The Role of the Agent and Casting Director in Film and Advertising (Petra Vaněk Svarinská, Ladislav Krapek, Vica Kerekes)
What role do the agent and casting director play in relation to the actors within the context of film and advertising? In what ways to agents and casting directors help actors build their careers? Why is professional casting indispensable for the work of directors, and how can this cooperation help those who are just starting their directing careers? All these questions will be discussed with Petra Vaněk Svarinská, founder and director of one of the most important casting agencies in the Czech Republic, agent Ladislav Krapek of LaK Productions, and Slovak actress Vica Kerekes.
The event will be in Czech.
- Czech Republic
- 2022, 90 min
Petra Vaněk Svarinská is the founder and managing director of Vivid Casting, one of the most prominent casting agencies in the Czech Republic. Petra has worked in the film and advertising industry as a casting director since 1998, and her filmography comprises hundreds of commercials, feature films, and television series, including the series Božena (for Czech Television), the films The Seven Ravens, In the Shadows, and many other projects. In 2008, she founded the Reset Actors talent management agency, which represents some of the most renowned actors and actresses in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Her great passion is to work with a new generation of extraordinary emerging actors and to guide their careers towards a breakthrough on both the local and international stage. She is a founding member of the professional talent database Actorsmap.cz.
Ladislav Krapek studied acting at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and arts management at Birkbeck, University of London. He previously worked as a producer at the Komedie Theatre in Prague and most recently as director of the Bolek Polívka Theatre, collaborating on numerous domestic and international projects. He has been involved in film and theater for most of his professional life and enjoys exploring collaborative opportunities.
Besides frequently appearing in Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian films, Vica Kerekes has also acted in international co-productions – for instance, appearing alongside Oscar-winning actor Ed Harris in Resistance (2020). She was born in Slovakia, but moved to Budapest after completing her study of acting at Bratislava’s Academy of Performing Arts. As an actress, she mostly works in Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest – mainly in film, but also in theater and television. She has more than forty films under her belt. In 2010, she was named best actress at the Hungarian Film Week festival for her role in Ki/Be Tawaret, and in 2013 she earned the IGRIC Award in the category of best actress for her portrayal of Agnes in the drama Seven Days of Sin. The same role also yielded her a nomination for the Czech Lion Awards. In 2017, she won a Hungarian Film Academy award for her performance in Tranzitido, and in 2021 she won two best actress awards for her role in the Hungarian film Tall Tales – one at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and one at the South-East European Film Festival in Paris.