For this year's 50th anniversary Jubilee edition of the Zlin Film Festival, held in the UNESCO Heritage City of Zlin in northeastern Czech Republic, several programs heralding Czech cinema of the past and the present are among this year's highlights. This includes a special sidebar for actor/writer/composer Zdenek Sverák, one of Czech cinema's best known faces and talents. Zdenek Sverák is a true renaissance man, having scaled the heights of the film, theater and television worlds as both an ...

Zdenek Sverák in KOLYA For this year's 50th anniversary Jubilee edition of the Zlin Film Festival, held in the UNESCO Heritage City of Zlin in northeastern Czech Republic, several programs heralding Czech cinema of the past and the present are among this year's highlights. This includes a special sidebar for actor/writer/composer Zdenek Sverák, one of Czech cinema's best known faces and talents.  Zdenek Sverák is a true renaissance man, having scaled the heights of the fil...

  LONG LIVE THE KNIGHTS! (Karel Janák, Czech Republic)   At the heart of the Zlin Film Festival, which had its official opening this morning at the Grand Cinema, the 2500+ seat movie palace that is the largest in the Czech Republic, are films made for the children's and youth market. While the Hollywood studios package big budget fantasy films for the enthusiastic base of young cinemagoers, the films being showcased this week here are of a different stripe. Whle their stories va...

JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF TIME (1955, Karel Zeman) The eyes of the film industry are pointing east this week as the Zlin Film Festival kicks off its 50th anniversary celebrations in the UNESCO heritage city in the Moravia district of eastern Czech Republic. A mix of filmmmakers, programmers, distributors, critics and journalists have come from Europe, North America, Asia and beyond to participate in this year's event, the largest devoted to children and youth cinema (with many ad...

  On the eve of the Zlin Film Festival, which kicks off its 50th anniversary celebrations on Sunday, May 30, I spoke with the very busy Petr Koliha, the Festival's Artistic Director. As the first major film event following Cannes, the Zlin Film Festival takes up the mantle of film appreciation, with a particular focus to film and media projects produced for the children and youth market. As all eyes turn east to the UNESCO heritage city of Zlin in eastern Czech Republic, Petr Koliha sha...

On the eve of the Zlin Film Festival, which kicks off its 50th anniversary celebrations on Sunday, May 30, I spoke with the very busy Petr Koliha, the Festival's Artistic Director. As the first major film event following Cannes, the Zlin Film Festival takes up the mantle of film appreciation, with a particular focus to film and media projects produced for the children and youth market. As all eyes turn east to the UNESCO heritage city of Zlin in eastern Czech Republic, Petr Koliha shares his tho...

  THE PERFECT AGE OF ROCK N ROLL, an award-winning American Independent drama directed by Scott Rosenbaum and featuring a stellar cast that includes Peter Fonda, Kevin Zegers, Jason Ritter, Lukas Haas, Kelly Lynch, Ruby Dee, Lauren Holly and Taryn Manning, will be the Opening Night Gala presentation of the Zlin Film Festival. The film, which is making its Eastern European Premiere at the Festival, kicks off the 50th anniversary celebrations on Monday evening, May 31, as one of Eur...

  As the Cannes Film Festival winds down and media professionals leave en masse for home (if their airplanes are not delayed by volcanic ash or French airline strikes), 500 miles to the northeast in the Czech Republic, the Zlin Film Festival is revving up for its 50th anniversary celebrations that begin next weekend. In the world of film festivals, the celebration of film never seems to end. The Zlin Film Festival, one of the oldest film events in the world, has been planning its 50...

  In preparation for the launch of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Zlin Film Festival, which officially opens on Sunday, May 30th, the Festival organization is displaying an art exhibit by one of its most famous native sons, Peter Sis, the Czech-born author, illustrator and filmmaker. To be technical, Sis was born in Brno, which is less than 50 miles away, but Zlin has many right to claim him as one of their own. As the major film event devoted to children and young adul...

