Director of Craft: Ivan Zacharias

More used to directing behind the camera than directing a jury, Stink’s Ivan Zacharias rose from post-communist Prague to become this year’s Craft Jury president on the back of some truly iconic work, as Isobel Roberts discovers in this excerpt from issue 136.

The first thing that ran through Ivan Zacharias’ head when he was asked to lead the Film Craft jury at this year’s Cannes was a sneaking doubt felt by some of his fellow jury presidents too: “I must be getting quite old to be asked to be president of the jury, I thought,” jokes the Czech director. “It’s getting serious now, maybe I should start doing something else.”

But as one of the most acclaimed commercials directors in the industry, Zacharias certainly has the right credentials to lead the 2012 Film Craft jury. Represented by Stink, he’s been recognised for his filmmaking skills at festivals across the globe, and won seven golds at Cannes itself for iconic spots such as Honda Impossible Dream, Nike I Feel Pretty and Stella Artois Doctor. Last year, Zacharias was also the first-ever commercials director to?be awarded the Fellowship Award by the British Arrow Awards (formerly the BTAAs). All in all, it’s a pretty impressive CV for the 41-year-old director leading the pack at the festival’s third Film Craft award, following in the footsteps of the previous two presidents – South African director and Velocity Films co-founder Keith Rose and @radical.media CEO Jon Kamen.

“It’s nice to be in charge of something like this,” comments Zacharias, “but, at the same time, I have been in charge of a few juries and it comes with a lot of responsibility. You have to be very careful and set limits as to what is acceptable, and what’s great and what’s not, and obviously it all depends on the rest of the jury – it depends on the whole team.”

Zacharias’ route into advertising came after he embarked on a course at the prestigious FAMU film academy in Prague with plans to become a cinematographer and documentary filmmaker. At the same time, as communist rule collapsed in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic formed, the international ad scene began to thrive in the city as Prague flourished as a popular shooting destination. Zacharias was still studying when he was offered the chance to step behind the camera on an advertising set.

Starting out at Stillking, Zacharias has?since developed into one of the most noted directors of his generation, and more recent campaigns include his award-winning spots for Magners through Red Brick Road, as well as a series of trailers for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival that have featured the likes of Jude Law, John Malkovich and Harvey Keitel.

Subscribers to shots.net can access the full interview here, alternatively you can pick up a free copy of the new shots magazine, the Cannes special, in the Palais.