Based on stories by writer and playwright Arnošt Goldflam, the film interweaves magical realism, satirical humour, and the distinct poetic awkwardness characteristic of Goldflam’s work. The film springs from a cross-border collaboration between four production companies: MAUR film for the Czech Republic (with Martin Vandas as a producer), Artichoke for Slovakia, ZVVIKS for Slovenia, and Vivement Lundi ! for France. This was mirrored in the creative process, involving directors and creative teams from all four countries, each bringing its own cultural and artistic perspectives.

Czech animation also scored big at the 2025 European Animation Awards, known as the Emile Awards. A duo of 2024 MAUR-produced animated short films, I Died in Irpin (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine) by Ukrainian animator Anastasiia Falileieva, and Joko (Poland, Germany, Czech Republic) by Polish animator Izabelą Plucińską, won the Best of the Best and the Best Character Design and Backgrounds awards in the Short Film category, respectively.

This achievement adds to the already impressive portfolio of honors that both films have collected since their world premiere at the Annecy IAFF last year. Especially, I Died in Irpin had a remarkably successful festival run. The film garnered awards at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the Bucheon International Animation Festival in Korea, the London International Animation Festival, the Manchester Animation Festival. It was also awarded the Ukrainian Film Critics Award in the Best Animated Film category. Furthermore, Variety selected I Died in Irpin as one of the 10 must-watch short films at the 47th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, where the film eventually won the Best Animation Award in the International Competition. Most recently, Falileieva's film won the Best Anidoc award at the Animest in Romania.

At this point, I Died in Irpin is also eligible for the 2025 Oscar race. The same is true for another high-profile animated short, Hurikan (Czech Republic, France, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina) by Jan Saska, produced by Martin Vandas of MAUR film and Kamila Dohnalová of Last Films, which earned its’ Oscars qualification with the Best Animation award at the HollyShorts Film Festival. Saska's celebrated film started its festival run at the Annecy IAFF last year, where it scooped the Audience Award, followed by screenings at the Sundance FF, DOK Leipzig, Sitges Film Festival, SXSW Film & TV Festival, and Melbourne IFF, to name but a few. It garnered the Audience Award at the Animafest Zagreb, Special Mention at the Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival in Bristol, and the most recent one, the Bronze Jabberwocky at the Etiuda&Anima in Krakow, Poland.

To make this list of good news complete, Agnieszka Holland's unorthodox biopic Franz (Czech Republic, Germany, Poland), produced by Šárka Cimbalová and Agnieszka Holland for Marlene Film Production, scored a European Film Award nomination for a newcomer German actor, Idan Weiss, in the best European Actor category. Franz premiered at the Toronto IFF earlier this year and has since then travelled around a great many film festivals around the world, including the Busan IFF and the Cairo IFF.