Czech Films at festivals

Czech films of various genres attracted great interest at international multi-genre as well as specialized festivals in 2024. Period and contemporary dramas, documentaries of different kinds, animation for children and adults were among the most popular, but ambitious projects by young filmmakers that cross the established boundaries of genres and combine various stylistic elements also attracted a lot of attention. 

The first major festival of the year, IFF Rotterdam, which focuses on emerging filmmakers and innovative approaches, presented Czech cinema in various forms. In 2024, for the first time in the festival's history, Czech film was represented in the Tiger Short Film Competition. Marie-Magdalena Kochová's experimental short 3 MWh, a film poem that denies anthropocentrism, touches on the relationship between man and electricity. For the main Tiger Competition, IFFR selected Me, Maryam, the Children and 26 Others, an Iran-Germany-Czech Republic co-production by Iranian debut director Farshad Hashemi, about a lonely middle-aged woman who rents out her apartment to filmmakers for six days. Both films celebrated their world premieres in Rotterdam. The Limelight section screened Agnieszka Holland's award-winning drama Green Border, and Cinema Regained, dedicated to film heritage, presented a restored version of Murdering the Devil, the amusing directorial debut of Czechoslovak New Wave legend Ester Krumbachová, from 1970. Three Czech short animations were screened in the section dedicated to children and family.

The Panorama section of the prestigious Berlinale hosted the world premiere of I'm Not Everything I Want to Be – a compelling portrait of the highly unconventional, world-famous Czech photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková, who has been documenting everyday life since the 1970s, exploring human identity, physicality, relationships and emotions. The documentary directed by Klára Tasovská, who produced it together with Lukáš Kokeš of Somatic Films, not only captivated the audiences at the Berlinale, but by the end of 2024, it also appeared in the program of other 47 festivals, and its journey continues in 2025. The Berlinale Forum included the world premiere of Ukrainian director Roman Bondarchuk's feature The Editorial Office – a co-production drama with minor Czech participation, capturing the atmosphere of Ukrainian Kherson just before its tragic transformation caused by the war. The Czech co-producer is Dagmar Sedláčková of MasterFilm. 

The world premiere of Apolena Rychlíková's investigative documentary Limits of Europe was hosted by CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, an important international platform for documentary filmmaking. The film's protagonist, journalist Saša Uhlová, shares her first-hand experience of the harsh conditions faced by migrant workers in Western Europe. The film, produced by Hypermarket Film, competed in two sections of the festival: the F:ACT AWARD and the HUMAN:RIGHTS AWARD. The world premiere of the meditative documentary Lichens Are the Way, produced by Vít Janeček of D1film and directed by Ondřej Vavrečka also took place at CPH:DOX. The film reflects the filmmakers´ fascination with the way of life of some of the earliest organisms to colonize land. Lichens Are the Way received a special mention from the jury in the NEW:VISION section. One of the non-competitive sections of the festival also featured the documentary I'm Not Everything I Want to Be.

La Cinef, a segment of the Festival de Cannes Official Selection dedicated to young up-and-coming directors, presented a selection out of 2,000 short and medium-length films submitted by film schools from all over the world. The winning entry from the Czech Republic was the allegorical animated tale Weeds by Polina Kazak, who used the distinctive technique of oil painting on glass. The film was produced by MAUR film and co-produced by the Film Academy of Miroslav Ondříček in Písek (FAMO). 

Fans of Czech animation were also pleased with the latest edition of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which is a major European meeting place for animation. Of the nine Czech films selected for the program, four won awards. Living Large by Kristina Dufková, an animated feature produced by Matěj Chlupáček from Barletta, which addresses the theme of childhood obesity in an original and humorous way,  won the prestigious Contrechamp Jury Prize. The Audience Award went to Jan Saska's black and white 2D animated short Hurikan, inspired by the aesthetics of noir comic books. Two animated shorts with Czech participation succeeded in the Special Awards category: Best Score in a Short Film Award went to Joko – a claymation by Izabela Plucińska, while the Young Audience Award was taken by Hello Summer by the Slovak-Czech directing duo Martin Smatana and Veronika Zacharová. All three awarded shorts were produced or co-produced by MAUR film on the Czech side.

