“Use minimum means for maximum effect!”

Jana Hojdová is a cinematographer, director, and producer. This year she made her feature film debut with the confident and visually refined title Mirrors in the Dark (2021, dir. Šimon Holý). She is currently working on a documentary about the cinematography legend Robert Richardson, a long-time collaborator of Quentin Tarantino. At the last edition of OKO she acted as one of the main jurors and at the same time presented her masterclass Knowing Hollywood.

“When I feel like an author…”

David Fesl is a conceptual sculptor and visual artist who works with found objects and material fragments in his installations, grouping, and connecting them into surprising wholes. Since 2016 he has also been working in an artistic duo with Sláva Sobotovičová, together they have been creating institutional-critical texts and performances. At this year’s edition, he presented in his curator selection the hypnotic films Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas, 2012) and Last and First Men (Jóhann Jóhannsson, 2020).

The International Film Festival Ostrava Kamera Oko – the one and only cinematography festival in the Czech Republic – has finished its thirteenth year. The drama True Mothers by cinematographer Yûta Tsukinaga won in the Official Selection, the main competition of the festival. The Special Jury Prize went to France by cinematographer David Chambill. The Short Film Competition was won by Lubomir Ballek’s Sing for us and the Special Jury Prize went to cinematographer Helena Fikerová’s for her film Sleeping. The festival, which was this year attended by five hundred spectators, ended on Sunday, 3 October.

“About The Glory Of The Terrible Eliz, screenwriting disillusionment and fear of actors”

Eliška Kováříková and Adam Struhala began their creative collaboration while studying at the Department of Screenwriting and Dramaturgy at FAMU in Prague. They also currently run Film Acting Courses for Children. At this year’s festival, as part of the retrospective of cinematographer Tomáš Frkal, they presented their short film The Glory of the Terrible Eliz (2021), which stands out for its playful visual stylization and its determination not to underestimate the children’s audience. This multi-genre ride full of film references is described as a revival of the declining tradition of Czech children’s film. First and foremost, however, it is a sovereign presentation of the authorial duo with insight and a feeling for film language.

The 13th edition of the international film festival focused on cinematography, Ostrava Kamera Oko, starts on Wednesday 29 September with a screening of the new Czech-Swiss comedy Lost in Paradise. Over the course of five days, the festival will offer more than thirty short and feature-length films from the fields of fiction, documentary, and experimental film with an overlap into the visual arts, as well as an extensive accompanying programme. The festival will run until Sunday 3 October.

Ostrava Kamera Oko International Film Festival in cooperation with the Prague music publish-er Genot Centre is planning a special audiovisual night in the PLATO gallery in Ostrava. It will take place on Saturday, 2 October and will run from 9pm to 6am. The intense musical and visual experience will end with a shared breakfast at sunrise.

After last year’s global pandemic and the associated skepticism, Ostrava Kamera Oko returns this year with a positive vision of the future. The main part of this year’s edition will take place from 29th September to 3rd October in Ostrava. However, we are going to intervene in the city’s public space already during the summer.

During the last weekend of September, Ostrava will host the first festival weekend of the International Cinematography Film Festival Ostrava Kamera Oko, whose organizers have decided to adjust its program to the current global pandemic.

The exceptional audiovisual evening is taking place in Saint Wenceslas Church in Opava during the 11th Ostrava Kamera Oko festival on Friday 27 of September at 20:00. The rare occasion combines sacral atmosphere of the church with contemporary electronic music of artists from all over the world. Plenty of them is visiting the Czech Republic for the first time ever. The visual aspects of the evening will not be forgotten. Artists themselves and MAESS, a group from Brno, will ensure the unforgettable show. 

The 11th annual International film festival Ostrava Kamera Oko takes place in Ostrava and occurs between September  24– 29, 2019 and mainly focuses on cinematography. For the first time it also boldly reflects current metamorphozis of  perceiving camera in a world of cinema and motion picture.