The Czech Film and Television Academy (CFTA) has chosen Petr Zelenka's The Karamazovs as the Czech Republic's submission in the Academy Award contest for Best Foreign Language Film.
The film is a Czech-Polish co-production between by Prvni Verejnopravni and Ceska Televize on the Czech Side and Warsaw Pact Filmproduction on the Polish side.
CFTA director Petr Vachler noted that this year's crop of Czech films has proven exceptionally strong. Zelenka's film narrowly beat out Bohdan Slama's drama Country Teacher and Vaclav Marhoul's World War Two drama Tobruk.
'There are many more films which could compete for an Oscar, unlike in other years,' he said. 'Any of these three most successful films would be good representatives of our cinematography.'
The announcement comes just days after Andrzej Jakimowski's film Tricks was chosen as Poland's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film.
Tricks beat out such contenders for the honour as Jerzy Skolimowski's Quinzaine title Four Nights With Anna and Malgorzata Szumowska's Silver Leopard-winning 33 Scenes From Life.
The film, about a boy trying to reunite his family, received awards at Gdynia, Miami, Venice, Warsaw and elsewhere.
Berlin-based M-Appeal has sold Tricks in 26 territories, including France, Germany, Ireland and the UK.
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