The largest domestic film festival, the Karlovy Vary IFF or KVIFF, screened a total of 24 Czech films in 2024, many of which in world premieres. In the main competition for the Crystal Globe were Tiny Lights, Beata Parkanová's third feature, the Czech minority co-production The Hungarian Dressmaker by Slovak director Iveta Grófová, and Our Lovely Pig Slaughter, a tragicomedy by debutant Adam Martinec about a dramatic family reunion, which eventually won the Special Jury Mention. The same award, but in the Proxima section, went to intimate family drama March to May by Martin Pavol Repka. Two new Czech feature films appeared in the Special Screenings section: the satirical comedy The Gardener's Year by director Jiří Havelka, and Jiří Mádl's period drama Waves, recounting the dramatic events surrounding the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 from the perspective of journalists from the Czechoslovak Radio´s international desk. Waves eventually became the winner of the Audience Award of the daily Právo at KVIFF. The Special Screenings section also included four new Czech documentaries: Czechoslovak Architecture 58-89 by Jan Zajíček, The Other One, documentary feature debut of Marie-Magdalena Kochová, a portrait of a popular Czech music band tata_bojs.doc by Marek Najbrt, and I'm Not Everything I Want to Be. The new documentary of a famous Czech actress The Actress by Theodora Remundová was also presented in its world premiere in Karlovy Vary. The Future Frames – Generation NEXT of European Cinema, a joint project of Karlovy Vary IFF and European Film Promotion, has been helping talented European directors launch their careers since 2015. This year's selection was Marie-Magdalena Kochová's short film 3 MWh.

Two Czech feature films were screened at the Locarno Film Festival in August, as part of the Locarno Kids program: Kristina Dufková's Living Large, and in the world premiere, the feature Block 5 by Slovenian director Klemena Dvornik, co-produced by Czech BFILM.cz.

The prestigious Venice Film Festival hosted the world premieres of three Czech feature films – two of them in the Orizzonti and Orizzonti Extra sections, which highlight the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in world filmmaking. In the non-competitive Orizzonti Extra, Vojtěch Strakatý presented his debut feature After Party. Produced by Marek Novák of Xova Film, the coming-of-age drama follows the personal and financial upheaval in the life of a contemporary Czech family. Wishing on a Star, a docu-comedy by Peter Kerekes co-produced by Czech Artcam Films, that explores human desires through astrology, competed in the Orizzonti section and went on to become one of the most demanded festival films (Toronto IFF, Chicago IFF, Tallinn Black Nights, DOK Leipzig, Ji.hlava IDFF).  Finally, in the Venice Immersive section, Ondřej Moravec presented his latest work, Fragile Home, using advanced mixed reality technology. Co-directed by Viktoria Lopukhina, the film explores the impact of war on ordinary Ukrainian families.

During the busy autumn festival season, Czech films of various formats, genres and lengths appeared at many major festivals around the world. 

Warsaw Film Festival, which traditionally devotes a lot of space to new Czech cinema, presented five Czech films, three of which celebrated their world or international premieres at the festival. The world premiere of the Benjamin Tuček and David Čálek´s feature documentary War Correspondent was hosted by the festival's documentary competition. The film, which depicts the war in Ukraine through the eyes (and voice) of Czech Radio's foreign correspondent, received the prestigious Best Documentary Feature Award. Rudolf Biermann's action-packed police drama Once Upon a Time in the East had its international premiere in the Warsaw´s International Competition, and Veronika Lišková's debut feature Year of the Widow was presented in the 1-2 Competition. Produced by Cinémotif Films, the film tells about courage, hope and the strength to start again after the death of a life partner. Polish director Justyna Mytnik's drama Wet Monday, in which 15-year-old Klara struggles with post-rape nightmares and panic attacks, was screened in the Free Spirit competition section. Bionaut is the Czech co-producer. 

