Czech Republic - FilmNewEurope.com

Secrets leads Czech Lion nominations

Irena Zemanova Czech Republic 2008-02-10

The film Secrets by director Alice Nellis leads this year‘s nominations for the Czech Lion awards (www.ceskylev.cz ), the domestic equivalent of the Oscars organised by the Czech Film and…

Czech comedies are on the rise (update)

Radovan Holub Czech Republic 2008-02-03

The traditional gloom-ridden Czech film may be giving way to a brand new trend if Wedding on the Battlefield, a comedy by Dušan Klein, is any indication. In its first…

Bathory producers fend off bankruptcy petition

Irena Zemanova Czech Republic 2008-01-30

A Prague city court has rejected a motion to declare bankrupt the production company owned by Juraj Jakubisko and his wife Deanna Jakubisková, after the couple presented evidence they had…

Czech Republic back on U.S. anti-piracy Watch List

FNE Staff Czech Republic 2008-01-27

The Czech Republic has been put back on the U.S. Trade Representative's Watch List after eight years, amid concerns about a lack of progress in efforts to fight piracy. Among…

Czech cinema sales, attendance figures for 2007

FNE Staff Czech Republic 2008-01-24

Among Czech distributors, Falcon a.s. (www.falcon.cz) was the leader in 2007 with 394.3 million crowns (€15 million) in sales, according to figures provided by the Czech Film Distributors' Association. Second…

Unique documentary Citizen Havel opens Jan. 31

Radovan Holub Czech Republic 2008-01-23

One of the most original and unusual entries in the 2008 Czech film portfolio is the full-length documentary Citizen Havel, an intimate portrait of the former Czech president that was…

Czech cinemas had record sales in 2007

Irena Zemanova Czech Republic 2008-01-23

Czech cinemas took in an all-time record 1.2 billion crowns in sales in 2007, according to Czech Film Distributors ' Association (www.ufd.cz), and attendance was the highest since 1994. About…

Record number of Czech movies for 2008

Irena Zemanova Czech Republic 2008-01-20

2008 will be record year for Czech cinematography, with 32 full-length features scheduled for release. That‘s the highest number since the former Czechoslovakia split in 1993 and nearly double the…

Kajinek movie postponed over producer-director dispute

Irena Zemanova Czech Republic 2007-12-18

A big-budget film about convicted murderer Jiří Kajínek has been postponed after producer Petr Jákl canceled a contract with Ivan Fíla, who wrote the script and was also set to…

Czech filmgoers reach 11 million this year

FNE Staff Czech Republic 2007-12-17

Attendance at Czech cinemas rose by 1.5 million in the first 10 months of 2007 to 11 million people who spent 1.054 billion crowns (€40 million), according to the Czech…

Vaclav is last Czech film premiere of 2007

Radovan Holub Czech Republic 2007-12-10

The last Czech film premiere of 2007 is Václav, based on the true story of an autistic village man who lives with his mother but gets into trouble and then…

Shooting under way for Children of the Night

Radovan Holub Czech Republic 2007-12-04

Shooting is under way in Prague until mid-December for a new Czech film, Children of the Night, by director Michaela Pavlátová. The film is based on a script by young…

Three Czech docs are seeing unprecedented popularity

Radovan Holub Czech Republic 2007-11-29

Three Czech documentaries have become especially popular with domestic audiences after winning a string of international awards.

Two men convicted of stealing Bathory film

Irena Zemanova Czech Republic 2007-11-28

Two men operating in the Czech film industry have been convicted of stealing a copy of the big-budget Juraj Jakubisko film Bathory while it was being edited earlier this year.

New legal code brings 425 million crowns to Czech film

Irena Zemanova Czech Republic 2007-11-27

Czech film production will get a huge financial boost in the next three years thanks to legislation signed by Czech President Václav Klaus.

Volny TV extends coverage to 500,000 households

FNE Staff Czech Republic 2007-11-22

Czech telco Volny, whose formal name is Telekom Austria Czech Republic a.s., has extended coverage of its IPTV service via more than half a million telephone lines in the Czech…

Last EAVE session of 2007 draws 150 professionals to Prague

FNE Staff Czech Republic 2007-11-21

About 150 professionals from the European film industry are in Prague this week to participate in the year's last session of the European training program EAVE.

RWE to invest 25 million crowns in Czech films in 2008

Irena Zemanova Czech Republic 2007-11-20

German-based RWE Group, which owns gas company RWE Transgas in the Czech Republic, plans to continue its support for new Czech films in 2008 by spending more than 25 million…

Barrandov Studios boasts largest film stage in Europe

FNE Staff Czech Republic 2007-11-20

Barrandov Studios now can lay claim to the largest film stage in Europe, with the opening this month of a complex of three new soundproof film stages. Construction began this…

Shooting under way on new Filip Renc film

Radovan Holub Czech Republic 2007-11-19

Shooting is under way on a new Filip Renč film, a portrayal of a troubled soldier called Guard Nr. 47, just as the director is winding up postproduction of a…