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Artistic endeavor isn't about competing; even so, applicants still have to be placed in order of merit at the academy's entrance exams. But how do you assess artistic talent? And what role can art play in today's world? (NR, 102 min.)
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Year after year, talent admission exams are held at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague to determine who among the many applicants will earn a coveted spot at the 220-year-old institution. By extension, those chosen will set the tone in the fine arts world for years to come. Professors from each of the school’s subdisciplines interrogate the nervous young applicants, who in turn must not only present their work but also answer for their own artistic beliefs and practice. Equally exhausted by this process, the instructors are confronted by their own set of questions: how can and should artistic talent be assessed? What role do institutions such as the Academy play in the 21st century? What does the next generation of great artists look like?
In the vein of Frederick Wiseman’s work, ART TALENT SHOW offers insightful commentary on the intergenerational cultural dissonance surrounding topics like identity politics and social justice in relation to art and its practice. A “documentary less about art or talent than about the Sisyphean task of assessing one and nurturing the other” (Variety), filmmakers Adéla Komrzý and Tomáš Bojar take a sensitive and ultimately light-hearted approach to the examination of art school admission. [Film Movement]
Starring: Kateřina Olivová, Darina Alster, Marek Meduna, Petr Dub
Director: Adéla Komrzý, Tomáš Bojar
Languages: Czech
Genre: Documentary
"A witty, Wiseman-esque documentary about Art School staff and their aspiring students.... [A] drolly insightful odyssey of oddity."
— Jessica Kiang, Variety
"ART TALENT SHOW is a wry, clever, eye-opening look at a world few of us enter, save for the brave artists seeking higher education."
— April Neale , AWFJ.org
"Immersive and engaging...The result is an important statement about compassion, respect and the passionate work of artists in search of an opportunity to shine."
— Brazilian Press
"Bojar and Komrzy have been blessed with an eccentric cast of faculty members who are fascinating and often hilarious. Spending time with them is a pleasure. I hated to see this one end."
— Scott Phillips, Forbes
"This funny, thoughtful, verité look at the yearly selection process in Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts manages to pack insights about education, societal shifts, and intellectual differences without getting bogged down in culture war cliches."
— Dmitry Samarov, Chicago Reader
"[T]his rigorous yet witty documentary brings to mind the observational, accumulative style of Frederick Wiseman; film-makers Adéla Komrzý and Tomáš Bojar are interested not only in the individual subjects, but also the hidden machinations of cultural institutions."
— Phuong Le, The Guardian
"What’s not to like in a humorous, thoughtful doc that tears down the curtain on how contemporary academia judges talent in the art students it will admit to Prague’s prestigious and exclusive Academy of Fine Arts? [A] refreshing change of pace and well worth watching."
— Deborah Young, The Film Verdict
"ART TALENT SHOW is itself provocative but also hilarious, both a sendup and a tribute to the complexity of contemporary art... [the film] spotlights complex attitudes about the relationship between identity, craft and art, even in highly progressive contexts — and how fun they are to watch while they do it."
— Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times
"[A] highly entertaining observational film about the annual evaluation process at the Prague Academy of Arts...The film, shot over one week, is primarily focused on the studio talent tests. The prospective students paint, scream (on command) and answer confrontational questions. Art Talent Show shows the toll that this process takes on all involved. Interspersed between moments of playful camaraderie, the teachers clearly suffer through the exam process too."
— Megan Durnford, POV Magazine