The Other One, directed by Marie-Magdalena Kochová and produced by Barbora Drtílková and Vít Poláček of m3 Films, celebrated its international premiere at the largest and most prestigious Asian festival in Busan, South Korea, which took place in October. This observational documentary brings to light the long-neglected theme of so-called “glass children”, healthy siblings in families caring for children with special needs. 

The International Documentary Film Festival Ji.hlava is a great celebration for both foreign and Czech documentary filmmakers. Many Czech films have premiered or won major awards at the festival. The winner of the international competition was the Slovak-Czech documentary portrait of Slovakia´s first president Zuzana Čaputová, Ms. President, directed by Marek Šulík, while The Impossibility, directed by Tomáš Hlaváček and produced by Martin Kohout of GPO Platform became the best Czech documentary and winner of the Czech Joy Competition. The Audience Award also went to a Czech film: Dajori by Martin Páv and Nicolas Kourek, which explores whether motherly love can overcome the dysfunctional system of socially excluded localities.

DOK Leipzig, known for the unique combination of documentaries and animation in  its programme, presented four Czech films this year: Czech-French experimental short Hun Tun by Magdalena Hejzlarová, produced by Karolína Davidová of 13ka, Hurikan by Jan Saska, competing in the animation shorts competition, The Other One, which was screened in the Panorama section: Central and Eastern Europe and won the MDR Film Award for Outstanding Eastern European Documentary, and finally, Peter Kerekes' documentary Wishing on a Star, which took part in the Audience Competition.

Cinekid, a major European festival for children and youth, has selected four Czech films: the animated short Writing Home by Eva Matejovičová, summer09 by Nikolas Sand, the minority co-production Block 5, and the Slovak-Czech-French short Hello Summer.

In addition to the participation in Busan IFF, another significant presence at Asian Film Festival in 2024 was the world premiere of the Czech minority co-production Promise, I'll Be Fine, the debut feature of Slovak director Katarína Gramatová in the official competition of the Tokyo International Film Festival. The Czech producer of this socially themed low-budget film is Julie Marková Žáčková from NOCHI FILM.

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, or PÖFF, has devoted a large space to Czech cinema, presenting thirteen new Czech films of various genres. The international premiere of director and producer Viktor Tauš's Girl America, visually explosive film about the fate of a homeless little girl, which is a part of a larger multimedia project also containing a theatre play and a book, was hosted by the official competition. The world premiere of the latest Petr Kazda and Tomáš Weinreb´s drama Nobody Likes Me, a co-production between the Czech Republic, Slovakia and France, which touches on the theme of sexual identity, took place in the Critics' Picks competition. PÖFF Shorts hosted the world premiere of the animated short Kafka. In Love directed by Zane Oborenko and co-produced by MAUR Film, and Just Film, dedicated to children and youth, offered four Czech features: Kristina Dufková´s Living Large, Diplodocus by Wojtek Wawszczyk which premiered in Annecy, Block 5, and Wet Monday. The newly-established Doc@PÖFF documentary competition hosted the international premiere of Ms. President. Among other documentaries, Tallinn also screened Wishing on a Star.

Seventeen Czech films were selected by CinEast, with three of them winning audience awards. The Audience Award for Best Feature Film went to Jiří Mádl's Waves, while Best Short Documentary Award was taken by Natálie Durchánková's documentary Rising Above, which honors the resilience, strength and courage of rape victims in overcoming the severe trauma. The CinEast audience voted Hello Summer Best Animated Short.

An incredible 26 Czech films in 10 sections were presented by the German Filmfestival Cottbus. Among them were Adam Martinec's Our Lovely Pig Slaughter, Martin Pavol Repka's March to May, Jiří Mádl's Waves and Bohdan Sláma's Dry Season. Particularly noteworthy was the festival's special programme line called The Female Gaze – a selection of recent works by talented Czech female filmmakers, varied in genre and theme. At the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam IDFA, the world´s premier event of its kind, I'm Not Everything I Want to Be was screened in the Best of Fest section and a restored version of Jana Ševčíková's contemplative film Jakub from 1992 appeared in Dead Angle: Borders.

