Speakers & Juries

Petr Tichý

Petr Tichý is a Czech executive and producer working in the audiovisual industry. Since 2013, he has served as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Barrandov Studio, one of the largest and oldest film studios in Europe. He studied production, film and television management in Australia, where he earned a Master of Arts degree. Before entering the film industry, he worked in the media sector and at Microsoft.

He joined Barrandov Studio in 2009 as Head of International Film and Television Projects. He later served as Commercial Director and was appointed CEO in 2013. Under his leadership, Barrandov Studio has continued to expand its international partnerships, co-productions, and production services for both international and domestic film and television projects. Petr Tichý has also been actively involved in supporting Czech cinema, including through the Czech Film Foundation, and is a strong advocate for the development of the Czech film industry in the international arena.

Veronika Slámová

Veronika Slámová is the Director of the Czech Audiovisual Fund. She brings extensive experience from across the audiovisual industry, having worked in television and Hollywood-format production, at Czech Television as both creative and executive producer, in fiction production management, and in film exhibition.

Markéta Šantrochová

Markéta Šantrochová boarded the newly founded Czech Film Center in 2004 and co-developed its agenda and position in Czech and international film environment.

Since 2013 she is the Head of Czech Film Center, which operates since 2017 as a division of the Czech Audiovisual Fund, the main public financing body for cinema in the country. Between 2019 and 2025, Marketa served as the president of the European Film Promotion, an international network of film promotion institutes from 37 countries.

Pavlína Žipková

Pavlína Žipková has headed the Czech Film Commission since 2018. She represents the Czech Republic at international film festivals and production markets. Between 2019 and 2022, she served as Vice President and later Co-President of the European Film Commissions Network (EUFCN).

Pavlína has over 20 years of experience as a production manager and executive producer. She worked on historical reenactments for the documentary Who Will Write Our History by director Roberta Grossman and producer Nancy Spielberg, as well as for Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, which was shortlisted for the 2008 Academy Awards. She also worked on the Emmy-winning documentary Joan of Arc by Pamela Mason Wagner and on Eli Roth’s successful horror film Hostel. Pavlína studied Creative Writing and Journalism at the Josef Škvorecký Literary Academy and Literary Creation and Media Communication at the College of Creative Communication.

Marta Nováková

Marta Nováková is a Czech director and screenwriter. Her debut film Marta (2006) was screened at numerous international festivals, winning several awards, including a nomination for European Debut of the Year (Göteborg).

Her film 8 Heads of Madness received the Czech Film Critics' Award. She also directed the acclaimed documentary miniseries Czechoslovak Citizens in Gulags for Czech Television. Marta is from 2023 the Chairwoman of Association of Czech Film Directors, Screenwriters and Script Editors.

Pavel Strnad

Film producer. In 1995, together with Petr Oukropec, he founded the production company Negativ, which has since produced over 50 feature films.

Among his greatest production successes are two European Film Academy Awards: in 2008 for the documentary film René (directed by Helena Třeštíková) and in 2011 for the animated film Alois Nebel (directed by Tomáš Luňák). His film Year of the Devil (directed by Petr Zelenka) won the Crystal Globe for Best Film at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2002, and the film Something Like Happiness (directed by Bohdan Sláma) won the Golden Shell for Best Film at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2005. He also received four Czech Lion Awards for Best Feature Film (Year of the Devil, Something Like Happiness, Protector, Ice Mother) and two Czech Lions for Best Documentary Film (Katka). Pavel Strnad is a board member of the Audiovisual Producers' Association and lectures at FAMU in Prague.

Vratislav Šlajer

Graduate of the Department of Production at FAMU in Prague, a film and television producer. He is dedicated to creating feature films, documentaries, and animated films at Bionaut, a company he founded in 1999.

He is the recipient of the International Emmy Awards 2020 for the series #martyisdead, the Czech Lion and the Czech Film Critics' Award for the film Walking Too Fast, and the Czech Lion for the series Mamon, Svět pod hlavou, and #martyisdead. He is the Chairman of the Audiovisual Producers' Association (APA), member of The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, EFA, and ČFTA.

In 2002, he was recognized as Producer on the Move at the Cannes Festival, and became a member of the prestigious producers' network ACE (Ateliers du Cinéma Européen). He has produced television series such as Svět pod hlavou, Mamon, Dáma & Král, #martyisdead, Jitřní záře, Odznak Vysočina, the animated series Rosa & Dara, feature films Walking Too Fast, My 2, Brats, Who’s Afraid of the Wolf, Shoky & Morthy, PSH Nekonečný příběh, among others. In August 2023, the sequel to #martyisdead, titled #annaismissing, premiered in cinemas.

Zuzana Černá

Zuzana graduated with a master's degree from the Department of Film Studies at Charles University's Faculty of Arts. She has worked in the programming departments of several festivals, including Febiofest, Ekofilm, and Ostrava Kamera Oko. For several years, she worked as a sales agent for the production company Negativ. She co-organizes the feminist film series Girl Power at Bio Oko in Prague. She joined the CFC in the fall of 2025 and specializes in Czech fiction, films and series.

