Prix Bohemia Radio to take over Olomouc
The international festival of radio production is being held in one of the Czech lands’ historical royal cities for the third time. Festival director Josef Podstata takes me behind the scenes of the 34th edition of the Prix Bohemia Radio, which runs from 19 to 22 March 2018, and reveals how current preparations are going and what his expectations are.
Preparations for the 34th edition of Prix Bohemia Radio are stepping up. How are you preparing for the upcoming edition, both professionally and personally?
Professionally we’re preparing together within the entire Czech Radio festival team, and that’s most apparent in the growing frequency of organisational meetings. Preparations are also continuing to intensify at the place itself, in Olomouc.
Last year the festival of radio production was expanded to take in the new international category News Report, which is open to people from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, as well as from the countries of invited broadcasters. Are the organisers planning anything new for the upcoming edition?
For the following year too, Czech Radio has, as is traditional, announced three categories. Alongside Documentary and Drama, there’s the aforementioned international News Report category. In this the festival remains the same and hopefully we’ll build a new tradition. Naturally we’re preparing a couple of new things, in particular in the accompanying programme, where we are focusing on refining what has gone well in Olomouc in the last two years. Our main aim is for the whole festival to be better and more colourful every year, and we’re headed in the right direction.
You’re in the post of Festival Director for the third year. It’s the third year the event is taking place in Olomouc and people say all good things come in threes. What are your expectations for this year?
Yes, they say all good things come in threes, just like they say once is never and twice is always. I firmly believe that both lines will apply. Those are my general expectations as regards the future of the Prix Bohemia Radio festival in Olomouc.
What are you currently most looking forward to within the festival?
I’m most looking forward to the opening day, when the whole big event cranks up and our year of preparations will be utilised, in a good way, I firmly believe. But I’m also looking forward to the final evening of the festival, which I hope will take place with a justified sense of satisfaction with the work done.
Are you nervous now?
Paradoxically, I’m generally nervous when such a situation comes to an end, whatever the outcome. Today in the post of Festival Director it calms me knowing that it clearly isn’t for life and above all that I’m surrounded on all sides by a high-quality team and colleagues at Czech Radio, that there’s no reason to be nervous.