Our list is completed by India's A festival IFFI Goa, which selected Waves for its main competition, with Bohdan Sláma's drama Dry Season as the final film.

Nominations and awards 

A great success for Czech animation and Czech film in general in 2024 was the double nomination of the animated feature Living Large for the "European Oscar", the European Film Awards, in two categories: Best Animated Feature Film and Best Feature Film.

After five years, the Student Oscar returns to the Czech Republic. It was awarded to The Compatriot, a short live-action film by Pavel Sýkora and Viktor Horák, produced by the Miroslav Ondříček Film Academy in Písek (FAMO), which can also boast another major achievement – the film's advancement to the shortlist for the 'big' Oscar in the Best Short Film category. The Compatriot takes place on New Year's Eve 1944, when two men, both of Sudeten origin, meet in the middle of a snowstorm in a mountain hut cut off from civilization.  Historically, The Compatriot is the fourth Czech film to win the Student Academy Award and, at the same time, the first Czech film to win in the live action short film category. The previous three Czech winners were Daria Kashcheeva's 2019 puppet animation Daughter, Marie Dvořáková's Who's Who in Mycology from 2017, and Jan Svěrák's humorous 1989 mockumentary Oil Gobblers. 

A major success and recognition for Czech film is the shortlisting of Jiří Mádl's Waves for the 97th Academy Awards in the category of Best International Feature Film for 2024. The film has been a great success not only at festivals around the world, but also in domestic cinemas, where it came a strong second in the attendance rankings. The main producer is Monika Kristlová of the Czech production company Dawson Films. 

One of the two most important national awards in the audiovisual sector, the Czech Film Critics' Awards, presented annually by the Czech Film Critics’ Association to the most significant Czech film and television achievements of the past year and their creators, went to Jan Vejnar and Tomáš Pavlíček's horror comedy She Came at Night. The award for Best Documentary went to Photophobia by Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarčík. Last year's Offscreen Award was taken by Lucie Kryzová and Pavel Soukup for their series #annaismissing, and the prize for best short film went to Daria Kashcheeva for her Electra. Czech critics voted the animated feature Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light the best audiovisual achievement of 2023, while its director, Filip Pošivač, was named Discovery of the Year.

Members of the Czech Film and Television Academy voted Brothers, Czech-Slovak-German drama directed by Tomáš Mašín, the best film of the Czech Lions Awards for 2023. The documentary of the year was awarded to Miroslav Janek's All Ends Well, while the TV series category was won by the series Volha directed by Jan Pachl. Among the animated films, Filip Pošivač's stop-motion animated adventure fantasy Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light scored points – as did by the critics. The award for outstanding achievement in the field of audiovisual production went to Agnieszka Holland's Green Border, made in co-production of Poland, Czech Republic, France, and Belgium. The award for outstanding contribution to Czech cinema went to cinematographer Vladimír Smutný. Director Daria Kashcheeva enjoyed another success. For her short film Electra, she was awarded the Magnesia Award for Best Student Film, whose partner is the Czech Film Center, the promotion department of the Czech Film Fund.

International distribution 

Several Czech films were successful in foreign sales in 2024. These include the documentary I'm Not Everything I Want To Be, which was acquired by the company Salzgeber for the territories of Germany and Switzerland, Filmin bought the rights for Spain, and No Comboio for Portugal, where the film premiered on 12 December 2024.

The animated feature Living Large also boasts successful international distribution. Le Parc Distribution acquired the rights for the Benelux countries, Karma for Spain, Cinemundo handles the rights for Portugal, EuropaFilms for Norway, Folkets Bio for Sweden. The film has also been sold to the countries of the former Yugoslavia (Demiurg), the Baltic States (Garsu Pasaulio Irasai), Poland (New Horizon), the Middle East (Teleview) and Japan (Klockworx). Skeye owns the airline rights to the film.

