Vavra came to prominence before World War Two, helped launch what became known as the Czechoslovak New Wave in the 1960s and taught at the influential Prague film academy FAMU, whose graduates include Oscar winners Milos Forman and Jiri Menzel.

“He was one of the most significant people in the history of Czech cinema and the teacher of the most important Czech film generation,” FAMU Dean Pavel Jech told Reuters.

Forman’s critique of American mental health asylum system “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) received five Academy Awards and he won eight Oscars for “Amadeus” (1984) on the life and work of Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Menzel won an Academy Award in 1968 for “Closely Watched Trains,” a war-time story about a young train conductor.

Vavra’s films had a more local appeal. He was at his best in the 1960s when he directed “Golden Queen” (1965) for which he also received the main prize at the San Sebastian film festival.

While respected for his art, Vavra was also criticized for cooperating too wilfully with Czech communist rulers and making a string of propaganda movies in the 1950s and 1970s.