9/18/03
Ondricek
Tabbed For
2004 ASC International Achievement Award
Michael Chapman, ASC • Howard A. Anderson Jr., ASC • Irwin Winkler • Kevin Brownlow
Ondricek is a native of Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he began his career working on documentaries during the late 1950s. He studied at the state film school at FAMU in the evenings for four years, and was in the front ranks of a “new wave” of Eastern European filmmakers who penetrated the Hollywood mainstream during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Ondricek earned Oscar nominations for Ragtime in 1982 and for Amadeus in 1985. He has compiled an eclectic list of some 40 narrative credits, ranging from musicals and comedies to period dramas. His body of work includes such memorable features as Slaughterhouse-Five, Hair, Silkwood, A League of Their Own, Valmont, Awakenings, The Preacher’s Wife and Riding in Cars with Boys. “Miroslav Ondricek has made an indelible impression on the international art of filmmaking,” says ASC President Richard Crudo. “He was born with the soul of an artist and mastered the skills needed to express himself as a cinematographer. His films have entertained and enlightened audiences around the globe. He is a source of inspiration for filmmakers with unrealized dreams in every part of the world.” Ondricek joins a relatively small group of cinematographers who have received the ASC International Achievement Award. Previous recipients include Freddie Young, BSC, Jack Cardiff, BSC, Gabriel Figueroa, AMC, Henri Alekan, Raoul Coutard, Freddie Francis, BSC, Giuseppe Rotunno, ASC, AIC, Oswald Morris, BSC, Billy Williams, BSC, and Douglas Slocombe, BSC. The only previous Eastern European recipient was Witold Sobocinski, PSC, from Poland, who received the ASC International Achievement Award last year. Ondricek has deep roots in Prague. His family has lived there for generations. He was around four years old when the Munich Treaty opened the door for the Nazi army to occupy his native land. He made friends at school with a boy whose father ran three cinemas in Prague. Ondricek spent countless hours in the basement of his friend’s house watching movies from America and other Western countries that were banned in occupied Czechoslovakia. His fascination with films continued after the war ended. After graduating from high school, Ondricek was an assistant on a documentary film crew that produced newsreels for theaters. He attended the film school at FAMU between documentary projects, where he learned about the history and culture of filmmaking as well as techniques. Later, Ondricek worked at the state-run Barrandov Studio on feature film camera crews. That’s where he met Milos Forman. Ondricek shot Forman’s first 16 mm black-and-white film, Konkurs (Competition), in 1963.
Lindsay Anderson, an English director, provided an opportunity for Ondricek to work in London. They collaborated on The White Bus in 1967 and If… in 1968. Ondricek joined Forman in New York in 1970 where they filmed Taking Off. The next year, he collaborated with George Roy Hill on Slaughterhouse-Five. That put his career into high gear. Ondricek earned critical raves for his counter-culture camerawork on Hair (1979), which was directed by Forman. Their next collaborations were the The World According to Garp and Ragtime. “My grandfather’s brother moved to New York in 1906. He lived on the Lower Side. I never met anyone from that side of the family, but it gave me something extra to be curious about when we were working on Ragtime,” Ondricek said after receiving his first Oscar nomination for the film which was set in New York during that period. In 1983, Ondricek collaborated with Mike Nichols on Silkwood, a true story about the life of a worker in a nuclear parts plant. Karen Silkwood was portrayed by Meryl Streep. Nichols and Streep garnered Oscar nominations along with the writer, editor and Cher in a supporting role. Ondricek’s cinematography was so seamlessly weaved into the fabric of the story that it flew under the Academy’s radar. “I think my documentary experience helped me keep the artistic side of cinematography from intruding on the story,” he said. “I have always felt that the most important thing is the story. My only job is to help tell it. … You have to look at a movie the way that audiences do, and see it as they do. It can be technically perfect and artistic, but if the audience doesn’t respond to the emotions, the film doesn’t work.” Ondricek was lauded by the critics for his camera work on Amadeus (1984), a period film about Mozart. Leonard Maltin’s review praised Ondricek’s “exquisite camerawork.” During recent years, Ondricek has collaborated with Penny Marshall on A League of Their Own, The Preacher’s Wife and Riding in Cars With Boys. “Miroslav Ondricek earned this tribute from his peers in recognition of his artistry and his influence on the art form,” says Owen Roizman, chairman of the ASC Awards Committee. “He has done original work and made important contributions to unforgettable films. You also have to admire the dedication it took for him to succeed. He began his career behind the Iron Curtain isolated from the community of Western filmmakers, but he endured and succeeded. That required courage and perseverance.” The ASC will mark its 85th anniversary during the 18th Annual Outstanding Achievement Awards. The organization traces its roots to the dawn of the motion picture industry during the early 1900s, when the Cinema Club was organized in New York and the Static Club in Los Angeles. The two clubs merged and organized ASC in 1919 for the primary purpose of advancing the art and craft of filmmaking. There were 15 charter members. There are some 215 active members today in many parts of the world, and another 135 associate members from allied disciplines that support the art and craft of cinematography. For information about the 18th Annual Outstanding Achievement Awards,
visit our
Awards Page or contact Patty Armacost at (323) 969-4333 or
(e-mail) Patty@theasc.com. |
Miroslav Ondricek, ASC will receive the 2004 American Society of
Cinematographers (ASC) International Achievement Award during the 18th
annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards on Feb. 8, 2004, at the Century
Plaza Hotel. The award is presented annually to an individual who has
made enduring contributions to advancing the international art of cinematography. 
During the next several
years, Ondricek collaborated with Forman, Ivan Passer, Jan Nemec,
and other young Czech directors. In 1967, he
filmed Hori, Ma Panenko (The Firemen’s Ball) with Forman. The
director described the film as “a good-natured lampoon of the
nation’s fire fighting bureaucracy.” It was banned by the
government, which was clamping down on freedom of expression in Czech
films. Forman said it was a forerunner of the Soviet army’s occupation
of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. |