Czech films at international industry events 

A number of upcoming Czech films of various genres were presented to international professional audiences at various important industry events during the year. The Czech Film Center (CFC) entered into several partnerships and collaborations in 2024, which significantly strengthened the presentation of Czech cinema and the industry abroad. These include Glasgow Film Festival, Animafest Zagreb, Arras Film Festival, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, FIDMarseille, Filmfestival Cottbus or Les Arcs Film Festival. 

One of the first industry meetings of the year was the Euro Connection co-production market, which takes place during the Clermont-Ferrand ISFF and is an important platform for short film co-productions. The market promotes partnerships between European production companies interested in quality short film projects. Among selected projects in 2024 was the Czech-Slovak project Period Drama, an animated short about the menstrual cycle by Michaela Mihalyi. 

The industry programme of the Danish CPH:LAB, presented the play Anamnesis by documentary filmmaker Petr Salaba, and the co-production platform CPH:FORUM gave space to the feature debut of Pepa Lubojacki If Pigeons Turned to Gold.

Mira Fornay presented her new dystopian sci-fi project Twist the Rabbit at the Berlinale Co-Production Market. For its development, the director teamed up again with Czech producer Viktor Schwarcz from Cineart TV Prague. 

Two Czech projects were presented at the CARTOON MOVIE co-production market, which takes place in March in Bordeaux, France, and specializes in animated feature films: Living Large by Kristina Dufková in the Sneak Preview section, and Martin Duda's Rosa & Dara and Their Big Summer Adventure produced by Bionaut in the Project in Development section. The latter also topped the list of ten projects that attracted the attention of film buyers. 

Another spring industry event taking place in France was the Series Mania in Lille. The Czech co-production Our People, a political drama by Tereza Nvotová about the murder of Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kušnírová, won the Best Project in Development Award. The series #annaismissing was also presented at festival, in the Short Forms Competition.

 

The Marché du Film market in Cannes featured several Czech projects – this time mainly by female filmmakers. Docs-in-Progress during the East Doc Platform Showcase featured Playtopia, the second feature project by Bára Jíchová Tyson, produced by Alice Tabery of Cinepoint. Goes to Cannes, another Marché du Film section, focusing on films in pre-completion, presented Tereza Nvotová´s new feature project Father, co-produced by Czech moloko film. The spring part of La Résidence programme, which supports young filmmakers in the development of a feature film project, was attended by Daria Kashcheeva, who was working on her feature debut They/Them, developing themes 

related to gender identity and the transcendence of traditional binary classifications. The previous Czech participant selected to join La Résidence was Diana Cam Van Nguyen. The European Film Promotion´s program Producers on the Move featured Kristýna Michálek Květová from Cinémotif Films, whose portfolio includes Veronika Lišková's new feature film Year of the Widow. 

The rich participation of Czech filmmakers at international industry events continued at Mifa Pitches in Annecy, where Barbora Halířová's project God, What Bullshit was selected for the short film section. 

At KVIFF Eastern Promises, an industry platform whose mission is to discover up-and-coming talent from the CEE and MENA regions, the winner of the Works in Progress Sound Post-production Award was Slovak-Czech project by the director Martina Buchelová Lover, Not a Fighter. The Czech-Slovak documentary project Virtual Girlfriends by Barbora Chalupová, which explores the world of OnlyFans, revealing motivations and perceptions of intimacy, won the Works in Progress Award. The Connecting Cottbus Award went to director-writer Petr Pylypčuk and producer Kryštof Burda's feature project Eli and Them, which tells the story of 17-year-old Eli, who becomes enmeshed in a heated racial dispute over a burned-down house in the local Roma settlement. The Rotterdam Lab Award went to Martina Knoblochová, producer of Rozálie Kohoutová's upcoming comedy Antonie, which follows perpetual slacker Anton, who is left alone to look after his three-year-old daughter in a small post-industrial town. The project also won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award. 

