This year’s Finále Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary, offering once again full immersion in Czech film. So if you have a cinephile interest in the country that brought us Miloš Forman, Věra Chytilová, Jiří Menzel and Jan Švankmajer, the city of Plzeň is the place to be next week!

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Animated drama Alois Nebel competes for this year’s Golden Kingfisher Award

The Feature Film Competition includes Martin Šulík’s Gypsy, coming straight from last year’s Karlovy Vary award list, or A Night too Young by Olmo Omerzu, screened this year at the Berlinale, the animated historical drama Alois Nebel, plus seven other titles, mostly tackling family or social issues, either in a dramatic or a satyrical manner. Moreover, after gaining international recognition with his Czech Dream and Czech Peace, Filip Remunda enters the Documentary Competition with his latest film, Mr. Tříska Epoch Making Trip to Russia.

Apart from the competing sections, Finále has a full night of short films, and a section dedicated to another country. This year’s sweetheart is Poland, where the programme gathers some of the most successful titles from 2011 and a Janusz Majewski retrospective, all crowned by a screening of Krzysztof Zanussi’s 1976 Camouflage followed by an unmissable meeting with director.

As more and more festivals strive to develop an industry side, any festival that focuses on national cinema cannot miss the opportunity to give a helping hand to the art it showcases. With the support of the Czech Film Centre, Finále organizes a Pannel of Forthcoming Projects, offering filmmakers a chance present their works in the making and join the networking dance. The festival also aims to cross boundaries, by getting professionals from other fields involved, through workshops on 3D technology, subtitling and architecture. And last but not least, for the first time, Finále will also have a literary touch this year, as Czech authors who are no strangers to the film world will give public readings from their works.