Lifetime Awards 2017

Jiří Menzel

Jiri Menzel is one of the most influential figures of the Central European cinema. His first movie ‘Closely Watched Trains’ won the Oscar in 1968. The film ‘Larks on Strings’ shot one year after the Oscar was withheld by censors and released only in 1989 in which year’s Berlinale it won the Golden Bear – something that has been unprecedented before. ‘I Served the King of England’ attracted more than one million viewer in the Czech Republic in 2006. It was Menzel’s sixth Hrabal-adaptation. In his films comedy, tragedy, sentimentalism, humor and irony plays together in a way that is only the characteristic of the greatest masters. The legendary director of ‘Capricious Summer’, ‘The Snowdrop Festival’, the Oscar nominee ‘My Sweet Little Village’ and the ‘Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin’ has also played in several films – including some Hungarian ones as well.