She studied at FAMU and worked alongside filmmakers such as Frantíšek Vláčil and Otakar Vávra. Her debut feature Squandered Sunday / Zabitá Neděle (Barrandov Studio, 1969) was banned for political reasons and only screened 20 years later, after the fall of communism in 1989.

During the “normalisation”, Vihanová worked for the television and concentrated on documentaries, which became her main area of interest.

In 1994, she made The Fortress / Pevnost, produced by Synergia Film in coproduction with Margo Films Paris, with Hungarian actor György Cserhalmi and Miroslav Donutil in lead roles.

In 1982 Vihavová started teaching at FAMU, working especially with foreign students.

Her documentaries received a well-deserved acknowledgment, especially in the last decade of her work. She received several awards including the Czech Lion for Outstanding Contribution to Czech Cinema in 2015 and the Award for Contribution to the World Cinema at Ji.hlava IDFF in 2016.