Helena Trestikova wins MEDIA European Talent Award

The MEDIA European Talent Award is chosen annually from among all projects applying for MEDIA Single Project Development funding. The documentary Zazrak– Miracle 35 Years Later was selected from 345 eligible projects.

European Commissioner Viviane Reding will present Trestikova with the award at a May 15 ceremony in Cannes. The project is invited to the Marché du Film, where Dominique Welinski, president of Pierre Grise Distribution in France, will assist her in her search for potential buyers and co-producers.

The project is a continuation of Trestikova’s documentary Miracle (Zazrak), which was her thesis film when she graduated from Prague’s FAMU film academy in 1975. Miracle looked at the experience of new mothers. The new film examines the lives of the children born in the course of that observation.

“When I began making long-term observation documentaries back then, it didn’t occur to me that they would have such international success so many years later. It goes to show that you should never give up and do everything you can to hold on and see it through,” Trestikova said.

Trestikova’s most recent completed film, René, won the EFA Grand Prix Arte for Best Documentary in 2008. The director is currently finishing Katka, a documentary about a young, drug-addicted single mother.

“We believe in the strong potential of Helena’s time-lapse documentaries to attract audiences all over the world, which Helena’s previous films have proven,” Negativ producer Katerina Cerna said. “After the successful cooperation of Negativ and Helena Trestikova on her documentaries Marcela, René, and Katka, we are happy to continue to work together on Helena’s new project Zazrak– Miracle 35 Years Later.”

Last year’s award went to Estonian director Veiko Ounpuu for his project The Temptation Of St. Tony.