Beda Batka

{{Infobox person

| image =

| imagesize =

| caption =

| birth_name = Bedřich Baťka

| birth_date = {{birth date|1922|8|21|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1994|6|6|1923|05|13}}

| death_place = Floral Park, New York, United States

| occupation = Cinematographer

| years_active= 1963–1980

}}

Beda Batka ({{langx|cs|Bedřich Baťka}}; August 21, 1922 – June 6, 1994) was a Czech and American cinematographer and a teacher in the Tisch School of the Arts.{{Cite web |last=Luzi |first=Evan |date=2013-12-16 |title=88 Cinematographers Share the Best Professional Advice They've Ever Received |url=https://www.theblackandblue.com/2013/12/16/88-cinematographers-advice/ |access-date=2025-01-27 |website=The Black and Blue |language=en-US}}

Batka started his career as a camera operator on the movie On the Right Track (1948). In Czechoslovakia he frequently worked with director Jiří Weiss. Batka told Weiss a story that happened at his wife's workplace. Weiss decided to use this story as a basis for his film Ninety Degrees in the Shade. In 1967 Batka was a director of photography for František Vláčil's Marketa Lazarová, which was later voted the best Czech movie of all time.{{cite web|last1=Hoberman|first1=J.|title=Prague's Savage Spring|url=http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2013/07/03/marketa-lazarova-savage-spring/|website=The New York Review of Books|date=2013-07-03|accessdate=16 July 2017}} After he emigrated to USA, he taught cinematography at the Tisch School of the Arts.{{Cite book |last=Bingham |first=Adam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SjRp4cb1pgYC&dq=bed%C5%99ich+ba%C5%A5ka&pg=PA89 |title=Directory of World Cinema: East Europe |date=2012-09-19 |publisher=Intellect Books Limited |isbn=978-1-84150-518-3 |language=en}} Among his students and proteges were Fred Elmes,{{Cite web |date= |title=ASC Close-Up: Fred Elmes Interview |url=https://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/May2010/ASCClose-Up/page1.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100608131038/https://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/May2010/ASCClose-Up/page1.php |archive-date=2010-06-08 |website=The ASC -- American Cinematographer |publication-date=May 2010}} Barry Sonnenfeld, Bill Pope,{{cite book |last1=Sonnenfeld |first1=Barry |title=Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker |date=2020 |publisher=Hachette Books |isbn=9780316415637}} and Ken Kelsch.{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=David E. |date=2023-12-14 |title=In Memoriam: Ken Kelsch, ASC (1947-2023) - The American Society of Cinematographers (en-US) |url=https://theasc.com/news/in-memoriam-ken-kelsch-asc-1947-2023 |access-date=2023-12-24 |website=The American Society of Cinematographers}} The best known movie he worked on in America was Little Darlings.{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger Ebert |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=1980 |title=Little Darlings movie review & film summary (1980) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/little-darlings-1980 |url-status=live |access-date=2025-01-27 |website=www.rogerebert.com |language=en-US}}