later received her MA in Production Design for Film & Television from Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture (TaiK) in Helsinki, Finland.
Although working professionally on Hollywood gigs is her “bread and butter”, Mimi’s personal love for teaching and cinema veers towards the more organic roots of bona fide filmmaking — independently-produced projects, conforming with as little compromise as possible to the Artist’s personal vision.

Since 2011, Mimi has been teaching at various institutions across Prague and Czech Republic the highly involved topic of Art Direction for Film, a niche that is rarely studied and practiced in academia.

Ben Sasson

Art Direction

Ben is an artist, designer, teacher and father of two. Ben’s craze for the arts and filmmaking started at a very young age. His keen eye for aesthetics in film and vast collection of films over the decades is what fuelled his inspiration as a professional in the field today. As an instructor and mentor, Ben brings forth expertise to students that touches on all subjects related to set-design, costuming, props, graphics and mise-en-scène. He trains the student’s eye to help shape their story through Art Direction with affordable and effective know-how.

Ben has film experience ranging from International productions like the TV series, Crossing Lines with Donald Sutherland, and Xaviar Dolan’s, The Death and Life of John F Donovan. Ben has been the graphic designer of promotional material for Mark Taylor (Game of Thrones, Jojo Rabbit) and Jan Svěrák (Academy winning director) and Rick McCallum (producer of Star Wars). After all, getting your film in front of the audience is the main objective.

Ben received his BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Film, with a minor in Photography. He also teaches Art Direction at FAMO and Prague College with an invitation to teach at FAMU in the near future.

Phillip Bergson

Film Festivals & Markets

Phillip has worked as Assessor at the European Script Fund and as Script Analyst at the Arts Council of England Lottery Film Fund.

When in Grammar School in Yorkshire, he won ’Student Journalist of the Year’ in the New Statesman weekly and used the prize money to attend the Venice Film Festival. He was a Classics & Modern Languages Scholar at Balliol College, where he founded the Oxford Film Festival, the first competitive event for feature films recognized by FIAPF in Great Britain, and programmed 6 annual editions creating the first festival award ever for Best Screenplay (sponsored by Screen International). On graduating he was selected by The Sunday Times as a ‘New Critic’ and began writing, reviewing, interviewing in many publications (The Guardian, Evening Standard, Times Literary and Educational Supplements, Variety, Moving Pictures, Screen International, Film Bulletin, Berlin FilmFest Journal) as well as broadcasting regularly on many BBC radio and TV programs, and on World Service, Deutsche Welle, and France Culture. He was International Consultant at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in his native Bradford, where he created the Eurovisions project to promote contemporary and classic European Cinema in London and in Yorkshire and has curated programs at many international festivals, as well as serving as a jury member at events from Cannes to Chicago, Thessaloniki to Tashkent, Mannheim, Karlovy Vary, Mlada Boleslav Valencia and Vienna.

He has organized Master Classes at festivals and universities with Herbert Lom, Sir Christopher Lee, Jiri Menzel, Karoly Makk, Menahem Golan, Vittorio Storaro, Udo Kier, Jan Harlan, and many other celebrated film-makers. He has worked on scripts, castings, and premieres for many independent features, and has occasionally acted on film and in television.

He contributes often to www.filmfestivals.com and is an Invited Member of the UK Critics’ Circle, FIPRESCI, and the European Film Academy.

WOLFGANG HAMMERSCHMID

FILM COMPOSER/SOUND DESIGNER/MUSIC PRODUCER

Wolfgang Hammerschmid was born on June 26 1968 in Vienna, Austria has been working in film, television and advertising since 1985.  Mr. Hammerschmid is familiar with any field of music-making. Studied at Munich Hochschule & Richard Strauss-Conservatory, (composing, conducting, piano & percussion), Manhattan School of Music (scoring for motion pictures).

Spending quite a while on recording stages all over the world he also picked up sound engineering with masters like the late Keith Grant (London, England) and Dan Wallin (from Los Angeles, Calif.) before he designed, engineered and ran his own recording stages in Berlin, Munich, Rome & Vienna with great success.

Among several awards as a film composer was the DEUTSCHER FILMMUSIKPREIS for best new talent for the 1994 Berlinale opener “DER BLAUE“- the “Audience Choice Award“ at the Palm Springs Filmfestival in 1998 for “MANDRAGORA“ and another special award for the b&w short “ONCE UPON A TUESDAY“ at the N.Y.C. Underground FF in 1999.

Established in any style of writing & producing music for all genres in film Mr. Hammerschmid worked on romcoms like “MICKEY BLUE EYES” or “MANNERHERZEN I& II“ as well as thrillers like “DER SCHATTENMANN“ or dramas like the several award-winning “MANDRAGORA“. Not to forget designing sounds and scores for websites & all other contemporary media.

Marek Probosz

Acting

Marek Probosz is an international stage, film, and television actor. Probosz is a Winner: Best Documentary Show Award for The Auschwitz Volunteer: Captain Witold Pilecki which he directed and starred in at the world’s largest one actor show festival – UNITED SOLO on Theater Row in NYC 2018. Probosz’s stage credits include the role of Odysseus opposite award-winning British actor Henry Goodman in Philoktetes at the Getty Villa in Malibu. He wrote, directed, and starred in the original Odyssey Theater production of AUM or Tormenting of Actors. Probosz’s theatrical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Salome, which he wrote, directed and starred in, was cited by the Czech National Critics Poll as the No. 2 artistic event of 1986.

