Jan Svěrák

Jan Svěrák is the most successful Czech director, actor, and producer; his father is Zdeněk Svěrák. Along with Menzel, Kadár, and Klos, he is one of the only Academy Award winners (Kolya) for Best Foreign Language Film awarded to Czech cinema. Between 1983 and 1988, he studied at FAMU. Among his student films, the ecological mockumentary Oil Gobblers (Ropáci) became famous, winning the Student Academy Award in 1988. In the 1990s, Jan Svěrák began directing feature-length films (Accumulator 1, The Ride) and became one of the most successful directors of his generation, drawing crowds at film festivals. Jan Svěrák holds three Czech Lion awards for Best Director; The Elementary School (Obecná škola) was nominated for an Oscar in 1992, and Kolya won the award in 1996. In 2001, he made the film Dark Blue World with British producer Eric Abraham. In 2006, he returned to the theme of contemporary Czech society with the film Empties (Vratné lahve), which was also based on a screenplay by Zdeněk Svěrák. The latter also starred in the film alongside Daniela Kolářová, who played his wife, portraying an aging teacher. He then experimented with the puppet fantasy film Kooky (Kuky se vrací). In 2014, Jan Svěrák directed Three Brothers (Tři bratři), a musical fairy tale based on mini-operas by Zdeněk Svěrák and Jaroslav Uhlíř (Little Red Riding Hood, The Twelve Months, Sleeping Beauty). His last completed film based on his father Zdeněk Svěrák's short stories is Betlémské světlo.