Czech Christmas classic gets marathon screenings on German TV

In the United States, the 1983 classic A Christmas Story has become the film of the holiday season, with marathon screenings on TV beginning on Thanksgiving in late November and running right up through Christmas Day.

In the Czech Republic and many countries throughout Europe, meanwhile, the 1973 Czech movie Three Wishes for Cinderella (Tři oříšky pro Popelku) has become a Christmas classic of comparable level. Nearly 50 years after its original release, the Czech Cinderella's exposure is still gaining momentum.

This holiday season in Germany, for example, Three Wishes for Cinderella (known locally as Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel), will receive at least 15 screenings throughout the holiday season, spread across nine broadcasters. No less than five TV stations will broadcast the movie on December 24.

In the Czech Republic, meanwhile, the film will receive just a single screening, on the evening of December 24 on TV Nova.

Over the past ten years, the country's biggest broadcasters - Nova, Prima, and Czech Television - have competed via a lottery system over the honor of a single broadcast of Three Wishes for Cinderella.

While Three Wishes for Cinderella may be seen less often in the Czech Republic than its neighbors, however, the exclusivity may help the movie retain some of its magic for local viewers. In a recent poll on iDnes.cz, a whopping 87 percent of readers said that they would watch the Christmas classic this holiday season.

Czech viewers can also get a taste of the holiday Cinderella spirit this year on December 20, when the 2021 Norwegian remake of Three Wishes for Cinderella is broadcast on local TV for the first time.

"On Christmas Eve, we will offer the most classic of movie fairy tales: this year, in prime time, we will present the immortal Three Nuts for Cinderella with the legendary Libuše Šafránková," TV Nova program director Silvia Majeská told journalists on Friday.

"As part of the Christmas scheme, we will also offer the recent Norwegian remake of this Czechoslovak [holiday favorite], called Three Wishes for Cinderella," [Note: the Czech and German versions of the title translate to Three "Nuts" for Cinderella, but in English and Norwegian the heroine gets three "Wishes".]

TV Nova was quick to note that while the remake received positive reviews from Norwegian critics, however, "they repeatedly mentioned that nothing compared to the original Czechoslovak version."

Of course, you don't have to wait till the December 24 TV broadcast of Three Wishes for Cinderella to get in the holiday spirit.

Three Wishes for Cinderella is available in the Czech Republic on DVD and blu-ray, with a new 4K restoration overseen by the Czech National Film Archive. It's also available to stream on local services such as Voyo and DAFilms, though it's no longer streaming on the Czech version of Netflix.