Petr Zelenka
Biography
Petr Zelenka (born 1967) graduated in scriptwriting and dramaturgy from the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Between June 1990 and March 1991 he worked as a script editor at the Barrandov Film Studios. From 1990 to 1996 four of his original television screenplays were produced by Czech Television. In 1993, he made his debut as a director with a film about punks, Padlock. In 1997 he premiered his most highly awarded film, the episodic film Buttoners, which won the prestigious Czech Film Academy Awards – Czech Lions for best script, direction and film as well as many other local and international awards including Tiger Award 1998 from Rotterdam Film Festival. The popular film Loners (2000) was based on Zelenka's script and became the No. 1 box office hit of the year. His other films (both script and direction) include Year of the Devil (2003, Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary Film Festival and six Czech Film Academy Awards – Czech Lions) andTales of Common Insanity (2005, main prizes at the International Film Festivals in Karlovy Vary resp. Moscow). His latest film The Brothers Karamazov (2008) won two Czech Lions for the best film and best direction. Petr Zelenka made his debut in the theatre with translations of plays by Michael Frayn. His debut as a playwright and, for the first time, a theatre director was withTales of Common Insanity, which was premiered at the Dejvické Theatre in Prague in 2001 and won the prestigious Alfréd Radok Award for the play of the year. This play has been translated into many foreign languages and by 2013 it has scored about 40 productions in 12 countries. Zelenka’s play, Teremin, was first shown in the Dejvické Theatre in 2005. It has been translated into English, Russian, Polish and German and has been produced also in Perm, Russia and Warsaw, Poland. Zelenka’s play Coming Clean (2007) was commissioned by the famous Narodowy Stary Theatre in Cracow, Poland, and it gained Alfréd Radok Award 2010. In November 2011 Petr Zelenka directed his new play Endangered Species at the National Theatre in Prague, and in December 2012 he directed his play Dabing Street at the Dejvické Theatre in Prague. In the field of television he was creative supervisor, one of the adapting authors and director of 20 episodes of the TV series, In Treatment (HBO, Czech Republic 2011).
Update: July 2013