Prague, Oct 24 (CTK) – Poet and essayist Petr Kral, art historian Charlotta Kotikova and the late Oscar-winning film-maker Elmar Klos are among the Czech personalities who were presented with the Culture Ministry’s annual prize for their contribution to various branches of culture yesterday.
Kral was awarded for his life artistic achievements including the works he wrote in exile.
Kotikova, a great granddaughter of the first Czechoslovak president, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, has lived in the USA since the 1970s. She was awarded for her life work as curator and art theoretician, and her promotion of Czech art abroad.
Elmar Klos (1910-1993) was an outstanding film director, screenwriter and film teacher. The film The Shop on Main Street that he made together with Slovak Jan Kadar won the Oscar for the best foreign film in 1966.
Another prize in the film category went to Frantisek Filip, a film-maker known for a number of popular films and TV series.
Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman also bestowed the prize on Petr Olszly, theatre theoretician and organiser linked to the popular Husa na provazku theatre in Brno. After the 1989 collapse of the communist regime, Oslzly was an adviser to president Vaclav Havel.
The prize for musicological achievements of international importance went to Jan Kouba.
Zdenka Vydrova was awarded for her many-year work as the municipal architect in charge of the urban development of the historical town of Litomysl, east Bohemia.
