13/09/2018 - Olmo Omerzu’s third feature, a coming-of-age road movie, will represent Czech cinema as the country’s bid for the Academy Award for Best Foreign-language Film

The latest, highly anticipated feature by Slovenian-born, Prague-based filmmaker Olmo Omerzu, who has already managed to make a name for himself on the international circuit, premiered in North America on 10 September (see the news). As Winter Flies [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olmo Omerzu
film profile] was being unveiled at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Czech Film and Television Academy was voting on the country’s candidate for the upcoming Oscars race.

Given the positive reactions to this story about an unlikely friendship between two boys and their adventures in a stolen car, the final pick, made from among 21 fiction and documentary features, comes as no surprise. Other possible domestic films that ended up ranking behind Winter Flies were the civilisation horror Domestique [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adam Sedlák
film profile], two dramas about former regimes, Jan Palach (see the news) and Toman (see the news), and the dramedy The Smiles of Sad Men. 

Omerzu first entered the international film-festival circuit with the drama A Night Too Young [+see also:
trailer
interview: Jiří Konečný
film profile], his graduation film that doubled as his feature-length fiction debut, which premiered at the Berlinale. He reaped a number of awards for his debut, and he did likewise with his sophomore feature, Family Film [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olmo Omerzu
film profile]. Omerzu won the Best Director Award after the world premiere of Winter Flies at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Family Film will be released in French cinemas next month, while Winter Flies will continue to tour the festival circuit, and is slated to bow in the UK, Egypt, the Netherlands, India and Canada. It has already been sold to China and Spain.

Winter Flies is a co-production by Jiří Konečný, of Czech production outfit endorfilm, who also produced his previous endeavours, the country's public broadcaster, Czech Television, Slovenia's Cvinger Film, Poland's Koskino and Slovakia's Punkchart Films. The international rights are handled by Cercamon.