Bohdan Sláma

Born

1967-05-29

Birthplace

Opava, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]

Biography

Bohdan Sláma (born 29 May 1967 in Opava) is a Czech film director. He studied at the Czech Technical University (ČVUT) and completed his studies in feature film direction at Prague’s FAMU in 1997 with his graduate film White Acacias (1996). His feature debut The Wild Bees (2001) drew on the poetic style of the 1960s Czechoslovak New Wave and won numerous awards at international film festivals (e.g. Tiger Award at Rotterdam and SKYY prize at San Francisco). Representing the Czech Republic, the film competed for an Oscar nomination and the European Film Award. The similarly atmospheric film Something Like Happiness (2005) took away seven Czech Lions and Best Film at San Sebastián. Further accolades followed for Country Teacher (2008), which won two Czech Lions, and Four Suns (2012), which competed at Sundance. Sláma has also shot several episodes of the series Blaník Office. He heads the department of film direction at FAMU.