  So, you may be saying.....what exactly is a film clapperboard? Well, since the beginning of films, the clapperboard has  been used to visually introduce scenes so that a director and editor can organize their shots. While some prefer the new digital clapperboards, many filmmakers prefer the traditional wooden ones. Not only are a kind of nostalgia for the classic period of cinema but the loud "thwack" they make when they are closed is a sound that technicians, actors and di...

  British actress Jodie Whittaker is the first of many international guests to be announced who will be coming to the Zlin Film Festival in the Czech Republic later this month to help fete the Festival on its 50th anniverary. Whittaker has previously been seen at the Zlin Film Festival before, albeit only on the big screen. Two years ago, the Festival screened the screen comedy ST. TRINIAN'S in its Competition Section. This year, Whittaker appears in two films screening at the ...

  2010 is a special year in the history of Czech cinema. Not only is it the 50th anniversary of the Zlin Film Festival (which runs from May 30 to June 6 in the UNESCO heritage city in the Czech Republic) but the Festival will honor milestones in Czech cinema, both old and new.         The Festival is marking the centenary of the birth of one of the cofounders of Zlín’s film...

The AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL (AFF), the first film event in Eastern Europe solely devoted to the works of contemporary and classic American cinema, was announced this week during the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. The first edition of the AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL will be held from October 20 to 24, 2010 in the cultural heritage city of Wroclaw, Poland (featured this week in the New York Times as one of the hot travel destinations in Europe). The event is being organized by the New Horizons ...

  One of the oldest film festival events in Europe and the largest celebration of films specifically for the youth and young adult market, Film Festival Zlin marks a milestone 50th anniversary this year when it unspools from May 30 to June 6 in the cultural heritage Moravian city in eastern Czech Republic.    Petr Koliha, Artistic Director "We are expecing attendance at the Festival this year to be over one hundred thousand", Film Festival Zlin artistic d...

One of the oldest film festival events in Europe and the largest celebration of films specifically for the youth and young adult market, Film Festival Zlin marks a milestone 50th anniversary this year when it unspools from May 30 to June 6 in the cultural heritage Moravian city in eastern Czech Republic. "We are expecing attendance at the Festival this year to be over one hundred thousand", Film Festival Zlin artistic director Petr Koliha announced. "The 50th anniversary has already aroused much...

The Berlinale, because of its history and Berlin's geographic location as the nexus between Western and Eastern Europe, has become an important place for Eastern European organizations to make announcements and for Eastern European films to be showcased. One of the oldest film festivals in Europe, Film Festival Zlin in the Czech Republic, will kick off its 50th anniversary celebration in Berlin on Tuesday evening, 16 February with a cocktail reception at the Czech Republic Embassy...

The 6th International Documentary Film Festival of Madrid will be held from May 1 through 10 and will showcase 108 films from 40 countries In its 6th year, DOCUMENTA MADRID furthers its commitment to the Competitive Sections, which are made up entirely of films previously unreleased in Spain for the first time in its history. Of the 1078 documentaries received to participate in the competition, 108 have been selected. By category, they will compete in: 54 films in the Original Documentary Secti...

    ZLIN, Czech Republic - Czech EU Presidency          Zlín Film Festival receives prestigious status and signs new PARTNER contracts   Organizers of the 49th International Film Festival for Children and Youth, which will be held from 31 May until 7 June 2009 in Zlín, the Czech Republic, are proud to announce that the festival as well as its supporting event „Minisalon - Film Clapperboards 2009“ ha...

ZLÍN 2005 – INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTHFestival ConclusionThe cusp of May and June saw the International Film Festival for Children and Youth was held in Zlín for the 45th time. This year’s jubilee anniversary event saw 418 films entered and the fall of the record for the number of participating countries, which were 43 in total. 31 delegations drawn from 16 countries in the world came to Zlín to show and represent their films. 34 supporting events in Zlín and its ...

ZLÍN 2005 – INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTHMay 29 – June 4, 2005The 45th International Film Festival for Children and Youth, which will last until Saturday, June 4, was started in Zlín on Sunday, May 29, 2005.Every year, the Zlín film festival brings its viewers dozens of films from all over the world. The main pillars of the festival are international competitions of feature and animated films for children and youth. Within the framework of support for young filmmakers...