20 events and screenings for film lovers in Czechia this autumn

The Young Film Fest is an international film festival focused on presenting world cinema aimed at children and youth. The festival incorporates its industry program under the Visegrad Young Film Days heading, drawing film professionals from around the world and across the Czech Republic. This September it will take place for the seventh time in Prague, at the newly renovated Kino Kavalírka cinema and DOX Centre for Contemporary Art.

EDITOR'S PICK The Future Gate Sci-Fi Film Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, kicking off its milestone edition with an advanced screening of the film The Pod Generation F starring Emilia Clarke. Central Europe's largest sci-fi film and culture event starts in Prague at Lucerna and moves to Brno on Oct. 3. In addition to the main competition, classics section, documentaries, and student film contest, the festival theme focuses on space colonization and will provide deeper insights into human existence and our place in the universe through English-friendly films and talks.

The annual Serial Killer TV festival features the best contemporary European series through advanced two-episode screenings of quality dramas from Central and Eastern Europe alongside select titles from further afield. Finland is this year's featured guest with its distinct series that embraces absurdism, unfiltered crime tales, and well-made genre shows. The full program will be released later in September. Series are shown with Czech and English subtitles.

The annual Film and Architecture Festival is part of the nationwide Day of Architecture celebration held each October. The festival screens documentary, experimental, and narrative films promoting appreciation of architecture to the general public. Prague and cities across the Czech Republic and Slovakia will host screenings of over 20 films from around the world, supplemented by discussions and performances. Each edition features premiere screenings and accompanying events exploring topics at the intersection of cinema and design. One to watch: Adolf Loos: A Revolutionary among Architects (English-friendly) on Sept. 30 at Světozor.

EDITOR'S PICK: The annual Indian Film Festival is celebrating 20 years in 2023. Taking place at Prague's Světozor cinema the festival opens a window into Indian culture with films from a new generation of creators that highlight both commercial and art-house Indian cinema and have in recent years included a selection of Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, and Bengali films, feature, and documentaries. This year's program features Once Upon a Time in Calcutta, which follows the life of a bereaved mother trying to desperately find a new identity, love, and independence. A lively after-party takes place on Oct. 14.

This 27th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival will run from Oct. 24 to 29 in Jihlava and online for two weeks. Festival director Marek Hovorka says organizers have been searching globally for the most interesting documentaries to present to audiences. The festival is launching a crowdfunding campaign to help cover rising costs. Follow their site and socials for a full program when released.

The Queer Autumn Cinema 2023 series returns to the LGBT+ Community Center from September to December, screening an array of LGBTQ-themed films. Kicking off with the acclaimed drama Tár, other titles include the horror classic Carrie for Halloween and the gender-bending musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Weekly screenings will take place on Mondays each month.

The broadcast season of classical and contemporary opera titles from the 2023/24 season will begin on Oct. 21 at Světozor with the highly-anticipated opera Dead Man Comes with music by Jake Heggie. The production is directed by acclaimed director Ivo van Hove and stars renowned mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. The season will include nine live broadcasts from major opera houses around the world, screened in cinemas across the Czech Republic.

The Silent Films with Live Music series presents silent films from cinema's golden age accompanied by live music. Forgotten titles from the early years of the film are given a new life through newly created scores, while live music transforms the cinematic experience into a collaborative event celebrating the art of silent filmmaking. On Sept. 29, indulge in the Swedish comedy Erotikon (1920) with music by Marek Holan, and on Oct. 26 catch Last of the Mohicans (also 1920) in English with music by Hjörtur.

Director Kenneth Branagh's new Agatha Christie mystery comedy-drama based on the author's novel Hallowe'en Party comes to Czechia a day earlier than its U.S. release date. Branagh returns as the iconic Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who finds himself embroiled in a case during a vacation in glamorous 1920s Venice. When a young heiress is found dead during a lavish Halloween bash, Poirot must use his trademark deductive skills to sort through a host of eccentric suspects played by an impressive ensemble cast including Kelly Reilly, Kyle Allen, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, and Camille Cottin. In wide release in Czech cinemas.

The documentary film ABBA: The Movie, directed by Lasse Hallström, will get special screenings at Kino Atlas and around the world on Sept. 17 and 19, taking viewers on a retrospective journey back to the 1970s when disco reigned and ABBA was the queen of the dance floor. Featuring extremely rare behind-the-scenes footage as well as full performances of their biggest hits like Dancing Queen, S.O.S, and Waterloo, the zany film documents the superstar pop group at the height of their popularity during a highly successful tour of Australia. Interspersed is the story of a small-town DJ who tries in vain to land an interview with the band, while their dedicated bodyguard does everything to prevent it.

Anna, an influencer known for her provocative content, is mysteriously silent on social networks. When 15-year-old Nina finds a photo of a half-naked Anna on her dad's phone, she decides to track her down. A sequence of events changes the lives of both Nina and her family. In Czech cinemas now with English subtitles, the thriller #annaismissing is a loose cinematic sequel to the successful 2020 International Emmy Award-winning series #martyisdead.

As a massive segment of the Sun has broken off and is heading for Earth, whose surface is slowly heating up to an unbearable level, an 18-year-old man gets stranded on his way to the family cottage. Albert Hospodářský's debut film Brual Heat (Brutální vedro) brings to autumn cinemas a unique view of Generation Z, which, trapped in the digital world, must come to terms with the reality of climate change.

The film, which Hospodářský shot during his studies at the Department of Documentary Production at FAMU in Prague, received special recognition from the jury at the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary.

Agnieszka Holland's new film Green Border, premiering at the Venice Film Festival in September explores the geopolitical crisis involving refugees trapped in the dense forests along the Belarus-Poland border. The film follows the intertwining lives of a female activist who abandons comfort to help refugees, a young border guard, and a Syrian family whose members become pawns in this covert war. The film has drawn harsh criticism from Poland's conservative government. The Czech release date is Oct. 19.