2025 Zlín Film Festival Celebrates Its 65th Anniversary with Czech Premieres on May 29

The 65th edition of the Zlín Film Festival, the biggest and oldest showcase for youth and children’s cinema in the world, will take place from May 29 to June 4. The ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL, also known as the International Film Festival for Children and Youth, is among the oldest film festivals around the world. Held every year in Zlín, a city in southeast Czechia, the festival will feature a diverse lineup of around 300 films from 50 countries, including Oscar-recognized titles, student films, and world premieres.

This anniversary year will be filled with both celebration and reflection, featuring several new programming initiatives targeted at younger audiences and professionals in the film industry, as well as tributes to notable Czech and Slovak filmmakers and international guests. The festival will also feature screenings of some of the studio’s well-known films as part of a special 40th anniversary tribute to the Japanese animation giant Studio Ghibli.

Premieres, guests, and global selections

The Czech animated film Tales from the Magic Garden (Pohádky po babičce), which is based on a work by renowned Czech author Arnošt Goldflam, will open the 2025 Zlín Film Festival. The world premiere of the film took place earlier this year at the Berlin International Film Festival.

This year’s festival will feature more than 300 films divided into six competition categories and various thematic sections. The featured films include three recent Academy Award nominees: the French-Latvian co-production Flow, which won Best Animated Feature Film at this year’s Academy Awards; the Iranian short film In the Shadow of the Cypress, which won an Oscar; and the Polish Oscar submission The Peasants (Chłopi).

The Czech premiere of Nawi, a German-Kenyan co-production that tackles child marriage in Kenya, is another noteworthy event. It is anticipated that Michelle Lemuya Ikeny, lead actress of Nawi, will personally attend the festival. Other films are from regions as diverse as South Africa, the Cape Verde Islands, Uruguay, Chile, Qatar, and the Dominican Republic.

The festival will also feature new Czech films, such as the historical adventure Fichtelberg, the teen-oriented High School Heist, and the family film Sugar Candy (Cukrkandl). Viewers can expect the Czech television series Zrození alchymistky (The Birth of the Alchemist) and Pád domu Kollerů (The Fall of the House of Koller).

Emília and Magda Vášáryová, Pavel Zedníček, Jaromír Hanzlík, and director Filip Renč are among the Czech and Slovak celebrities who are scheduled to attend.

New sections and tributes for a milestone year

This year’s Zlín Film Festival, which is being held at the local Tomas Bata University in Zlín, presents Young Industry, a new initiative targeted at students and young creatives. Zlín Industry, a parallel professional program, returns with panels and workshops. With almost 50 films selected for the Zlínský pes competition, student work remains a key pillar of the event.

The anniversary edition will have a lot of tributes. Czech directors Jindřich Polák and Vojtěch Jasný will celebrate their 100th birthdays with special screenings and discussions. Pioneer Viktor Kubal will be honored in a section marking Slovak animation’s 60th anniversary.

Zlín Film Festival will celebrate Studio Ghibli’s 40th anniversary. On May 31, Michael Leader, British film critic and Ghibliotheque co-host, will lead a masterclass on the themes of childhood and adolescence in the studio’s most famous films. The discussion, titled “Forever Young,” will explore Ghibli’s storytelling and how it reflects the creativity and resiliency of young people via movies like Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and My Neighbor Totoro.

The Golden Slipper awards, which have been given for many years, will be given to actress Simona Stašová at the closing gala and effects artist Boris Masník during the opening ceremony. Saša Rašilov and Linda Rybová will be added to the festival’s Walk of Fame.

Antonio Šoposki, the festival’s on-screen ambassador, will be featured in the Young Stars program together with four other up-and-coming actors in daily segments for Czech Television.

This year’s event will celebrate its legacy by using its original 1965 logo, developed by Václav Dobrovolný. A new animated festival jingle, designed by Czech Lion-winning student filmmaker Poly Kazaková, was introduced during the festival’s media launch.

Young, emerging filmmakers have received significant support in recent years, as seen by the non-competitive Night Horizons midnight film festival and the competitive European First Films section. A series of seminars, workshops, and entertainment events for children and teenagers is held in conjunction with the screenings. Following German, Scandinavian, Baltic, French, Russian, Dutch, British, Spanish, Czechoslovakian, Italian, Irish, and Danish films, the festival each year focuses on a specific European country’s cinema. The festival will feature the best of German cinema. From the 53rd edition, two sections have been added: Young Stars, which works with young and promising actors, and A Thousand and One Night, which features films based on fairy tales and fantasy themes.