Festivals of films

Eight volume of Gay and Lesbian Film festival Mezipatra (Mezzanines) moves from Brno, where it have already started last week, to Prague cinemas Svetozor and Oko. The speaker of the show Katerina Horcicova anounced: “We are going to show 60 movies, corresponding to this year’s theme – ‘rebelling’.”

The visitors can vote for the best movie, and beside screening, the festival offers accompanying programme – debates, exhibition and a party. So again – since 5th to 11th November 2007, Svetozor, Vodickova 41 and Oko, Frantiska Krizika 15.

More info here

The festival is founded on the philosophy that music in all its varieties is an enormously inspiring art form that can be explored in new and interesting ways through the medium of film. All types of films (documentary, experimental and feature) are screened. Movies from around the world where the central theme is music- following the stories, that emerge as the creative energies of musicians and filmmakers, intersect.

The 4th year of Music on Film – Film on Music
MOFFOM was established in 2004 as a non-profit organization designed to bring together the community of filmmakers engaged in such production and to promote their projects to a wider public in a non-competitive, accessible and friendly festival environment. It was also determined from the start that the festival would be based in the historic center of Prague, with its headquarters proudly located in Palace Lucerna, one of the oldest functioning cinemas in Europe and a local cultural landmark.

European Premieres of several award-winning films from all around the world, including Favela Rising (Brazil, 2005), The Human Hambone (USA, 2005), Mariza and the Story of Fado (UK-Portugal, 2006), Live at the Kyttaro – Rock Scenes (Greece, 2006), On Tour With Neubauten.org (Germany, 2006), and As Old As My Tongue: the Myth and Life of Bi Kidude (UK-Tanzania, 2006)

Live performances by Dub Cartel Sound System (UK), Anjali (UK), Banning Eyre & Papis Nyass (USA / Gambia), Omar Ka (Senegal), Loud Samba (Brazil), Cassis (Germany), Chodská vlna (CZ), Il Parto de Nuevo Pesanti (Italy), Son de Cuba (Cuba), Berg Chamber Orchestra (CZ), A Moving Sound (Taiwan), Central Asian Prague Ensemble with Bakyt Chytyrbaev (Kyrgyzstan / CZ), Jiří Pavlica and Hradią»an (CZ), Madala Kunene (South Africa), Plastic People of the Universe (CZ), Pavel Fajt (CZ) and many more

MOFFOM is based primarily in the landmark Palace Lucerna, now also cooperate closely with Kino Svetozor, the most successful and innovative art house cinema in the Czech Republic, as well as several intimate cinemas in the heart of Prague, all within walking distance of each other.

The 4th year of Music on Film – Film on Music October 18-22, 2007, Prague Lucerna, Svetozor, Vaclavske Namesti

more info HERE

Audiences throughout three continents will vote for the best film made by new talents in the film industry in the Manhattan Short Film Festival 2007. 12 finalist out of 456 entries are shown in more than 100 cinemas across Europe and America. Prague’s cinema is one of them.

Prague’s audience can participate in the vote which film will win the event on 28th – 30th September 2007. The results from all the cinemas will be sent to the festival’s headquarters in New York City. The winner will be announced on Sunday 30th September 2007 in Union Square Park in NYC.

All screenings start at 21:00, the tickets cost 60 CZK. The opening party takes place in Karavan Seraj in Masarykovo nabrezi 22/239, Saturday’s programme is on the same place, the wrap party is in Skutecnost atelier in Francouzska street 76. For more information click here.

Stummfest is not an ordinary film festival: it presents exclusively black-and-white silent movies, some of them rarely screened, accompanied by music. You can see not just Czech, but also German films from the beginning of cinematography there. It is an open-air festival, taking place in the courtyard of the Klub v Jeleni in Prague.

The theme of this year´s Stummfest is “love and crime”. During 3 days, you can see 12 movies there, for example the oldest film shots of Prague by Jan Krizenecky from 1898 – 1908, one of the oldest German puppet films Die grosse Liebe einer kleinen Tänzerin from 1924, or the classic Czech movie Erotikon from 1929.

Stummfest is a noncommercial event, there is no entrance fee. But you can contribute some money, which will go to the charity Pomozte detem! (“Help the children!”). It helps all the children in the Czech Republic, which are in danger or in a bad situation.

Stummfest lasts from 30 ^th August to 1 ^st September. The programme starts at 6 pm. Klub v Jeleni is situated close to the Prague Castle, in Jeleni Street 196 / 15, Prague 1.

Goethe-Institut Prag together with art cinemas Aero and Svetozor, Austrian Cultural Forum in Prague and Switz Embassy in Prague organize the 2nd Festival of German-language films Der Film.

The festival will take place in Prague’s cinemas Aero and Svetozor and Brno’s cinema Art on 4h – 12th October 2007. The theme of this year’s festival is euthanasia, immigrants and multicultural society.

Films that will be presented at the festival were chosen for their success in festivals and German, Austrian and Switz cinemas. Visitors will see 11 feature films, 7 documents, 1 short film Fair Trade and the film Asphalt from 1929 accompanied with live music. There will be also a show of Wim Wanders’s films.

