Director Jan Hřebejk picked up the Golden Kingfisher for best feature film and the Audience Award for Kawasaki's Rose at the closing ceremony of Finale festival of Czech films held in Plzen on Friday, April 23.

The Czech Republic will see two animation film festivals competing for attention in the upcoming weeks: Anifest, which moved to the town of Teplice, and Anifilm, which has been newly inaugurated in the former Anifest home town of Trebon.

A Finale Plzen main competition slot goes to the low-budget road movie Twosome directed by Jaroslav Fuit.

Robert Sedláček's satirical comedy Men in Rut, screening in the main Finale Plzen main competition, takes place during the "Deer-Luring" competition in a south Moravian village.

Irena Pavlásková directs bitter comedy An Earthy Paradise for the Eyes, from an autobiographical screenplay from Tereza Boučková, screening in the Finale Plzen main competition.

Unknown Hour, a Czech/Slovak co-production from director Dan Svátek screening in the Finale main competition, is based on a grisly story that captured news headlines in the Czech Republic.

Radim Špaček returns to the absurdism of Communist life in the 1980's in his Finale Plzen competition film Walking Too Fast (Pouta), a Czech/Slovak/Polish coproduction.

The Finale festival of Czech films (www.filmfestfinale.cz) opens April 18 in Plzen, with nine new Czech feature films in the main competition.

Vilnius international film festival (VIFF) "Kino pavasaris" (www.kinopavasaris.lt) is presenting 28 films by Lithuanian artists, including eight premieres.

The Bratislava Film Festival is launching two major European initiatives in Bratislava to support emerging film talents: the Torino Film Lab and Script&Pitch workshops.