The Czech Leonarda Foundation in partnership with LUXOR is pleased to announce
the 1st category of Czech Leonarda Award 2025

Luxor Czech Leonarda Award:
Adaptation of an original Czech literary work

The winner of this category will receive a creative stipend of CZK 200,000.

Czech publishers, in cooperation with Czech Leonarda, nominated 20 books by contemporary Czech authors that they consider to be of high quality, responsive to the contemporary world and successful with readers. You can find their list ZDE.

How to Proceed

1. Select a book from the nominated list and propose your own original adaptation of this work into the form of an audiovisual piece.
2. Formulate your creative vision into a Treatment with a maximum length of 10 A4 pages.
3. Submit the Treatment using the online application form HERE; it is subject to an administrative fee of 500 CZK.

What Qualities We Are Looking For in This Category

We are seeking an original approach to adapting a literary work, a strong intellectual value in the adaptation, and the quality of the screenwriting preparation. Our goal is a full-fledged adaptation of the literary work, not just a part of it or the use of its characters to create a different story.
In the submitted Treatment, we primarily evaluate

• preservation of the idea and spirit of the work
• originality in interpreting the work’s concept
• international intelligibility of the proposed adaptation

What the Treatment Should Specifically Contain

Create the Treatment in a free style; we do not provide any templates.
The Treatment must include:

• an explanation of the creative approach to the adaptation, its purpose and direction, how the adaptation enhances the book; how the author intends to visually and dramatically support (elevate) the work, which dramatic moments she plans to emphasize in the script, and possibly how to dramatically translate the work into a cinematic form
• a development of the adaptation’s storyline
• a comparison with the adapted book: i.e., where it closely adheres to the book, where it differs, and what it aims for; define what is most important in the book for the author, what she wants to convey to the audience through her script; and how literary and cinematic storytelling differ
• optionally, the Treatment may include the basics of a directorial concept and, in the case of adaptation into an animated film, an outline of the visual approach or visual references

Adaptation Formats

We accept Treatments aimed at creating the following formats:

• feature-length theatrical or TV film
• TV miniseries (3 – 10 episodes)
• TV special 50+ minutes (in the case of an animated project)

Notes:

• please do not send scripts or parts of scripts; attach the Treatment (PDF file) as an attachment to the online application form
• in this category, only nominated books can be adapted. Therefore, do not submit an adaptation of your own or a non-nominated book
• artistic designs or other visual references representing your creative vision can be included as attachments directly in the application form. Do not insert images into the Treatment itself
• you may also include a short video (up to 3 minutes) in the online application form, in which you address the jury with your creative vision, notes, or personal motivation. Videos, artistic designs, visuals, or image references are not a requirement for submitting a Treatment
• an integral part of the application is the payment of an administrative fee of 500 CZK for each submitted Treatment. Without payment of this fee, the submitted Treatment will not be entered into the competition

Deadlines

This category is announced on March 10, 2025, and the deadline for submitting complete applications is June 10, 2025.

Zora Cejnková, Irena Pavlásková, and Milan Šteindler on the 1st Category

Application form