Czech Film Center

14/08/2026

🤍 This year's CineLink Industry Days at SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL (14–21 August) is presenting Spotlight on the Czech Republic, organized in partnership with the Czech Film Center, the international division of the Czech Audiovisual Fund / Státní fond audiovize. Furthermore, Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival continues its collaboration on the Docu Talents from the East showcase while HBO and the Institute of Documentary Film, Prague award 🏆 prizes to selected projects in the Docu Rough Cut Boutique program. Lastly, two feature films with Czech involvement also made it to the official selection.

Learn more here 👉 https://www.filmcenter.gov.cz/en/news/czech-presence-at-sarajevo-film-festival

11/08/2026

🤍 The upcoming 51st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), running September 10–20, 2026, will showcase two successful films with Czech involvement, while FAMU graduate Viktorie Štěpánová will receive a 🏆 Student Oscar for 🎬 Volklore at a ceremony held during the festival! 👏

Centrepiece program will offer Cannes-premiered 🎬 Rehearsals for a Revolution (Czech Republic, Spain), directed by Pegah Ahangarani and produced by Kaveh Farnam of the Prague-based Europe Media Nest and Spain's Fasten Films. In this personal documentary, Ahangarani sketches her life story through five portraits of relatives and mentors and their various modes of resistance. Drawing from personal archives, home videos, street protest footage, newspapers, and recorded voices, she retraces more than 40 years of Iran’s history. The film won the prestigious 🏆 L’Œil d’or (Golden Eye) award at Cannes, awarded annually to the best documentary presented across Cannes’ official selections and sidebars.

Short Cuts program will showcase Please (Sweden, France, Czech Republic, Norway, Finland), the latest short by Swedish animator Anna Mantzaris, coproduced on the Czech side by Radim Procházka of Kuli Film & Produkce Radim Procházka. The film saw its premiere at Annecy IAFF earlier this year, where it scooped the 🏆 Jean-Luc Xiberras Award for a First Film in the First Films category, and later was also awarded the audience award at the Animafest Zagreb. Alternating between dark and comforting moments, passing through the absurd and the strange, Please explores the meaning of loving and being loved in today's world. The film received minority co-production support from the Czech Audiovisual Fund. World sales are handled by Miyu Distribution.

TIFF will also provide the stage for another Czech milestone. On Monday, September 14, the 53rd Student Academy Awards will be presented for the first time at the Toronto festival. Among the 12 winning films is 🎬 Volklore, a 16-minute experimental video essay by Viktorie Štěpánová, selected in the Alternative/Experimental category.

06/08/2026

🤍 WOW WOW WOW!🔥

🎬 VOLKLORE directed by Viktorie Štěpánová and produced by FAMU won a 🏆 Student Academy Award!

🏆 The film will receive either gold, silver or bronze medal - the placement will be announced at the awards ceremony during the Toronto International Film Festival this September.

💥 This award makes VOLKLORE eligible to compete for the 99th Oscars!

👏 Huge congratulations!

FAMU Films
Cinefila
Státní fond audiovize

23/07/2026

🟡 Poetický horor Valerie a týden divů (1970) Jaromila Jireše míří do Benátek!

Nově digitalizovaný snímek československé nové vlny bude soutěžit v sekci Venice Classics na 83. ročníku Mezinárodního filmového festivalu v Benátkách.

Příběh třináctileté Valerie na prahu dospělosti se pohybuje na hranici snu, fantazie a skutečnosti. Jaromil Jireš převedl literární předlohu Vítězslava Nezvala do podoby poetického hororu, v němž se prolínají prvky gotické romance, surrealismu i příběhu o dospívání. Nezaměnitelnou výtvarnou podobu filmu spoluvytvořila Ester Krumbachová.

Účast ve Venice Classics navazuje na úspěch digitálně restaurovaného filmu Extase Gustava Machatého, který v této sekci získal v roce 2019 ocenění za nejlepší restaurovaný film.

23/07/2026

🤍 A restored version of Jaromil Jireš’s 1970 🎬 Valerie and Her Week of Wonders returns to the international festival stage as one of Czech cinema’s most distinctive and enduring cult films. Selected for Venice Classics at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival / La Biennale di Venezia, the film combines the artistic prestige of the Czechoslovak New Wave with clear programming value across repertory, genre and cultural circuits. More than five decades after its release, its radical visual language, Gothic imagination and intergenerational appeal continue to make it one of Czech cinema’s most internationally resonant works.

The selection continues Venice’s role in the international recirculation of Czech film heritage. In recent editions, the festival has provided high-visibility launches for restorations by Czech Národní filmový archív, ranging from Miloš Forman’s 🎬 Black Peter and Gustav Machatý’s 🎬 Ecstasy to Karel Kachyňa’s politically charged 🎬 The Ear. The Venice Classics strand has thus become an important showcase not only for individual restorations, but also for the sustained work of repositioning Czech and Czechoslovak cinema within the global canon.

