Biography
A graduate of Prague's School of Arts and Crafts, in 1936 he created a puppet theater, which was disbanded after the outbreak of WWII. During the war he designed stage sets and illustrated children's books. In 1945 he set up an animation unit with several collaborators at the Prague film studio; they called the unit "Trick Brothers." Trnka specialized in puppet animation, a traditional Czech art form, of which he became the undisputed master. He also created animated cartoons, but it was his puppet animation that made him an internationally recognized artist and the winner of film festival awards at Venice and elsewhere. He wrote the scripts for most of his own films.
Directed
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The Hand (1965) — Director
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Springman and the SS (1946) — Director
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A Midsummer's Night Dream (1959) — Director
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Song of the Prairie (1949) — Director
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The Emperor's Nightingale (1949) — Director
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Cybernetic Grandma (1963) — Director
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Story of the Bass Cello (1949) — Director
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The Good Soldier Svejk (1956) — Director
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Old Czech Legends (1953) — Director
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The Czech Year (1947) — Director
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Two Little Frosts (1955) — Director
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Archangel Gabriel and Mistress Goose (1965) — Director
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Prince Bayaya (1951) — Director
- The Gift (1947) — Director
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The Devil's Mill (1949) — Director
- The Golden Fish (1951) — Director
- Passion (1961) — Director
- Grandpa Planted a Beet (1946) — Director
- The Merry Circus (1951) — Director
- The Animals and the Brigands (1947) — Director
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The Hurvinek Circus (1955) — Director
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The Good Soldier Schweik (1986) — Director
- Kutasek and Kutilka (1954) — Director
- Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka – Švejkova budějovická anabase (1956) — Director
- Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka – Švejkovy nehody ve vlaku (1955) — Director
- Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka – Z Hatvanu na hranice Haliče (1954) — Director
- How the Old Man Traded It All Away (1954) — Director
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Why UNESCO? (1959) — Director
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The Puppet Films of Jiri Trnka (2000) — Director
