FilmFestival Cottbus, CinÉast and Arras Film Festival

The 35th FilmFestival Cottbus (4–9 November), one of the leading international festivals of Eastern European film, selected Summer School, 2001, a debut feature by Dužan Duong set within a Czech-Vietnamese community at the turn of the millennium, for the main Competition program. Duong’s film premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Festival earlier this year, and recently won the Grand Jury Trống Đồng Award for Best Feature at the 16th Viet Film Fest (4-19 October) in Santa Ana, California. Cottbus also offered Caravan by Zuzana Kirchnerová (premiered at Festival de Cannes in the prestigeous Un certain regard program), Broken Voices by Ondřej Provazník (premiered at Karlovy Vary IFF), and sensitive Slovak-Czech coming-of-age drama Promise I’ll Be Fine by Zuzana Gramatová (premiered at Tokyo IFF last year), all competing in the U18 Youth Competition. Czech films also made their way into the non-competition sections. Cottbus Masters program featured Made in EU by Stefan Komandarev, a minority co-production drama, which premiered at Venice, and Duchoň by Peter Bebjak, a biographical feature about Slovak pop singer and idol Karol Duchoň first introduced at KVIFF. EcoEast program offered Urban Disobedience Toolkit by multidisciplinary artist Vladimír Turner, and festival stalwart Free the Chickens, a short animated film by Matúš Vizár. The Hits program selected Miki and Černák, a duo of crime thrillers by Jakub Kroner, and the Kids program features the celebrated animated feature Living Large by Kristina Dufková, which premiered at Annecy last year and was also nominated for the European Film Award in two different categories. Finally, a critically aclaimed documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin by David Borenstein, the official Oscar Danish Oscar contender, produced by Pink on the Czech side, graced the Spektrum program. The festival ended on a good note for the Czech film: Promise, I’ll Be Fine won the U18 Youth Film Competition, as well as the Prize For Best Debut.

CinÉast (10-26 October), another film festival centering on the Central and Eastern European film production, offered two Czech animated student shorts this year: Better Man by Eliška Jirásková (premiered at Annecy) and Polio by Klára Kubenková. 

Arras Film Festival (7-16 November), an annual 10-day event in Arras, France, that focuses on European cinema and aims to support emerging European talents, will present following films: Father by Tereza Nvotová, a tense, Venice-premiered drama, which recently won the International Competition at the Zurich Film Festival (September 25–October 5) and was selected by Slovakia as the official Slovak Oscar contender, Broken Voices by Ondřej Provazník, Better Go Mad in the Wild by Miro Remo, Caravan by Zuzana Kirchnerová, Girl America by Viktor Tauš, an energizing portrait documentary and the Czech Republic's submission for Best International Feature for the 98th Academy Awards – I’m Not Everything I Want to Be by Klára Tasovská, Mr. Nobody Against Putin by David Borenstein, Polish-Czech-Ukraine documentary My Dear Théo by Alisa Kovalenko, co-production coming-of-age comedy drama DJ Ahmet by Georgi M. Unkovski, and lastly Duchoň by Peter Bebjak.

Denver Film Festival, Vancouver IFF and Chicago IFF

Czech films also made their presence felt in the usually hard-to-reach North American territory. The Denver Film Festival (October 31st to November 9th) selected Franz by Agnieszka Holland, a kaleidoscopic portrait of the famous Czech writer with German actor Idan Weiss in the leading role. Franz, the official Polish Oscar contender, premiered at Toronto IFF and is one of the most sought-after Czech films in the 2025 festival circuit, as also witnessed by the following selections. After its Toronto debut, Franz was selected by Vancouver IFF (October 2–12), along with Broken Voices by Ondřej Provazník, and Father by Tereza Nvotová. At the 61st Chicago International Film Festival (October 15-26), Franz simultaneously appeared in the Best of Fests and Spotlight programs. Apart from Holland's Kafkaesque odyssey, Chicago IFF also screened multinational co-production documentary Child of Dust by debuting Weronika Mliczewska, co-produced by Michal Sikora of Lonely Production on the Czech side, as part of the Documentary Competition. The film eventually garnered the Audience Award.

