On Mars 23rd is starting Prague international film festival, also known as Febiofest. For 9 days, it’ll feature film from all around the globe for 99 CZK per screening (139 CZK if you want to support local charity) in cinemas in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. Then, from April 3rd, the festival moves to Czech regions, where only selected films will be shown until April 28th. Don’t hesitate to look through offered films even if you don’t speak czech. Most films include both czech and english subtitles and if they don’t, they are marked as “english unfriendly” in the program.

Although Febiofest isn’t as prestigious as Karlovy Vary international film festival, it is an opportunity for Czech viewers to see films that wouldn’t be distributed to our country. Among featured films are premiers, last year big festival competitors or tributes and retrospectives.

The main goal of the festival, according to organisers, is to prefer viewers over critics. This also sets up the program. Offered films are very various, divided into categories geographically (Asian view, New Europe, Balcan echoes, Northern lights, …), by author – those are mostly tributes to guests – (Profile: Abel Ferrara, Profile: Peter Suschitzky, …) or by topic (Queer now).

I’m personally very interested in the section New Europe, presenting debut or second feature films of young european filmmakers, but if you’re not that into contemporary production, you can always go to see old classics on big screen – newly remastered version of Blue velvet (1986, David Lynch) or M: The killer among us (1931, Fritz Lang),  accompanied by biography of Fritz Lang focusing on the period when he worked on M, surprisingly named Fritz Lang (2016, Gordian Maugg). Those can be found in sections Masters and Re-masters.

Apart from the main line, an accompanying program called “OFF” runs in Prague, offering debates, discussions with guests, concerts and workshops. Everything in the OFF section is free to public.

Guests visiting the Prague international film festival are for example Polish director Agnieszka Holland (Burning Bush, Europa Europa), Serbian director Emir Kusturica (Underground, On the milky way) or Abel Ferrara (Bad lieutenant, Welcome to New York). The Chairman of the Jury is Czech New Wave director Juraj Herz (The Cremator, Oil lamps).

For more information, trailers, etc. visit www.febiofest.cz (in czech and english language), facebook page Febiofest (CZ, ENG) or download their app Febiofest in Google play or App Store (CZ only).

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Pavlina Koulova is a film enthusiast and polka dot lover from Prague, Czech Republic. Currently studying. Occasionally writing for Cinema Without Borders and Czech TV.

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