RIP Břetislav Pojar

 Screenwriter and director of animated films Břetislav Pojar died on Friday evening. Shortly before his death he had celebrated his eighty-ninth birthday.

According Podhradský Pojar he just suddenly died. "He was feeling good. He managed this week with a number of his students to celebrate his eighty-ninth birthday," he said. "For me personally and for our entire community animation was a great symbol of professional filmmaking and design," said Podhradský. "He was a man who understood how people work. Was always a few moves ahead, knowing what people do, and understood his audience," he added. "He was a mentor and friend, He was one of the best in its field, was a complete tip," said Koutsky, who last saw his friend at the celebration of his eighty-ninth birthday.

Pojar was born on 7 October 1923 in Sušice in Šumava. After the closure of Czech universities in 1942 he deployed as fázař AFIT to study, which was to become the imperial competition of Walt Disney. Soon after the war, this studio was changed into the Trick Brothers Studio under the direction of Jiri Trnka. Pojar was one of its leading animators. Under their hands the work originated as the Old Czech Legends, and Midsummer Night's Dream.

In 1946 he went with the emerging Trnka Studio puppet films. Made his directorial debut in 1951 film Hansel and Gretel. In 1960 the film won for The Lion and the song won the Grand Prix at the Annecy Festival and followed other awards, including the Golden Bear from the Berlin Film Festival and the Golden Palm in Cannes. Pojar was a scene painter on the Euro-western "Lemonade Joe" (1964).

In 1990 he was appointed professor and became the first head of the animation department at FAMU, where he was active until now. Pojar also worked for a long time for the Canadian government film office ONF / NFB.

Other important works include the leading Czech animator on a film about five stories for schoolchildren on the theme of the book Trnka Garden. His last work was a collaboration on the film or Autopohádky Fimfárum second.