BRATISLAVA: Slávek Horák’s debut feature Home Care, a Czech/Slovak coproduction which was Czech Republic's candidate for the Foreign Language Academy Award 2016, will screen at the first official edition of the Slovak Film Week running from 11 to 17 April 2016.

PLZEŇ: Thirteen Czech and Slovak films will compete in the Golden Kingfisher competition for Best Feature Live Action or Animated Film at Finale Plzen, which will take place on 15- 21 April 2016.

PRAGUE: The number of Chinese tourists rose to 250,000 in 2015, compared to 17,000 a decade ago, following the Chinese romantic drama Somewhere Only We Know. The memorandum on film exchanges and cooperation signed by China and the Czech Republic in November 2015 aims at boosting not only the cinema exchanges but also the  development of tourism.

PRAGUE: Sparrows by Rúnar Rúnarsson won the Grand Prix of the 23rd Prague International Film Festival – Febiofest, which ran from 17 to 25 March 2016 in Prague. A number of films from the selection will screen at the regional Echoes of Febiofest in 14 Czech towns from 29 March to 21 April 2016.

PRAGUE/BRATISLAVA: Juraj Jakubisko is planning a sequel to his popular Christmas fairy tale The Feather Fairy / Perinbaba (1985), which he will produce through his company Jakubisko Film.

PRAGUE: TV film The Glassmaker/Die Glasbläserin by Christine Balthasar, a German/Czech coproduction made for ZDF, is currently shooting in Czech Republic.

PRAGUE: The State Cinematography Fund  announced its short term plan for 2016. The total funding will reach 13 m EUR / 350 m CZK in 2016, compared to 8 m EUR / 220 m in 2015. The increase is due to recent additional allocations from the state budget.

PRAGUE: Czech production designer Martin Kurel is the first Czech to receive the French national film award César. Xavier Giannoli‘s period drama Marguerite, nominated in 11 categories, received four awards for leading actress, production design, costumes and sound.

PRAGUE: Small Czech cinemas, which were almost sentenced to death, have gone through surprising development thanks to their digitalisation. Their income reached its highest level in 14 years, which was, according to the Union of Film Distributors, 15.8 m EUR / 427 m CZK .

PRAGUE:Filip Renč’s film The Devil´s Mistress produced by NoGup, about the 1930’s Czech film star and mistress of Joseph Goebbels Lída Baarová, is proving a success in Czech cinemas despite receiving mixed reactions from film critics.