FILMTALENT ZLÍN Distributes 2.2 Million CZK, Supporting 28 Student Projects
01. June 2026
Monday’s ZLÍNFEST PRO programme was dedicated to the presentations of projects that advanced to this year’s FILMTALENT Pitching Forum. Film school students from both the Czech Republic and Slovakia competed for backing from the FILMTALENT ZLÍN Endowment Fund with their live-action, animated, and documentary projects.
This year, the expert jury made its selection from 114 submitted projects. Twenty-eight of them advanced to the final round, among which the FILMTALENT ZLÍN Endowment Fund distributed a total of 2.2 million CZK to fund the production of these upcoming films.
The financial support was awarded to students from the Faculty of Multimedia Communications at Tomas Bata University in Zlín, FAMU and UMPRUM in Prague, FAMO in Písek, and the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava. During the pitching forum, filmmakers presented their creative visions and production plans for ten specific projects, which will now have the opportunity to move into the next stage of production. An additional 18 projects received support outside of today's live pitching session.
The jury also decided to award an extraordinary grant of 140,000 CZK this year. It went to Filip Dobeš, a student at the Faculty of Multimedia Communications at TBU in Zlín, for his animated film project Tanglebus. According to Markéta Pášmová, the artistic director of the Zlín Film Festival, the jury was particularly impressed by the high quality of the project's craftsmanship.
The FILMTALENT ZLÍN Endowment Fund has a long-standing history of supporting emerging filmmakers. Since 1998, nearly 500 audiovisual and art projects have been funded using the proceeds from the Minisalon Film Clapperboards auction. Many of these projects have subsequently screened at domestic and international festivals, earning nominations for prestigious film awards.
We wish all the supported projects and their creators the best of luck in successfully bringing their films to life. We look forward to seeing the final results!