For 15 years Probosz has taught in the UCLA Department of Theater Film and Television, at the Warsaw Theater Academy in Poland, Emerson College in Los Angeles and Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica. He has taught film acting master classes at The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. In November 2018 Probosz taught A Master Class – Acting For Camera at the world’s largest solo theater festival at Theater Row in NYC.

His work has been honored many times—most recently, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Vienna, Austria, awarded him with the Polish Diaspora “Oscar,” the Golden Owl, in the category of Film 2018, at a ceremony in Vienna. In 2011, Probosz was awarded the Mortui Sunt Ut Liberi Vivamus Bronze Medal in London and the Gold Medal Knight of Humanity in Auschwitz for his portrayal of Witold Pilecki and in recognition of his outstanding services in sharing around the world Pilecki’s ideals of heroism beyond religion, race and time.
He is currently a visiting Professor of Acting at Williams College, Massachusetts – ranked no.1 College in the USA.

Valery Pendrakovsky

Mise-en-scène

Born on 24 July 1951 in Batumi. In 1985 Graduated from director faculty of Film Institute VGIK (course of A. Alov and V. Naumov. Director, script writer, producer. Between 1999 – 2005 worked as General Director of CJC “Yalta Film Studio”. Honored Art Worker of Russian Federation. Film Director of Film Concerm “Mosfilm”. Full member of Film-Academy of Russian Federation, member of Russian Film-producer Guild. Currently, Pendrakovsky teaches at the Higher courses of directors and screenwriters at VGIK, the head of the workshop of fantastic realism.

Filmography:

I CAN’T (1984 , short) – script author, director

Awarded as Best Short Film and rewarded with prize “Nadejda” for the Best Directing on V Festival of Young Cinematographers in Moscow, award on festival in Manheim 1986 Prize on Berlinale IFF in Shorts Competition

LIVE AND LOVE (1985, short) – script author, director

Prize on IFF in Babelsberg (Germany)

IN THE OUTSKIRTS, SOMEWHERE IN TOWN (1988) – director

SELF-MURDER (1990), script author (by play of N. Erdman), director

VERY FAITHFUL WIFE (1992) – director

Prize for Best actress on Montreal IFF in 2003. Prizes on FF in Russia

I’M FREE, I’M NO ONE’S (1994) – director

Prize “Silver bunch” for Best Foreign Film on IFF in Lagov (Poland)

WHAT FOR? (1996, dir. by Ezi Kovalerovic, Russia-Poland) – script co-author

I REMIT EVERYONE TO WHOM I OWE (1998) – script co-author, director

Prize on IFF Faces of Love (Moscow)

TWO COMRADES (2000) – script co-author, director

(Prize of spectator sympathies on “Kinoshok 2000” IFFestival),  in Gatchina  2 priizes on IFF «Literature and cinema 2000»

SEA WALKING MAID (2007) – director, producer

(Special Jury prize and prize of President of “Amur Autumn” Festival)

FULL SCOPE (2007) – director, co-producer

(Prize for best actress on Cairo film festival in 2007), (Prize best director on IFF in Dubai 2008 and Great Prize on IFF in Minneapolis 2008)

THE LEGEND OF FRAZY GRANT, RUNNING ON THE WAVES (4 television series 2007) – director, producer

ТYLKO NIE TERAZ (2010) – director, producer (main prize 6MUSCAT IFF), prize of IFF FILMS OF LOVE, MONS (2011)

LEFT AND DID’T COME BACK (2011) – director, producer (prizes for main role and for best director) 2012 IFF in OMAN

Matthew Libatique

Cinematography

Matthew Libatique is an American cinematographer. He is best known for his work with director Darren Aronofsky on the films Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Fountain (2006), Black Swan (2010), Noah (2014) and Mother! (2017). He also shot Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut film, A Star Is Born (2018).

Libatique also work as an cinematographer in the films Tigerland (2000), Phone Booth (2002), Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010) and Venom (2018).

He has received two Academy Awards nominations for Best Achievement in Cinematography, one for Black Swan and the other for A Star Is Born.

Andrew Wills

Film Editing

Andrew Wills’ background is in 1990s BBC and LWT crime drama. His experimental film Indian Bradshaw was premiered as part of the New Territories programme at the Venice International Film Festival in 2002. He moved to Prague in 2004 and, with renowned Czech editor Vladimir Barak, became involved in visual post production at Total Help Art on films such as Jan Hrebejk’s Beauty in Trouble, Shameless and Teddy Bear, Ondrej Trojan’s Identity Card, and Lukas Pribyl’s Forgotten Transports, a series of four documentaries on the holocaust of the Czech Jews as told by survivors.
After a stint at Universal Production Partners Andrew went freelance, cutting a wide range of films including the black comedy Aussig for Prima Cool, and Punk in Africa for Netflix, which was the first ever Czech-South African co-production.
From 2014 to 2021 he was an editor at Radio Free Europe, cutting documentaries such as The Path of Blood on the Maidan massacre, Desperate Honeymoon on the 2015 refugee crisis, Tales from the New Silk Road on Chinese expansion into central Asia, Vanishing History on the Greek and Buddhist archaeological heritage of Pakistan, Storm-333 on the 1979 Soviet plot to assassinate the president of Afghanistan, and Kalash Holding On – The Last Pagans of Pakistan.
Andrew welcomes his students into his own edit suite to witness and participate in his professional work.