The famous film festival in the spa town Karlovy Vary starts tomorrow with a gala evening. One of the stars at the opening ceremony will be actress Renee Zellweger. Even though she cancelled a press conference, she should hand over the honour prize to Bretislav Pojar as planned.

Another Hollywood star going to Karlovy Vary this year is Danny DeVito. He will be present at the closing ceremony of the festival on 7th July. DeVito will be awarded the Crystal Globe for the Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema. Together with Jake Paltrow he will also introduce the new film The Good Night.

The organizers of the festival also confirmed other guests of the festival – director Peter Bogdanovich, actress Cybill Shepherd, actor Timothy Bottoms, director Hal Hartley, director Tom DiCillo, actress Romola Garai, actor Raz Degan, actress Ellen Page, director Eran Kolirin, director Jean Becker, actor Jean-Pierre Darroussin, actor Janos Ban, director Ferzan Ozpetek or scenarist and actor Zdenek Sverak.

Director Eli Roth who debuted with the low-budget horror Cabin Fever will come to the international film festival in Karlovy Vary to introduce his new film Hostel II (partly filmed in the Czech Republic) as well as Quentin Tarantino’s film Grindhouse:Death Proof in which he performed the title role.

Besides Renee Zellweger visitors can also look forward to 20-year-old Ellen Page known for films Marion Bridge, Wilby Wonderful or X-Men: The Last Stand. In Karlovy Vary she will personally present a film by Bruce McDonald The Tracey Fragments.

Other important guest of the festival will be Hal Hartley who will come to Karlovy Vary after 12 years to present the premiere of his latest film Fay Grim. Monte Hellman will come to Karlovy Vary with his retrospective dedicated to New Hollywood Two-Lane Blacktop. George Hickenlooper will introduce his latest film Factory Girl – a bibliography about the life of a close friend of Andy Warhol.

The star of the 42nd International Film Festival Karlovy Vary will be the Academy Award winner Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Chicago, Cold Mountain). During the gala evening on 29nd June she will hand over the Crystal Globe Award to the legend of Czech animation Bretislav Pojar.

She will also introduce her new movie Miss Potter, which is a bibliographical story about the author of popular children’s books at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. For her performance in this film she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award.

The famous film festival in Karlovy Vary starts on 29th June 2007 and finishes on 7th July 2007. All those who wants to attend it, can find more information about the festival at the official sites here.

The most successful movie of this year´s Zlin International Film Festival for Children and Youth is the Swedish movie Leaps and Bounds by Petter Naess. It gained the main prize – the Golden Slipper – for the best feature film for youth, the main prize of the international children´s jury and the prize awarded by the jury of the federation of film clubs.

The Viewers´s Prize goes to the Czech movie Maharal by Pavel Jandourek. The Golden Slipper for the best feature film for children was given to the film Little Heroes from Israel, the best animated film is the Brazilian movie Tyger.

The international children´s jury awarded the main prize for the best feature film for children to the Dutch movie Off-side by Arend Steenbergen.

International Television Festival Golden Prague is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious festival of various music and dance programmes on TV. It was first held in 1964. It’s organized by the Czech Television (Ceska televize). Last year it presented 453 guests from 29 countries of the world.

Visitors can vote for the world’s best programme or watch, in the Living Catalogue, commented shows of the best music and dance programmes on world’s TVs. Fans of rock, pop and world music can visit the Rock Club in Manes.

The festival will take place in Palac Zofin and in Manes on Slovansky Island in Prague from 16th to 20 June 2007. More about the festival and its programme can be found on its official web pages here.

42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will offer more than 200 films this year. 15 or 16 of them will compete in the Official Selection competition. Czech cinematography will be represented by Vratne lahve by father and son Sveraks.

Karlovy Vary IFF attracts thousands of visitors every year by a large range of international films and many competitions in various categories. Every year famous people of film industry are invited, such as Andy Garcia, Danny Trejo, Robert Redford or Sharon Stone. The names for this year have not been revealed yet.

Karlovy Vary does not attract only by the film festival, but it is also a famous spa town, just about two hours far from Prague. All those who are thinking of visiting the town during the festival, should hurry up with booking a hotel there. The 42nd Karlovy Vary IFF starts on 29th June 2007. For more information about the festival, click here.

One of the famous film festivals in the Czech Republic takes place in eastern part of the country, in Zlin. 47th Film Festival For Children and Youth is held from 27th May to 2nd June 2007.

One of the biggest stars at the festival will be Haley Joel Osment (19), unforgettable from The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis or Artificial Intelligence: AI directed by Steven Spielberg. Zlin festival will be also visited by Hollywood director Lawrence Guterman (Cats&Dogs), Loyd Price and Ian Whitlock who cooperated on Flushed Away, or Dutch director Gerrit Van Dijk.

The festival offers contemporary films for young audience, meetings with Czech and foreign filmmakers, and rich supporting programme. The effort of the filmakers will be evaluated in many competitions. Here you can see some pictures of the last year’s festival.

UPDATED: Zlin film festival will be one of the first places in the world to show the newest Shrek 3.

