Jan Hřebejk

Jan Hřebejk Czech pronunciation ˈjan ˈɦrɛbɛjk born 27 June 1967 is a Czech film director and actor Born in Prague Hřebejk graduated from high school in 1987 and continued his studies at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague FAMU from 1987 to 1991 majoring in screenplay and dramaturgy He was at FAMU alongside Petr Jarchovský who is also his classmate from high school and subsequently a frequent collaborator as a screenwriter While at FAMU Hřebejk directed and produced two short films Co všechno chcete vědět o sexu a bojíte se to prožít 1988 and L P 1948 19891 from scripts written by his classmate Petr Zelenka His professional directorial debut was a short film for Czech TV Nedělejte nic pokud k tomu nemáte vážný důvod 1991 also written by Zelenka His films caught the attention of viewers and critics and entered student film festivals Also while still at FAMU Hřebejk and Jarchovský wrote a comedy screenplay inspired by Hřebejks background at a summer camp entitled Pejme písen dohola This screenplay was filmed in 1990 as a fulllength feature by director Ondřej Trojan In 1992 Hřebejk filmed a version of his FAMU graduate thesis an interpretation of Egon Hostovskýs Dobrocinny vecírek This was followed by Big Beat a rock and roll comedy set in the 1950s and Hřebejks first major box office success The film was written by Jarchovský based on a story by Petr Šabach and won four Czech Lion awards including Best Film and Best Director for Hřebejk In 1996 Hřebejk directed a childrens TV series Kde padají hvezdy which was syndicated around Europe The following year Hřebejk and Jarchovský won awards from the Film and Television Association and the Literary Fund for their contribution to dramatic television programming for three episodes they wrote for the TV series Bachelors The writing and production team behind Big Beat subsequently reunited for two further films Cosy Dens Czech Pelíšky 1999 and Divided We Fall Czech Musíme si pomáhat 2000 both of which became enormously successful within the Czech Republic His 2009 film Kawasakis Rose was selected as the Czech entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards but didnt make the final shortlist