Czech Filmmakers Forge International Ties to Boost Growing Industry

It’s been 20 years since the Czech Republic hosted its first pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film, with a Czech delegation arriving at the prestigious French fest just days after their country had joined the European Union. The timing was both propitious and symbolic: In the two decades since, the Czech industry has grown more international in its outlook, spurred on by a growing number of co-productions and a wave of industry professionals who have come of age since the country joined the E.U.

“It’s a whole generation of filmmakers and producers that [began working] during this time, which also refreshed the way we are treating stories and producing films,” says Markéta Šantrochová, head of the Czech Film Center. Šantrochová will appear in conversation at Cannes’ Plage des Palmes at 9 a.m. on May 18 with the head of the Czech Film Commission, Pavlina Zipkova, and Petr Tichý, CEO of the historic Barrandov Studios.

“You can see it in the presence in international festivals — that it has become a regular thing,” Šantrochová adds. “We are not winning the Palme d’Or or the Golden Bear or the Golden Lion every year. But the presence at these prestigious festivals has grown.”

Buoyed by institutions such as the CFC and the Czech Film Fund — which allocates nearly $70 million from its annual budget to support the country’s incentive scheme and offer selective support to domestic productions — the industry is spreading its wings, with a record 101 fiction, documentary and animated films produced in 2022.

“I think the Czech film industry is healthy and growing,” says Dagmar Sedláčková of Prague-based production outfit MasterFilm, which is currently producing “Caravan,” the long-awaited feature debut of Cannes Cinefondation winner Zuzana Kirchnerová. “It supports new talent and produces an increasing number of interesting films each year…[and] is becoming more open to the international scene.”

Sedláčková further notes that the Czech Film Fund “is a long-standing and stable partner, which has consistently supported young talent and provided continuity for the work of established directors and production companies.” The fund has also put its financial muscle behind the growing number of Czech minority co-productions, which she describes as “vital for the continued growth of companies and the creation of more ambitious projects that cross over borders.”

All eyes now are turned to a new audiovisual law, currently awaiting parliamentary approval, which will bring Czech film and TV legislation in line with the production landscape in an era of global streaming platforms. The new law is expected to introduce a tax on those streamers while also carving out specific financing mechanisms at the film fund for television and streaming content — a first for the Czech industry.

That should give a much-needed boost to a TV biz that’s largely dependent on the public broadcaster, Czech Television. “It will transform the film fund from a purely film-oriented public funding body,” says Tomáš Hrubý of production company nutprodukcia, which just won the Series Mania pitching forum with the political drama “Our People.” “I do think it’s a step in a good direction.”

Though Czech cinema arguably hit its high-water mark in the 1960s, during the tragically short-lived flourishing of the Czech New Wave, the industry today reflects a newfound breadth and dynamism, characterized by emerging filmmakers such as Diana Cam Van Nguyen and Daria Kashcheeva, both tapped for a prestigious Cannes Residence to hone their debut features.  

They are among a handful of filmmakers making waves in animation — Kashcheeva was Oscar-nominated for her 2020 animated short “Daughter” — with Kristina Dufková heading to the main competition at Annecy this year with her feature-length directorial debut, the puppet animation film “Living Large.”

Meanwhile, upcoming live-action features expected to soon hit the festival circuit include “Caravan” and “Little Thief,” the fiction feature debut of Ondřej Hudeček, a Sundance jury prize winner in 2016 for his queer romance short “Peacock.” Also anticipated is three-time Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland’s Kafka biopic “Franz,” a four-country co-production that recently began shooting in Prague. “This is an important project for us,” says Šantrochová. “It’s very international, but also very Czech and very connected to Prague.”