04/03/2013 - The annual awards for the best in Czech cinema were given out for the 20th time as the evening became a triumph for the noir detective drama set in the tough years of the communist regime

After being nominated eleven times, official Czech Oscar submission In the Shadow [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has wrapped up the 2012 season by a victorious evening as it won nine Czech Lions including those for best film, director, screenplay, actor (Ivan Trojan) and a number all the technical categories.

The classically shot dark drama directed by David Ondříček (son of Miloš Forman collaborator and Oscar-winning cinematographer Miroslav Ondříček) depicts a solitary policeman suspecting a plot of the communist officials behind a seemingly ordinary robbery.

The acting categories were the only ones where In the Shadow did not dominate. Gabriela Míčová became Best Actress for her role in Odpad město smrt based on a story by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and its subsequent theatre adaptation, while Ondřej Vetchý won the award for Best Supporting Actor, which was the only award for the successful football comedy Okresní přebor. Despite entering the evening with the biggest number of nominations, Bohdan Sláma's Sundance competitor Four Suns left with a single nod for Best Supporting Actress Klára Melíšková.

Love in the Grave about a couple of homeless lovers living in an old crypt at a Prague cemetery was named best documentary as director David Vondráček beat renowned filmmakers Olga Sommerová and EFA winner Helena Třeštíková.

The award ceremony was dedicated to the past twenty years of Czech cinema and has once again failed to either follow the Oscar glamour or mock it as it has attempted to in a number of cases in the past.

The results also to a large extent copy those of the Czech Film Critics' Awards which were handed out in January. In 2012 both the critics and the Academy failed to go beyond the most obvious choices and help further recognize upcoming talents such as Olmo Omerzu (A Night Too Young), Iveta Grofová, Michal Hogenauer or the directors behind the conceptual football documentary Two nil.