One World 2007 International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival will take place in Prague for the nine times. This year it will be held from 28th February to 8th March 2007. Like every year, it is held under the auspices of Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic.

One World was awarded the UNESCO Honourable Mention this January. The festival will show more than 120 documentaries from almost 40 countries of the world. The opening ceremony starts on 28th February in Lucerna Cinema (Vodickova 36), which is also the centre of the festival, and Svetozor (Vodickova 41).

One World focuses on the issue of human rights and through films it tries to demonstrate the values necessary for a free and democratic society. More information is available here.

International show of film, television and video Febiofest starts this year on 22nd March. Already for 14th times Prague and other cities in the Czech and Slovak Republic will see more than 300 films of many film genres and many experiments.

One of the experiments is a 24-hour show of slow-motion picture of Hitchcock’s Psycho. Among one of the special guests of the festival will be French director Bruno Dumont, awarded last year in Cannes. More then 50 singers and bands from more then 10 countries in the world will perform during the festival. One of them will be French singer Rona Hartner.

The festival in Prague will take place mainly in multiplex cinema Village Cinemas in Andel (near Andel metro station). It will start there on 22nd March and finish on 30th March. A morning show called Febiofest Junior will be devoted to children. Than the festival will go from Prague to other ten Czech and eight Slovak cities.

Days of European Film (Dny Evropskeho filmu) – that is the name of the film festival that will be held in the Czech Republic already for the 14th times. It presents the best films made by present and future member countries of the European Union.

The aim of this festival is to let people know what is new in the European cinematography. Every year visitors can see about fifty films of various genres. The festival is organized by embassies and culture institutes of the countries, by the city of Prague and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

The festival takes place in Prague (25th January – 4th February, cinemas Aero and Svetozor) and in Brno (5th – 13th). Tickets (for 90 CZK) can be reserved and bought in the box office of the cinemas. In Prague you can also visit the Marathon of European films (150 CZK), which is a show of 5 films during one night. For more information click here.

Lovers of French films can look forward to IX. Festival of French Films in the Czech Republic that is held from 23rd to 27th November. Organizers of this festival are French Embassy in the Czech Republic and Unifrance, an organization publicizing French cinematography abroad.

The festival introduces many French films in the original sound with Czech subtitles. For the detailed programme of the festival click here.

The festival will be also accompanied by the exhibition called Portrait Photographs for film revue “Cahiers du cinema”. The exhibition will offer 30 photographs made by French artists, such as Maurice Pialat, Isabelle Huppert, Michel Piccoli, Jean-Luc Godard, Carole Bellaiche and Frederica Polettiho.

The exhibition is held simultaneously in four Czech cities. Prague visitors can see it in the cinema Svetozor (Vodickova 41 street) from 15th to 30th November.

For the second time the capital of the Czech Republic will host Prague Short Film Festival. This competitive festival will offer 21 short film from 14 countries all over the world. A part of the festival will be devoted to non-competitive informative film programmes, retrospectives, homage profiles and other accompanying events.

The festival is organized by Film Festival in Karlovy Vary and is under the auspices of capital city of Prague. International jury consisting of five members (French cinema programmer Judith Revault d’Allonnes, Czech actress Ana Geislerova, German festival director Heinz Hermanns, Czech director Jan Hrebejk and Hungarian director Balint Kenyeres) will decide about the best short film created last year.

The festival takes place in Prague Svetozor cinema (Vodickova 41) from 15th to 18th November. Tickets for 50 CZK can be bought from 14th November in the box office in Svetozor Cinema. Visitors can decide about the winner of the Audience Award.

MOFFOM 2006 (Music On Film – Film On Music) International Festival Of Music Films started yesterday in Prague. Show of more than 120 music films, documentary, video clips and concerts is held in the capital city until Sunday.

Today’s programme at Palace Lucerna is focused on the cultures and traditions of the former Silk Road countries of Central Asia. Popular band Central Asian Prague Ensemble will perform together with special guest, a traditional and shamanic musician, Bakyt Chytyrbaev from Kyrgyzstan.

Entrance fee for individual projections is 75,- CZK, 5-days valid tickets 500,- CZK and 3-days tickets for 250,- CZK.

Five autumn days between the 18th and the 22nd October should be circled red in calendars of all fans of music and films. Prague will namely host the third international film-music (or music-film) festival Music on Film – Film on Music.

What can the visitors look forward to? Eighty films will be shown in cinemas (Lucerna, Svetozor or Ponrepo) as well as in Rock Cafe, in the French Institute or the Spanish Synagogue. Lucerna cinema will also offer concerts every evening that will nicely conclude the rich programme of documentaries, workshops and discussions.

To be more specific, there will be for example a silent German film named Golem with the accompaniment of live music. Mr Temple, the director of video-clips for stars such as the Rolling Stones or David Bowie, should also be present at the festival, focus of which will be South Africa. The cultural diversity of this part of Earth shall be introduced (among others) by a concert of local musicians.

The aim of the festival is to explore music in new and interesting ways by means of another medium – the film. More about the festival can be read here.