16/07/2026

🤍 We're excited to share that seven Czech projects have been selected for the 14th edition of the CEE Animation Forum, taking place in Pilsen, November 10-12, 2026. 👏

▫️FEATURE FILM
Paradise on Earth, d. Martin Duda, p. Eallin Production

▫️ SERIES AND TV SPECIALS
Mould, d. Philippe Kastner, p. BATCH film
Pebbi, d. Sofiya Horoch, p. Pirogy Studios
Little Big Ones, d. Lucie Štampfestová, p. Maurfilm

▫️ SHORT FILMS
The Button, d. Lucie Sunková, Maurfilm

▫️ STUDENT SHORT FILMS
Ita Turns 30, d. Živa Divjak, p. FAMU Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
Redefining Island, d. Julie Černá, p. Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM)

🍉 ⚡ The wait is over. Meet the official selection for the 14th CEE Animation Forum (Pilsen, Czechia, November 10–12).

Discover 33 animation projects from across Europe selected for this year's pitching: 7 features, 10 series & TV specials, 10 short films, and 6 student shorts. 🎨

➞ Browse pitching projects: https://tr.ee/iBHdr0
➞ Read the article: https://tr.ee/oAtwTL

💫 Congrats to the selected teams, and thank you to everyone who submitted a project - more than 160 applications landed in our inbox.

🫶 CEE Animation Forum is financially supported by Creative Europe MEDIA, the Czech Audiovisual Fund Státní fond audiovize, the Audiovisual Producers' Association Czechia APA - Asociace producentů v audiovizi, and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

15/07/2026

🤍 Jerusalem Film Festival / סינמטק ירושלים - The Jerusalem Cinematheque, running from 9 to 19 July, showcases three notable Czech films: a well-travelled feature 🎬 Broken Voices / Sbormistr (Czech Republic, Slovakia) directed by Ondřej Provazník and produced by endorfilm (On the Radar section), recent portrait documentary 🎬 Robert Richardson: The White Devil (Czech Republic, United States) directed by Jana Hojdová and produced by Barletta Productions (Cinemania section), and 🎬 Return to a Strange Land (Netherlands, Czech Republic), a feature documentary by Olga Malířová Špátová and Jiří Kylián, produced by Michal Sikora of Lonely Production and Viktor Tauš of HEAVEN'S GATE for the Czech side, here nominated for the Chantal Akerman Prize for Experimental Documentary.

12/07/2026

🤍🎬 Fruit Gathering (Myanmar, Czech Republic, France) directed by Aung Phyoe and co-produced by Vít Janeček (D1film) for the Czech side, won the grand prize, 🏆 the Crystal Globe, at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Czech co-productions also dominated the Proxima Competition dedicated to films with a progressive form: 🎬 Lover, Not a Fighter (Slovakia, Czech Republic) directed by Martina Buchelová and co-produced by Julie Marková Žáčková (NOCHI film) took the 🏆 Proxima Grand Prix, while 🎬 33 Steps (Slovakia, Czech Republic) directed by Anna Domček and Šimon Domček and produced by Escadra (SK) and Jiří Konečný of Endorfilm (CZ), scooped the 🏆 Special Mention.

Furthermore, the 🏆 Právo Audience Award was handed to 🎬 Bára - Diary of a Rockstar, an intimate documentary portrait of Czech rock icon Bára Basiková, directed by Helena Třeštíková and produced by Pavel Strnad and Kateřina Černá of Negativ Film Productions.

Finally, the International Federation of Film Critics Jury awarded the non-statutory 🏆 Fipresci award for the best film in the Crystal Globe Competition to 🎬 Only Beautiful Things to Look At (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary) directed by Ivan Ostrochovský and produced by Punkchart Films (SK) and Pavel Strnad and Petr Oukropec of the Czech company Negativ.

All the awarded films received support from the Czech Audiovisual Fund / Státní fond audiovize. 👏

09/07/2026

🤍 JUST WOW! Volklore, a short experimental documentary directed by Viktorie Štěpánová and produced by Tomáš Šimon of FAMU - Filmová a televizní fakulta AMU, is among the finalists for the 2026 Student Oscars! 👏

More 👉 https://www.oscars.org/news/meet-2026-student-academy-awards-finalists

09/07/2026

🤍 Return to a Strange Land (Netherlands, Czech Republic), a feature documentary by Olga Malířová Špátová and Jiří Kylián, produced by Michal Sikora of Lonely Production and Viktor Tauš of HEAVEN'S GATE for the Czech side, has won the 🏆 Best Cinematography award at Doc Edge Festival, Aotearoa/New Zealand. 👏

Continuing its festival run, the film will next screen at Jerusalem Film Festival, nominated for the Chantal Akerman Prize for Experimental Documentary.

More about the film 👉 https://www.filmcenter.gov.cz/en/films-people/4837-return-to-a-strange-land