At the Venice Gap-Financing Market, which specializes in projects in the last stage of financing, the Czech Republic presented the ambitious project of director Jiří Barta, Golem, an animated adaptation of Gustav Meyrink's famous novel. The Czech Republic-France-Slovakia co-production was represented in Venice by the Czech production company Hausboot Production.

MAUR film presented its new project in development Little Big Ones at the Young Horizons Industry Forum in Warsaw and Filip Pošivač's animated project The Axolotls took part in the Dutch Cinekid Junior Co-production Market.

Agora Thessaloniki, an industry event taking place in November alongside the Thessaloniki IFF, has selected for its Works in Progress section a Czech Republic-Montenegro co-production project Four Funerals and the Wedding, directed by Nikola Mijović. The Czech co-producer is Masterfilm. Also presented in Thessaloniki was the debut of Terézia Halamová, set in the world of male strippers, The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, produced by Other Stories – one of the participants of the last edition of the Czech Film Springboard, organized by the CFC. 

A number of Czech projects and professionals took part in the Connecting Cottbus co-production market, of which CFC was a partner in 2024. Three Czech projects were presented at the Coco Pitch: Eli and Them by Petr Pylypčuk, No Salvation Coming by Vojtěch Strakatý, and Main Course by Viktorie Novotná, two of which won prizes. The Producers Network Award went to Kryštof Burda of Perfilm, the producer of Eli and Them, while the MIDPOINT Consulting Award was taken by No Salvation Coming produced by Ondřej Lukeš of Beginner’s Mind. Martin Kuba's nearly finished debut feature Three Weeks Under the Sea, produced by Miloš Lochman of moloko film, was part of the Coco WIP presentation.

The last important industry event of the year was Les Arcs Industry Village, which thanks to the partnership with CFC was attended by two Czech producers, Alžběta Janáčková (Silk Films) and Silvie Michajlova (FILM KOLEKTIV). The Works in Progress section – the presentation of projects in post-production – included the Slovakia-Czech Republic-Hungary The Spring directed by Ivan Ostrochovský and starring the popular Czech actress Aňa Geislerová. The Czech minority co-producer is Negativ.

Key international support and films before completion

Two quite different upcoming feature films have received support from the Eurimages fund in 2024. The Czech Republic-Germany-Poland co-production Franz directed by Agnieszka Holland and produced by Marlene Film Production, bringing a unique and original insight into the inner life of one of Europe's greatest literary geniuses Franz Kafka has received €500,000. 

If Pigeons Turned to Gold, the debut of Pepa Lubojacki, a mosaic documentary feature seeking balance between love and hate, care and self-destruction, exploring the roots of addiction and the possibility of breaking generational trauma, produced by the Czech company Claw AV, has received €36,000 in support from the fund.

In 2025, a number of eagerly awaited films of various genres will be released. These include Ondřej Provazník's Broken Voices, a story of manipulation and abuse from the environment of a girls' choir, Zuzana Kirchnerová's Caravan, a road-movie following a mother with a mentally handicapped son during their journey to Italy, the psychological family drama Ungrateful Beings directed by Olmo Omerzu, Vojtěch Strakatý's The Other Side of Summer, Šimon Holý’s Chica Checca, and the animation film Of Unwanted Things and People directed by David Súkup, Patrik Pašš, Leon Vidmar, and Jean-Claude Rozec. Minority co-productions that will premiere in 2025 include DJ Ahmet (directed by Georgi Unkovski), Father (directed by Tereza Nvotová) or The Spring (directed by Ivan Ostrochovský), and the documentaries Mr. Nobody Against Putin (directed by David Borenstein), and Chronicle (directed by Martin Kollár).

And last but not least, good news: an amendment to the Audiovisual Act has been approved at the end of the year and the transformation of the Czech Film Fund into the Czech Audiovisual Fund has begun bringing many new opportunities for producers of audiovisual content in the Czech Republic.