David Balda is a 26-year-old English-speaking Czech-based movie director who directed his first amateur movie at 16. Since then, he has helmed two theatrical films, the latest of which, Manipulation, is set to be released in May 2026 in Italy, Germany, Poland, and in his native Czech Republic.
VideoAge‘s Water Cooler met with Balda (pictured above) via Zoom last month and found that even though the director is rather young, he’s very involved with the distribution of his films, having input in everything, even the marketing campaigns.
However, he’s aware of his youth and the fact that he’s “quite new in this profession,” and made sure to mention that he relies on the wisdom of the experts that surround him, including veteran sound directors, light directors, and editors. “I have a very good editor,” confided Balda. “She worked in Hollywood movies and knows what I want. I only enter in the editing room to check the results, not to edit,” he said.
But Balda, who cites Martin Scorsese and Czech-born Milos Forman as his favorite movie directors, is hands-on with scripts and camera work. “Even though I have a good camera operator, I’m my own director of photography [or cinematographer],” he said. As for scripts, Balda writes or co-writes his own scripts, so he doesn’t usually deviate “much” from them.
When asked about his thoughts on intimacy coordinators, he said that they aren’t very popular in Europe yet, but that he uses them in the few love scenes that his movies have since “it is safer.”
Balda never had any formal training. At 16, when he was still in high school, he produced an amateur short film, and later, in 2017, he sent it to a Czech TV station –– which aired it. His career took off overnight. He quickly moved on to professional movie sets with international casts. At first, his mother provided the financing, but later, for his second theatrical film, he acquired outside investors (in addition to his immediate family).
He also got a sales agent in London, as well as an Italian PR agency, which is now very active in pitching him to various international media outlets.
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