Since its launch in 2003, the Producers Network has served as an industry platform within the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film, bringing together more than 400 producers from around the world. This year, the Czech Audiovisual Fund became an official partner, marking its first engagement at Cannes since the Fund’s recent transformation. The partnership is intended to support new co-productions and international collaborations.

The Producers Network hosts a curated programme of networking events that facilitate professional exchange and project development. Alongside representatives of the Czech Audiovisual Fund, five Czech producers will attend as part of the official delegation. Participants present and discuss work across various stages of production, with a particular emphasis on Eastern European talent and projects.

Shaping debut visions

Among the spotlighted producers is Julie Marková Žáčková of NOCHI FILM, a company dedicated to supporting debut filmmakers and underrepresented voices in Central European cinema. Žáčková is also active in Girls in Film Prague, a platform that advocates for women and non-binary creatives working across film and media.

NOCHI’s first co-production, Promise, I’ll Be Fine, marked the feature debut of Slovak director Katarína Gramatová. The film premiered at international festivals in Tokyo and Beijing and presents an understated portrait of adolescence shaped by betrayal within a family. The project illustrates the company’s emphasis on character-driven storytelling and emotional subtlety. Žáčková previously produced Occupation, the debut feature by Michal Nohejl. A genre-tinged chamber piece with allegorical undertones, Occupation depicts a surreal, vodka-fueled confrontation between Czech actors and a Russian soldier. The film received both critical recognition and multiple awards, including at the Czech Lions and the Czech Film Critics’ Awards.

Upcoming titles under the NOCHI FILM banner continue to reflect a commitment to new voices and formal experimentation. Animal, the debut feature by Milada Těšitelová currently in production, is a surreal satire in which a woman gives birth to a cat, triggering an absurdist examination of suburban motherhood. Another project in development, Turquoise Mountain by Barbora Chalupová, is scheduled for completion in 2027. Based on a true story, the film follows two women as they attempt to climb an eight-thousander during the communist era in Czechoslovakia, confronting both societal and physical limits. Both Animal and Turquoise Mountain are co-produced with Slovak company Hitchhiker Cinema and have secured support from the Czech Audiovisual Fund and Creative Europe MEDIA, among other funding bodies.

Auteur meets audience

Joining Žáčková is Maja Hamplová, a producer at Barletta, a company navigating the intersection of auteurdriven cinema and broader audience engagement. Barletta’s catalogue spans projects that balance art-house aesthetics with accessible storytelling, reflecting a flexible approach to genre and form. One of its recent titles, We Have Never Been Modern, is a period drama that competed at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and received 12 Czech Lion nominations. In the field of animation, Hamplová produced Living Large, a puppetanimated feature addressing themes of body image and self-acceptance. The film was awarded the Jury Prize at Annecy, won a Czech Lion, and was nominated for a European Film Award. Barletta is also active in television, with recent credits including the irreverent period series Daughter of the Nation about the Czech National Revival and We Are on It, Comrades!, a light-hearted take on The X Files in communist Czechoslovakia.

Several new feature-length projects are currently in development with support from major European funds. Among them is Sleep Well, a follow-up project to We Have Never Been Modern. The film reunites screenwriter Miro Šifra, director and producer Matěj Chlupáček, and producer Hamplová. Supported by the Czech Audiovisual Fund and Creative Europe MEDIA, Sleep Well follows 25-year-old Ellie, who, after a near-death experience, enters a futuristic sleep institute where comas are explored as a treatment for chronic fatigue. As Ellie’s relationships begin to deteriorate, she must choose between a passive retreat from the demands of life and a return to a world that continues to outpace her. Nadia Tereszkiewicz, named one of Unifrance’s 10 Talents to Watch in 2023, takes the lead role. The cinematography will be led by Robert Richardson, whose credits include collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, and Oliver Stone. Another project in development is Late August at the Hotel Ozone, a modern reinterpretation of the 1960s Czech sci-fi classic about eight women walking through a silent landscape, carrying no past, but being the only future for humankind. Directed by Tomáš Luňák, whose animated film Alois Nebel won the European Film Award for Best Animated Feature in 2012, the film is conceived as a post-apocalyptic poem blending live action with animated elements. The project has received script development funding, Creative Europe MEDIA support, and was recently selected for a residency at Ingmar Bergman’s estate on the Swedish island of Fårö.

