Five Czech Radio works have been shortlisted to compete at Prix Europa 2024

The Prix Europa, a week-long media showcase and competition, is one of the highlights of the European festival scene. It showcases the best European audio, video and digital work. Czech Radio's works are repeatedly shortlisted. Last year, Chess Game won first place in the Digital Media Interactive category. It was created in cooperation with the Czech Radio Foundation Světluška and PlayByEars. It is unique because it can be played by the blind.  

"I very much appreciate the fact that five works by Czech Radio have been nominated for this year's Prix Europa. We have long been trying to support the authors’ creativity and produce works of high artistic quality that listeners will appreciate. I congratulate all the creative teams and wish that their works and creative activities will be appreciated by the juries of the festival in Berlin," said René Zavoral, Director General of Czech Radio.

In the upcoming edition, the Audio Documentary Ok, Boomer, which deals with the battle of generational stereotypes that has been taking place for several years on social networks and in the media, will be among the works from 27 European countries. The post-war generation, the so-called Baby Boomers, have been criticized by their younger counterparts for their support of fossil fuels, destruction of the economy, insensitivity towards minorities, and have earned the label "Boomers". Against them are the "snowflakes". Generational contradictions are fostered by changes in access to information and different modes of communication. How to find reconciliation and create a common future to the satisfaction of all generations was filmed by the author of the documentary, Daniel Kupšovský, in 2019. The documentary was produced in cooperation with HateFree Culture and aired on Czech Radio Plus.

The Audio Documentary category will also feature the first episode of the project Forgive?, filmed by musician and performer Ridina Ahmedová three years after her successful documentary debut, Lard. In six main and six accompanying episodes Forgive? discusses deeply personal stories about life's difficult challenges and losses, the various forms of forgiveness and coming to terms with what can no longer be changed. Ridina Ahmedová collaborated with Sound Designer Jaroslav Pokorný who created the sensitive and expressive original music. The project was created under the guidance of creative producer and dramaturge Veronika Ruppert as an original digital project with the support of Czech Radio Plus and this year won the award at the "Podcast of the Year" competition in the "Discovery of the Year" category.

Štěpán Kopřiva and Lukáš Csicsely's 101 Minutes will be presented in the Audio Fiction section of the festival. The thriller, directed by Bela Schenková, is about a fire brigade's intervention in a fire in a Prague metro tunnel. The fictional radio drama, based on the bestselling book of the same name, benefits from a thrilling script and impressive sound design and was broadcast by Czech Radio Dvojka.

The first episode of the six-part podcast series Happiness ASAP, shortlisted in the same category, is set in a start-up environment and created for Radio Wave's young audience. The story about a trio of protagonists who want to make easy money on an AI therapy app was written by Jan Dibitanzl and Jan Jindřich Karásek under the guidance of creative producer and dramaturge Josef Kokta, and directed by Pavel Soukup.

In the Music category, publicist Pavel Klusák's five-part music series Cobain, about one of pop culture's biggest icons, organically combines themes of depression and mental instability with themes of media spectacle and the transformation of the music industry by third-wave feminism. The original podcast on Nirvana's immortality draws listeners into Cobain's story from his teenage search for self to suicide and posthumous mythicization and monetization. The documentary-journalistic form with dramatic elements allowed the author and his team to present in a broad context a figure whose music and charisma have something timeless and universal. The Cobain series was created under the guidance of creative producers Aleš Stuchlý and Barbora Vait and was published on Czech Radio Vltava.