Three Czech films are set to make their respective premiers at the Venice Film Festival set to take place later this summer, putting the country under the spotlight, although none of the films are in the running for the Golden Lion in the main Venezia 81 competition.

While the films may not be competing for the big honor, they are competing in smaller categories.

director and screenwriter Vojtěch Strakatý’s ‘After Party’ will be  featured in the Orizzonti Extra section, which spotlights works of different genres that aim to innovate and demonstrate creative originality.

‘Wishing on a Star’ by Slovak director Peter Kerekes, a Czech-Italian-Croatian-Austrian-Slovak co-production documentary, is competing in the Orizzonti competition and focuses on the story of an odd fortune teller named Luciana.

That section focuses on films  representing the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in cinema.

Ondřej Moravec and Victoria Lopukhina’s mixed reality film ‘Fragile House’, which is about Ukraine, is perhaps the standout as the film has no characters, no plot, and no audience.

“The principle of mixed reality is that you’re mixing digital elements with the real world around you” Ondřej Moravec said of the film (h/t Radio Prague International). “In virtual reality, you put on a helmet and you are totally immersed in a 3D or film world – you can’t see anything around you in the physical world. But in a mixed-reality installation, you put on a headset, but the headset has a camera on top, so it also projects what is around you in the physical space. It takes this data and combines it with the 3D elements.”

The film is set in a Ukrainian living room, which also happens to be the main character.

“The interactions are quite gentle, so it’s not like you can experience something totally different to the viewer before you, like in an interactive game where the story branches” Moravec said.

“But it depends which details you choose to focus on – for example, a user could go around the flat and notice that there is a postcard or note from somebody in the family. Or you can miss it, but find some other detail. But that’s the same as in classic film – a 2D film shows you stories and symbols and narratives, and some of them you absorb and some you don’t.”

Fragile Home is competing in the Venice Immersive category, a section focused on immersive media and Extended Reality (XR).

A brand new Blade Runner TV miniseries, from Amazon Prime Video, has officially begun filming in Prague as will serve as the sequel to the 1982 and 2012 films within the fame franchise, continuing the story.

The series, called Blade Runner 2099, stars Hunter Schafer and Malaysian Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, among others. The series was originally set to be filmed in Belfast, but it was postponed due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike which led to a change of location to Prague.

”Northern Ireland Screen is extremely disappointed that Blade Runner 2099 will no longer be produced in Northern Ireland,” Richard Williams, chief executive of NI Screen, said at the time, according to ScreenDaily. ”We are conscious that these difficult decisions do happen in the screen industry, particularly with the most expensive projects which carry the greatest expectations.”

It now appears that Blade Runner 2099 will be filmed almost exclusively in the Barrandov studios.

The Czech Republic has hosted recent popular TV series such as Apple TV’s Foundation as well as AMC’s popular series Interview With The Vampire.

The acclaimed director Ridley Scott who directed the original film based on the novel by Philip K Dick which was released in 1982 will return to write the script and will also be involved in the production.

The series is set to premier on Amazon Prime sometime in 2025.

The 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival launched on Friday in the west Bohemian spa town and touted a number of big Hollywood names taking place for the region’s biggest film event including actors Viggo Mortensen and Clive Owen, as well as Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh.

The festival has long been newsworthy but this year’s event seems to be among the best, especially with the entertainment industry seeing a boom thanks to incredible numbers at the box office around the world and the rise of entertainment streaming platform offerings as well.

Mortensen, who is set to receive the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival President’s Award at the opening ceremony and who will introduce his directorial outing will be joined by German actor Daniel Brühl who will also be presenting himself as a director.

​“It’s been extremely exciting for a while now, ever since we got the confirmation, for many reasons” Karlovy Vary International Film Festival artistic head Karel Och said (h/t Czech Radio). “These are artists we respect a great deal and they represent not just actors but film directors as well, which is something that we try to emphasize, throughout the years. So I’m very happy that both Daniel Brühl and Viggo Mortensen, iconic actors so to speak, will be introducing their films they shot as directors.”

Oscar-winning actor and producer Benicio del Toro is also slated for the event.

“Benicio graced us with his visit in 2022 and ever since he left Karlovy Vary and Prague he did not leave us; we stayed in touch. He always wanted to keep his promise, despite his busy schedule, to be the person in the next trailer. It was shot in a couple of hours during one of the intermissions of the shooting of Wes Anderson’s new film. So it proves that despite Benicio being in a huge movie he finds time for his friends from Karlovy Vary and we’re very grateful. And the trailer is absolutely amazing.”

Jiří Mádl’s third film called Waves is one of the most anticipated films making movie news around the region as audiences await it’s premier.

How marketing will tie into the festival will be interesting to see. With a boom in plastic surgery SEO and even insurance agent SEO there is bound to be talk about how these, and other marketing verticals, can help the festival scene continue to help movies reach new heights.

With the box office numbers showing promise of returning to pre-COVID numbers, there is a ray of sunshine beaming down on the movie industry as we enter the second half of 2024.