The 39th edition of the Finále Plzeň festival, taking place from September 25 to 30, 2026, will showcase contemporary Czech film and television production. Slovakia once again enjoys strong representation at the festival.
Nine works are competing for awards in the Feature Live Action or Animated Films Competition, with seven of them co-productions involving Slovakia. Two are majority Slovak productions: Lover, Not a Fighter, a playful debut by Martina Buchelová about the lives of contemporary twenty-somethings; and Only Beautiful Things to Look At, the latest film by Ivan Ostrochovský, which addresses the issue of the involuntary sterilization of Romani women. Both films premiered successfully at the Karlovy Vary IFF – as did Šimon Holý’s Chica Checa, a film exploring queer identity and the complex relationship between a son and his mother. Olmo Omerzu’s family drama Ungrateful Beings premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival. Plzeň will host the world premiere of Backwoods, the directorial debut by accomplished editor Evženie Brabcová; it tells the story of a father preparing for the end of the world and his daughter, who is fleeing an abusive husband. Rounding out the Slovak entries in the competition are the crime drama Little Thief by director Ondřej Hudeček and the family drama Dancing with the Bear by Jitka Rudolfová.
Four Slovak films will compete for the Golden Kingfisher award in the documentary category. Among them is the majority Slovak production Chronicle by Martin Kollar, which captures fleeting moments of life in contemporary Slovakia. The selection also includes the Berlinale-awarded film about addiction and homelessness If Pigeons Turned to Gold (dir. Pepa Lubojacki), the documentary on intimacy and the OnlyFans platform Virtual Girlfriends (dir. Barbora Chalupová), and a personal journey tracing footsteps of the director’s father, The Pint of Ink (dir. Ester Geislerová). A film with Slovak minority co-production status is also competing in the short film category: the rap fairy tale Orla by director Maria Lukáčová, which premiered earlier this year at the IFF Rotterdam.
In the First Catch section – dedicated to premieres and pre-premieres of new films – audiences can look forward to the identity-seeking drama City of Fathers (dir. Zdeněk Tyc) and Tomáš Hubáček’s debut Wirbel, which explores one’s relationship to the landscape and collective memory. The In the Nets of 2025-26 section will present the MMA-themed film The Fighter (dir. Vojtěch Frič, Tomáš Dianiška) and the animated adventure film for young audiences The Crystal Planet (dir. Arsen Anton Ostojić). Czech minority co-productions are featured in the Czech Traces section, including the period drama about the construction of the Starina reservoir, The Flood (dir. Martin Gonda) – Slovakia’s Oscar entry, and winner of six Sun in a Net awards – as well as the biopic Nepela (dir. Gregor Valentovič), about one of the most famous Slovak athletes of the last century.
More information can be found on the Finále Plzeň festival website