Vítězslav Chovanec

Vítězslav joined the team of CFC in 2017. He holds a Master's degree in Film and Audiovisual Culture Studies from Masaryk University in Brno. During his studies he worked at Czech Television as an assistant dramaturg. Since 2010, he has worked for several film festivals including Karlovy Vary IFF and Ji.hlava IDFF.

As a journalist, he has contributed to various Czech outlets and is still currently working for Cinepur magazine. He is also a member of the programming team of One World Human Rights Film Festival in Prague. Vítězslav will as of now focus on the promotion of Czech non-fiction, including both films and series.

Přemysl Martinek

He served as Programming Director of Prague’s Febiofest. He later worked as a Marketing Manager for 20th Century Fox at Bontonfilm and was Director of the distribution company Artcam between 2008 and 2015. From 2015 to 2018, he was a member and later Chair of the Czech State Cinematography Fund Council, while simultaneously serving as Head of Production at the DIOD theatre in Jihlava. He also worked for the production company Bionaut.

Currently, he collaborates with producer Vojtěch Frič, lectures at the Centre for Documentary Film in Jihlava, and works as a programmer at Dukla Cinema. He has long been active as an expert on regional and national funding schemes and was involved in the transformation of the Czech Audiovisual Fund.

Mariana Kozáková

Mariana Kozáková is a Czech film editor and FAMU alumna specializing in narrative structure for documentary and auteur cinema. Currently serving as Chairwoman of the Association of Film Editors (AFS), she approaches editing as a form of post-production screenwriting, acting as a vital creative collaborator on complex projects. Her notable filmography includes the Czech Lion-winning Intensive Life Unit (2021), the high-profile docuseries The Kramný Case (2024), and the documentary Resilience (2025).

Pavel Berkovič

Pavel Berkovič has worked as a cinematographer on dozens of projects, ranging from feature films and television series to music videos and documentary films across a wide variety of genres. Through his own company, Beast Production, he directed his debut feature, 40 Roles. In addition to filmmaking, he is also active as a photographer, graphic designer, and musician. In 2024, he became President of the Czech Society of Cinematographers. A key focus of his tenure is advocating for fair and dignified working conditions for audiovisual professionals in the Czech Republic.

Kateřina Hálová

Kateřina Hálová is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Abakus Foundation, the creator of the Storytelling programme, and a consultant at the boutique investment office Fivesquare. She studied Visual Communication, Screenwriting, and Directing in Zlín and California. For many years, she has been engaged both creatively and philanthropically in documentary filmmaking and the sensitive storytelling of complex topics. She connects the worlds of philanthropy, culture, and business, and develops storytelling as a tool for understanding, impact, and social change.

Marie-Magdalena Kochová

Marie-Magdalena Kochová is a Czech film director whose films have been screened at festivals in Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Busan, and Toronto, earning international awards as well as Czech Lion nominations. Her feature debut The Other One (2024) sparked a public debate in the Czech Republic on the topic of glass children and initiated the country's first research project focused on their needs. Alongside her auteur work, she directs impact campaigns, including We Are the Others (2025) and Hate Is Not an Opinion (2026). She also serves as an expert consultant for the Storytelling Challenge of the Abakus Foundation.

Bára Anna Stejskalová

Bára Anna Stejskalová** is a Czech filmmaker and visual artist working primarily with puppet animation, stop-motion, and mixed-media techniques. Her work explores materiality, atmosphere, and emotional transformation. Her short films Fishermen (2017) and We Are One Death Closer (2020) were shortlisted for the BAFTA Student Film Awards.

Her films have been screened at international festivals, including SXSW and the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Her latest work, the underwater stop-motion musical 9 Million Colours (2025), is currently screening at international film festivals. Her feature debut Inhalatorium is being developed with the support of the Czech Audiovisual Fund.

Maria Procházková

A director, screenwriter, animator, and visual artist working across a wide range of original audiovisual projects, from animated educational and entertainment series for children to feature fiction films, documentaries, and productions for Laterna Magika.

Matěj Paclík

Matěj Paclík is a film producer and founder of the production company Breathless Films. Through his experience in film distribution and collaboration with cinemas, festivals, and distributors, he became increasingly interested in how audiences discover films and what motivates them to go to the cinema.

With the KOKINO project, he is translating these insights into a digital platform designed to make the cinema-going experience easier, more enjoyable, and better tailored to viewers' interests, while also generating valuable data for cinemas, distributors, and producers.

Michal Mottl

For the past nine years, he has been working in project management. He is currently responsible for the **Karlovy Vary Region Film Vouchers** programme, which is designed to support film professionals developing feature fiction films for theatrical release, feature-length documentaries for cinemas, and projects intended for television or online distribution. The programme is scheduled to launch in September 2026.