Von Werner Busch. Czech cinema is still well represent today, especially on German TV screens – an afterglow of the once intensive co-operation between the West German local station WDR and the Czechoslovak state TV station ČST in the 1970s and 80s. The fruits of this collaborations, especially children's films like PAN TAU, Lucy the Menace of Street, The Flying Cestmír or Three Nuts for Cinderella, are still considered to be examples of the extraordinary qualities of Czech filmmaking and are still massively popular in their home country. With a market share of 30% to 40% of their domestic box-office Czech productions indeed enjoys one of the highest acceptance rates in its home market, and is only topped by France in this respect.

The film studio Barrandov, one of the largest and oldest studios in Europe is a co-producer of many of domestic and international productions. Even after Czechoslovakia split up into two sovereign states in 1992 this Prague-based facility enjoyed a healthy survival and could attract many international big-budget productions due not only to their inexpensive working conditions, but also their highly professional and comprehensive infrastructure. International productions that were filmed there included Brian DePalma's MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, HELLBOY or CASINO ROYAL. Still, over the last years several of those coveted big-budget projects went even further East, mainly to Hungary or Romania. An EU-funded subsidies law that was passed in the summer of 2001 is supposed to bring back capital-intensive film projects to those big studios and further strengthen their worldwide reputation for their traditional and still pre-eminent infrastructure.

The Barrandov studios were founded in 1931 by the two brothers Miloš and Václav Havel, the latter of which being the father of the Czech president to come. After only ten years those private owners were dis-appropriated by the German fascists. The Prag-Film AG, founded in 1941, incorporated all Czech studios and produced film in accordance to national socialist propaganda during the war. Those included one of the last productions started under the NS dictatorship, SHIVA UND DIE GALGENBLUME starring Hans Albers and O.W. Fischer. The Nazi leadership expanded the studio with its three giant stages of more than 3,400 sqm space in order to establish them as a third major film centre next to Berlin and Munich. These stages are still in use today.

Although those studios were taken over by the state after the war and in spite of all the reprisals filmmaking critical of the system was actually possible. Especially in the mid-1960s this resulted in highly regarded films like Ján Kadár's and Elmar Klos' THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET or Jirí Menzel's CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS, both of which won the Foreign Language Oscar. These famous representatives of the Czech New Wave were the artistic expression of politically rising urge for liberalization and democratization, which led to the Prague Spring of 1968 mostly remembered for being put down with militarily force. This was also the generation of filmmaker Miloš Forman, whose movie THE FIREMEN'S BALL from 1968 was banned directly following the reform movements abolition. Forman was the only Czech director to be able to establish himself as a respected and successful Hollywood filmmaker. He returned to the Barrandov studios in 1984 for his film AMADEUS.

Besides Paris, Prague was the second big centre of the Surrealist Movement in the 20th century. According to the cinematic tradition of Prague this was mostly to be seen in cinemas, as can be seen in the only recently on DVD re-published film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders by Jaromil Jires. Also, not far outside Prague, Jan Švankmajer, Europe's senior and most famous surrealist film artist, has his studio. He has been working there since the 1960s, exploring the obscure and strange worlds with his very distinct means of film animation, mixing comedy and bleakness and humour in his short and feature films. His latest work Surviving Life (Theory and Practice) premièred in September 2010 at the Venice Film Festival.

But the Czech republic also features a grande international film festival of its own, which is often called “the smallest of the A-list festivals” – the Karlovy Vary IFF. Founded in 1946, this festival almost didn't survive the political turmoil after the fall of the Eastern Bloc, but was successfully saved in 1994 by massive public and private funding and a complete restructuring of the organization. Especially in the recent decade, it has sharpened its profile as a major European film show for Eastern European Cinema. So this festival in particular and the Czech film industry in general continue to ride the wave of success through all the highs and lows of cinematic history.

Links

FILM INDUSTRY SUPPORT
• Film Industry Support Programme
INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS
• Czech Film Center
• Czech Film Commission
• Czech Film Chamber
• Czech Film and Television Academy
• Audiovisual Producers' Association (APA)
• Directors' and Screenwriters' Association (ARAS)
• Film Distributors' Union
• Bonton Film
• Film and TV School (FAMU)
INFORMATION ON FILMS
• National Film Archive
• Czech Movie Database
• Czech-Slovak Movie Database
• Czech Movies
FILM MAGAZINES
• Cinema
• Premiere
• Film Review Journal
FESTIVALS AND COMPETITIONS
• Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
• Zlin Film Festival
• Czech Lion
• Febiofest
• Days of European Film

• HOMELAND (CZ 2009. Juan de Dios Marfil)