PRAGUE: Jiří Strach’s Czech/Slovak coproduction The Angel of God 2 / Anděl páně 2 has become the most successful film in Czech cinemas in the last six weeks, with 925,000 admissions and almost 4.18 m EUR / 113 m CZK gross. The film is a sequel to Strach’s 2005 fairy tale comedy.

PRAGUE: I, Olga Hepnarova by Petr Kazda and Tomáš Weinreb, and Family Film by Olmo Omerzu have the most nominations for the Czech Critics´ Awards 2016. Fifty Czech film critics nominated thirtenn films, including feature films, documentaries, short films, TV and internet series.

PRAGUE: David Čálek's Climbing Higher, the most attended documentary of 2015 in Czech cinemas and winner of best feature length film award at Canada’s Banff Mountain Film Competition in November 2016, is available on VOD from 8 to 11 December 2016 at http://dafilms.com/film/9806-cesta-vzhuru/. The film is a Czech/Slovak coproduction.

PRAGUE: Petr Vaclav will start the casting for Il Boemo, the biopic of Mozart’s friend, Czech composer Josef Myslivecek, in January 2017. The project received the biggest grant ever from the Czech State Cinematography Fund, 850,000 EUR / 23 m CZK, in November 2016.

PRAGUE: The Czech State Cinematography Fund distributed 60 m CZK / 2,217,000 EUR in the late November round of production grants for 2016. From the total of 21 applications in the call, the Fund´s Council selected six projects.

BRATISLAVA: The Czech/Slovak coproduction Masaryk, directed by Július Ševčík, is in postproduction in preparation for a March 2017 premiere. The film, which explores a personally difficult stage in the life of Czech diplomat and politician Jan Masaryk, takes a close look at the Munich Agreement (which annexed portions of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany) and the period preceding WWII.

PRAGUE: Mia Film is handling production services on Heaven and Hell, a two part TV film which is the latest of several German productions shot in the Czech Republic in recent years.

PRAGUE: After nine years of preparations and financing, US based Czech director, screenwriter and producer David Mrnka started shooting his new film titled Milada about Milada Horakova on 5 November 2016.

PRAGUE: The State Cinematography Fund´s Council will redistribute funds saved during the year and increase the financial allocation for documentary films, minority coproductions, film festivals and script development. Most of the increase of 773,501 EUR / 20.9 m CZK will be allotted to production.

PRAGUE: Jan Hřebejk´s latest feature The Teacher / Učitelka, which premiered at this year´s Karlovy Vary IFF, was sold to the US distributor Film Movement, which is planning to release the film in spring 2017, first in the cinema distribution and later as DVD and Blu-ray.