The Moravian-Silesian region will support prospective talents as well as seasoned filmmakers. Ten movies will receive a total of 5 million CZK, a regional grant that will help three documentaries, one short movie and six live-action full-length features.
“All the movies that we support must be, at least partially, shot in our region. Another important condition is that the crew must locally spend at least twice the amount they receive from us in the grant. The money will thus be used to support local service providers and cover location rent, equipment and local actors, be it professionals for lead roles or extras,” says the Deputy Governor for Regional Development and Tourism Jan Krkoška. He also adds that regional subsidies in our region are supposed to help filmmakers develop the local film industry, strengthen tourism and improve the image of the region.
Half of the requests were submitted by beginning filmmakers. The highest subsidy in the amount of one million CZK was received by the movie A Sensitive Person (Citlivý člověk), based on a novel by Jáchym Topol. The book adaptation will be the full-length movie debut for the director and Krnov native Tomáš Klein, who had already presented his short movie Retriever at the Cannes Film Festival. The film with the greatest budget and international overreach is The Man Who Stood in the Way (Muž, který stál v cestě), currently in production. It will be shot in collaboration with teams from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine and Hungary. The film narrates the fate of František Kriegel, the only person to refuse to sign the Moscow Protocol in 1968. The film received 800 thousand CZK, just like the movie Who’s That Soldier 2 (Copak je to za vojáka 2) and the debut movie Three Weeks under the Sea (Tři týdny pod mořem), which is perhaps most visually linked to the locations of the Moravian-Silesian region and plans to spend the most shooting days in the region.
A clear link to the Moravian-Silesian region can also be seen in the documentaries Jeseníky, an Abandoned Paradise (Jeseníky – opouštěný ráj), the documentary series Memories of the Moravian-Silesian Region (Paměť Moravskoslezského kraje) and Soul of the Gorol (Duše Gorola), a film documenting a peculiar nook of the region.
The Moravian-Silesian region closely cooperates on the funding program with the Moravian-Silesian Film Office, which connects filmmakers and the regional authorities in order to help filmmakers visiting the region with anything they may require. “Our region has great filmmaking potential and offers many undiscovered locations with a truly unique atmosphere. The production crews also appreciate the openness and helpfulness of the locals,” concludes Hana Vítková of the Moravian-Silesian Film Office.
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