They’re nine intense days during which film, music, and even food take over a hotel and cinema complex located in one Prague’s busiest areas.  Everything comes together on the vast red carpet positioned right in front of the doors of the CineStar Andel, where both local and international stars will pass nightly as they travel to their designated premiere or event.  This is FebioFest, Prague’s very own International Film Festival, which for the last 23 years has called the beautiful capital of the Czech Republic its home. The festival is the second largest in the nation, coming second only to the 70-year-old Karlovy Vary, which was founded in 1946. Unlike other festivals which are spread out throughout the city, FebioFest takes place almost entirely within the CineStar, where the same films are shown several times so that if someone can’t make a certain first screening, (most of which are often overbooked) they have another chance catch the film at a later time.  

The festival’s main attractions are without a doubt the local productions, such as Petr Kazda and Tomas Weinreb’s I, Olga Hepnarová which tells the story of a 22-year-old woman who in 1973 ran over a group of innocent bystanders with a truck, making her the last woman condemned to death in Czechoslovakia. Not to mention Marco Skop’s Eva Norá, a drama starring legendary actress Emilia Vasaryove who is best known for her work on Jan Hrebejk’s Up and Down just over a decade ago.  Just around the corner is a music festival as well as the Culinary Cinema event, where festival attendees go to a restaurant after a screening and enjoy the flavors of a dinner inspired by the movie they’ve just seen. 

FebioFest, named after the company that started the festival back in 1993 with only two small cinemas, kicked off this year with the screening of five Golden Globe/ six Oscar nominated film Carol in a large room within the city’s beautiful, one-of-a-kind Municipal House. After the screening, the rest of the vast second floor of the building was opened for a party with flowing beer and traditional live music. The next day Carmen Maura presented several films that composed a retrospective of her filmography, part of the festival’s tribute to her illustrious career. Included in the retrospective were Pedro Almodovar’s unforgettable Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Carlos Saura’s Ay, Carmela!  

Another Prague visitor this year is Italian Director Marco Bellocchio, honored with the screenings of Blood of My Blood, Fists in the Pocket and Good Morning, Night. Golden Globe nominee Daniel Bruhl was also present to introduce Colonia, the story of the notorious Colonia Dignidad, shot in Chile and starring Bruhl and Emma Watson. Bruhl also attended a screening of Rush, part of a tribute to his career. Prestigious screenwriter Peter Morgan (Golden Globe winner for The Queen in 2007 and nominee for Frost/Nixon two years later) is expected later in festival, to receive the Kristian Award  - a lifetime achievement tribute - at the event’s closing night. 

In the minutes before the press conference in which Bruhl stood before a full house to answer questions from the local press, a representative of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association presented a plaque of recognition to FebioFest’s administration, which was accepted by the festivals president and co founder Fero Fenic, the festival director Kamil Spacil, and the program directors Stefan Uhrik and Hana Cielova.