The Covid Year shuffled the cards not only in the field of audiovisual entertainment. Nonetheless, the Moravian-Silesian Region managed to bring to life several interesting projects. Let’s introduce them.
The Moravian-Silesian Film Office, a part of Moravian-Silesian Tourism, stood alongside the birth of several feature films, a short movie and a reality show. The prospects had been great before the pandemic hit. On the break of February and March, there even were two crews in the region simultaneously. The first managed the production of a short movie called Trofej (Trophy); they broke camp in Děhylov for several days at the local forest warden’s lodge. You could also see that crew shoot on forest trails near Čeladná. The movie is currently in the post-production phase. The Moravian-Silesian Region supported this filmmaking process with a gift of 100 thousand CZK as part of the regional audiovisual work subsidies. The film features not only the region’s sceneries but also about thirty resident extras, regional costume designs and local props.
At the same time, the Ostrava region hosted the shooting of several scenes for the full length feature Lidi krve (People of Blood). Some of the scenes were shot in the streets of Vítkovice, at the Odra river near the OKK coking plant, in Bolt Tower and in other locations of the Lower Vítkovice area. This feature drama will hit movie theaters in July 2021. It was supported by the Czech Film Fund and created in cooperation with Czech Television.
In July, our region welcomed the production company Bionaut and their feature film Hrana zlomu (Break Point), a genre film which stars Ostrava’s actors, including Štěpán Kozub, and which was supported by the regional subsidy program with 450 thousand CZK. Just like all other films supported by the regional subsidy program, this production also had to use local service providers and locally spend at least twice the amount of the subsidy.
In September, a joint Dutch-Czech crew of fifty paid a visit to Tatra Kopřivnice. The entire shooting session took place without the prying eyes of the media. We were only able to publicize this information after the airing of this Dutch reality show, which has been topping the ratings for twenty-one years. At the beginning of January, over 3 million viewers of the Dutch reality show Wie is de mol? (Who is the mole?) saw the interior of Tatra Kopřivnice, including its famous trucks, museum and polygon.
The film office helps incoming film crews select appropriate shooting locations, organize reconnaissance tours and mediate communication with local service providers and authorities. Last year, we assisted incoming production crews with about twenty location requests and many inquiries regarding financing possibilities within the region. We caught the interest of world-class production crews from abroad. We had several chances to show filmmakers from the famous French company Gaumont around our locations.
The Moravian-Silesian Film Office closely cooperated on the preparations and realization of the subsidy program for the support of audiovisual work in the Moravian-Silesian region, announced in 2019. Other projects supported by the subsidy program last year included the documentary Paměť Moravskoslezského kraje (Memory of the Moravian-Silesian Region) produced by the Post Bellum organization, the documentary Jeseníky – opuštěný ráj (Jeseníky - Abandoned Paradise) and the feature film Ženská pomsta (Female Revenge), which premiered in September 2020. We already know that thanks to this successful subsidy program, among others, filmmakers will return to our region with more feature films.