Alice Nellis retrospective

Alice Nellis, born on January 3, 1971, is a distinguished Czech film director, screenwriter, translator, and musician. Initially pursuing a musical career as a flautist, she later broadened her academic horizons by studying English and American literature. Her interest in film led her to the prestigious Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), where she specialised in screenwriting and dramaturgy.

Nellis made her directorial debut with Eeny Meeny (1999), a tragicomedy exploring family relationships in a small Czech community during local elections. The film won the Best Screenplay award at the FAMU Festival, the bronze Rosa Camuna ex-aequo at the 18th edition of Bergamo Film Meeting, and Best Film at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Her next film, Some Secrets (2002), a dark and incisive road movie portraying complex family dynamics through drama and comedy, earned her a Czech Lion for Best Screenplay and the New Directors Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. With Little Girl Blue (2007), a film produced by Oscar-winning director Jan Svěrák, exploring the emotional journey of Julie, a translator navigating significant life changes while moving to a new house with her husband and teenage daughter, received the Czech Lion for Best Film and also garnered Nellis another Bronze Rosa Camuna at the 2008 Bergamo Film Meeting.

Her subsequent works continued to explore human relationships. Mamas & Papas (2010), examined parenthood’s complexities,the audience-acclaime Perfect Days (2011), based on Liz Lochhead’s play, depicted an emancipated woman discovering her maternal instinct; and comedy Revival (2013), showcased her versatility through the story of a reuniting rock band.

Nellis’s filmography further expanded with Angels (2014), adapted from Michal Viewegh’s bestseller about four angels confronting human fragility, and Auditioning For Parenthood (2014), a time-lapse documentary following couples through their adoption journeys. In 2015, Nellis adapted Božena Němcová’s classic fairy tale, The Seven Ravens. For HBO, she made a TV drama series Wasteland (2016), co-written with Ivan Zachariáš. In 2022 she directed Buko, a delicate comedy about affection and change. That same year she also completed the documentary Semyon Bychkov, an intimate portrait of the talented conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. In 2024 she returned to TV co-writing and co-directing with Jiří Havelka the miniseries Surrogates, again focusing on the theme of parenthood.

Nellis also wrote screenplays for several succesful Czech films, including animated feature Even Mice Belong in Heaven (2021) by Denisa Grimmová and Jan Bubeníček, and Zatopek (2021) by David Ondříček.

Beyond cinema, Nellis is an accomplished stage director, having been nominated for the Alfréd Radok Award in 2012 for her production of Philip Glass's chamber opera Les enfants terribles. She is also a co-founder of MeetFactory, an international center for contemporary art in Prague, and has published short stories in various anthologies.

Alice Nellis will be present in Bergamo on March 12 and 13. Her retrospective was made in collaboration with the Czech Center of Milan.

The films featured in the retrospective:

Buko (2022)
The Seven Ravens (2015)
Adoption (2014)
Angels (2014)
Revival (2013)
Perfect Days (2011)
Mamas & Papas (2010)
Little Girl Blue (2007)
Some Secrets (2002)
Eeny Meeny (2000)

About Bergamo Film Meeting

The Bergamo Film Meeting is an annual international film festival held in Bergamo, Italy, celebrating innovative and independent cinema from around the world. Founded in 1983, the festival has established itself as a key platform for emerging filmmakers, arthouse productions, and retrospective showcases of influential directors. With a focus on European cinema, the event presents a diverse program, including feature films, documentaries, and short films, alongside industry panels, workshops, and networking opportunities.