Across genre lines

Seasoned producer Julietta Sichel, founder of 8Heads Productions, also joins this year’s Producers Network cohort. Over the course of her career, Sichel has curated a diverse portfolio of auteur-driven projects, with an emphasis on fostering strong creative partnerships between screenwriters, directors, and producers. Her company’s films have screened at major international festivals and secured distribution in multiple territories. Among 8Heads Productions’ recent titles is The Chronicles of Melanie, a Baltic-set historical drama noted for its unflinching portrayal of Soviet-era deportations. Other works include The Pack, a coming-of-age teen drama set in the world of ice hockey that explores themes of bullying and group dynamics, and Secret Delivery, a World War II road movie for younger audiences that reimagines classic children’s cinema.

At Cannes, Sichel is presenting a range of new projects in both film and television, including folk horror Like Air. This feature debut by Elvira Dulskaia centres on Misha, a young surgeon who suffers a disturbing hallucination during an operation. Her search for answers leads her to a remote village and an unconventional healer, ultimately confronting her with repressed family trauma. The project, supported by Creative Europe MEDIA and the Czech Audiovisual Fund, is scheduled for completion in January 2027. Another project in development is Marina Andree Škop’s GameGirl. The story follows a disabled teenage girl who becomes trapped inside a computer game, offering a distinctive take on children’s fantasy through disability and empowerment. In the realm of television, Ice Queen, created by Adam Hobzik, explores Cold War-era Czechoslovakia through the story of a gifted female figure skater navigating personal and political pressures. Set against a backdrop of state surveillance and artistic ambition, the series merges retro aesthetics with psychological drama.

Format-fluid storytelling

The Czech producers’ delegation also includes Jakub Košťál of Bionaut, a company operating with a model of specialised labels focused on animation, documentary, and genre fiction. Bionaut is known internationally for #martyisdead, a web series that won the International Emmy Award for Best Short-Form Series in 2020. Among its upcoming titles is 9 Million Colours, a short animated musical set to premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Also in post-production is Moloch Files, a genre-leaning thriller miniseries produced for Canal+.

In development are several feature-length projects, such as The Wild Hunt, directed by Marek Najbrt. The film tells the story of a starving village that strikes a desperate bargain with a supernatural entity, offering a newborn in exchange for prosperity. Set within a mythic framework, the film combines folklore with social allegory. Another upcoming project is Kidnapping of a President, a satirical true-crime comedy directed by Finnish filmmaker Samuli Valkama. Set in 1930s Finland, the film recounts the bizarre and little-known episode in which a group of intoxicated Finnish military officers conspired to kidnap the country’s first president, Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, already retired at the time. Based on actual events, the project explores the absurdity of power and national identity through a dark comedy. A Finnish-Czech-Netherlands-Estonia co-production, the film received support from the Czech Audiovisual Fund.

Realism meets reverie

Rounding out the Czech producers’ delegation is Matěj Paclík, founder of Breathless Films, a company focused on cultivating auteur-driven cinema. Paclík’s recent success includes Our Lovely Pig Slaughter, the feature debut by Adam Martinec, which premiered in the Crystal Globe Competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The film continues Martinec’s thematic engagement with familial and generational tensions, first introduced in his short Anatomy of a Czech Afternoon, also produced by Paclík.

Breathless Films’ current slate includes Martinec’s sophomore feature, Mother, Father, Son, a drama exploring the fragmentation of a working-class family grappling with incarceration, economic instability, and systemic neglect. Like his debut, the film draws on the legacy of the Czech New Wave in its formal and thematic approach. Also in development is Smearhead by Marek Partyš, a folk psychological horror set in early 20th-century Czech Silesia, a region defined by its coal-mining heritage. The story follows Petr, a young miner transferred to deeper and more perilous shafts following an accident. There, he begins to experience unsettling visions that blur the boundaries between reality and the supernatural. Another project in development is Good People, a surreal road movie centred on a traveling theatre troupe composed of people with disabilities and their caregivers. Blending realism with absurdist elements, the film focuses on the topics of performance and community from an unconventional perspective. Both Mother, Father, Son and Good People have received early-stage development support from the Czech Audiovisual Fund.