Festival do Rio, São Paulo IFF and Cairo IFF

Many notable Czech films appear in the official selection of several film festivals outside the usual suspects list of European and North American autumn festivals. First of all, Festival do Rio, or Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival (October 2–12, 2025), offered the following three prominent Czech feature films: Father by Zuzana Nvotová, Franz by Agnieszka Holland, and Broken Voices by Ondřej Provazník. Nvotová and Holland made it to the program as part of the European Film Promotion’s EUROPE! VOICES OF WOMEN+ IN FILM programme, which highlights both emerging and established European women directors. Another South American festival, the 49th Sao Paulo IFF, running 16-30 October, selected Caravan by Zuzana Kirchnerová, for the New Directors Competition. Finally, the 46th Cairo International Film Festival (12-21 November) selected Franz by Agnieszka Holland for The Out of Competition section.

DOK Leipzig, IDFA, Festival dei Popoli, Doclisboa and RIDM

Autumn was eventful for Czech documentary films as well. One of the most important documentary film events, DOK Leipzig (27 October–2 November), unique among festivals worldwide for its combined documentary and animated film program, offered the following: German premieres of Better Go Mad in the Wild by Miro Remo, a winner of the Crystal Globe at the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), and Ukrainian-French-Czech co-production documentary Queens of Joy by Olga Gibelinda, both in the Audience Competition, along with the trio of well-traveled shorts from 2024 in the Kids DOK program, namely From Play to Play by Mikoláš Arsenjev, Writing Home by Eva Matejovičová, and Hello Summer by Martin Smatana and Veronika Zacharová.

Another major documentary film festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, or IDFA (13-23 November), hosted the world premiere of Blood Red, a feature documentary debut directed by Martin Imrich and produced by Ondřej Šejnoha of FAMU and Vít Janeček of D1film, in the Envisions Competition, accompanied by Action Item by Paula Ďurinová, and Better Go Mad in the Wild, in the Best of Fests program, experimental short Bardo by Viera Čákanyová in the Paradocs section, and Time to the Target by Vitaly Mansky, a three-hour-long portrait of war-torn Lviv, which premiered at the Berlinale and recently won the main award of the Czech Joy competition at the Ji.hlava IDFF, in the Signed program.

Worth mentioning is also the presence of Better Go Mad in the Wild by Miro Remo and Action Item by Paula Ďurinová in the International Feature Film Competition at the Festival dei Popoli in Florence (2-10 November), and the selection of Scent Evidence by Zuzana Piussi from 2024 for the program of the 23rd Doclisboa (16-26 October).

Additionally, two Czech films will also be shown at the RIDM Montreal Documentary Film Festival at the end of November (20-30 November): Bardo by Viera Čákanyová in the International Short and Medium-Length Competition, and Action Item by Paula Ďurinová in the Panorama – Against the Grain section, in the Canadian and the North American premieres respectively.

Primanima, Cinekid and CINANIMA

13th Primanima World Festival of First Animations in Budaörs (15-18 October), an international competition and festival for animated debut filmmakers, presented a plethora of Czech student animated short films. Young Directors Competition featured Berlinale-premiered Stone of Destiny by Julie Černá, which was recently awarded with the Graduation Film Jury Prize at the Bucheon IAFF (October 24-28) in South Korea, Polio by Klára Kubenková, and Ř by Abigél Dérczy. Silhouettes Competition presented MOTHER Ltd. by Vendula Velísková, which eventually won the Backstage Award. Children’s Film Competition presented Loves & Daisies, another film by Klára Kubenková, and Bioshorts – Regeneration Tricks by Daniela Hýbnerová. Furthermore, PrimaTeen Competition presented Better Man by Eliška Jirásková. Here, Better Man was decorated with the Special Mention of the PrimaTeen Student Jury.

Cinekid Festival in Amsterdam (11-26 October), one of the largest international film, television, and new media festivals for children, screened The Tale of a Tail, a short film by Oliver Beaujard and Nina Beajuard Zardalishvili, in the Sparks Competition.

Finally, the upcoming 49th edition of the Portuguese film festival CINANIMA (7-16 November) in Espinho offers a great variety of Czech animated films in competition and non-competition sections. Hurikan by Jan Saska, one of the most successful Czech animated shorts in recent memory, which started its notable festival journey at the 2024 Annecy Festival, where it won the Audience Award, competes in the Short Film Competition. Wolfie, a latest short film by animator and director Phillippe Kastner, known for his previous short film Dede is Dead about a death of a beloved pet, appears in the Student Film Competition. Lastly, Free the Chickens by Matúš Vizár and Joko by Izabela Plucińska, both Annecy-premiered films, are going to be screened as part of the All Aboard program.