František Vláčil

František Vláčil (19 February 1924 – 27 January 1999) was a Czech film director, painter, and graphic artist. From 1945 to 1950, he studied aesthetics and art history at Masaryk University in Brno. Later he worked in various groups and ateliers (e.g. on animated films), but his main area became played film. His films are well known for extraordinarily high art quality. Vláčil was awarded many film prizes like the Prize of the International Film Festival 1998 in Karlovy Vary or the Czech Lion Prize for his longstanding contribution to world film culture. In 1998 Vláčil was voted the greatest Czech director of all time by a poll of Czech film critics. His film Marketa Lazarová is considered by some critics to be the best Czech film ever made. ()