Miloš Forman

Miloš Forman (born Jan Tomáš Forman; Čáslav, Czechoslovakia, present-day Czech Republic; February 18, 1932 - Danbury, Connecticut, United States; April 13 2018) was a Czech-American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Two of his films: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984), received the Oscar for Best Picture and to the best director Other of his works, both Czech and American, were also recognized with international awards.

Biography

Her parents were Lutherans. At an early age he was orphaned, after his mother died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943 and his father in Buchenwald in 1944, where he was arrested for distributing books banned by Nazism. During World War II, Forman lived with relatives and later discovered that his biological father was a Jewish architect. After the war, he attended the Krále Jiřího public school in the city of Podebrady, where his fellow students were Václav Havel and the Mašín brothers. Later, he studied film directing at the Prague Film School, where one of his teachers was Otakar Vávra.

Career

He directed several Czech comedies in Czechoslovakia. When the USSR and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded the country in 1968 to put an end to what was called the Prague Spring, he was in Paris negotiating the production of his first American film. The Czech studio he worked for fired him, claiming that he had left the country illegally. He then moved to New York, where he became a professor of film at Columbia University and co-director (along with František Daniel) of Columbia's film division. One of his protégés was future director James Mangold.

Despite initial difficulties, he began directing in his new country and achieved notable success in 1975 with the adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ( in Spain, Someone Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; in Latin America, Trapped with No Way Out) which won five Awards of the academy, including the best director. In 1977, he became a US citizen. Another notable success was the film Amadeus, which won eight Academy Awards.

In 1997 he received the Crystal Globe for his contribution to the world of cinema at the Karlovy Vary Festival.

Filmography

Cinema

Awards and distinctions

Oscar Awards

Golden Globes

Cannes International Film Festival