The work of CaSFFA is largely conducted on the Kulin nation’s unceded lands, including the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung peoples and the Yorta Yorta nation. Many of you will likely be experiencing CaSFFA 2022 from many other lands. Wherever we are located, we pay our respects to all Elders past, present, and emerging and recognise these peoples as part of the oldest continuous culture in the world.

The Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia (CaSFFA) is delighted to announce its 10th annual festival with the theme “Movement” Pohyb – Posun – Action – Motion – Progress – Change – Expansion. We invite you to celebrate this theme with us, happily back in cinemas as we do some moving and expanding of our own.

Yes, CaSFFA is expanding. How exciting! We have added another Australian city and, for the first time, will present our best films to Adelaide audiences at The Regal Theatre in Kensington Park! We also welcome CaSFFA’s new venue partner in Melbourne, the Classic and Lido Cinemas. Once again, we are pleased to partner with Melbourne Cinémathèque, which will feature a selection of works from Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko at ACMI Cinemas this year. CaSFFA will continue to screen a showcase selection to our Canberra audience at the NFSA cinema.

We look forward to celebrating face-to-face with our audiences after two years of lockdowns. For those who cannot make it to a cinema host city, we will continue to run our online offering through ACMI Cinema 3, showcasing some of the most popular films from our previous festivals.

Would you believe that 2022 marks the tenth anniversary of our first festival in Melbourne?

I want to acknowledge and thank the Czech and Slovak Film Festival founding members; Cerise Howard, Linda Studena, Brendan Black, Denisa Cross and Katrina Wilson O’Brien, former presidents; Cerise Howard, Linda Studena and Marcel Mihulka, and all dedicated committee members and volunteers. A special mention to Denisa Cross and Lilliana Hajncl, as they have been part of the CaSFFA team across all ten years of the festival.

While the previous two years have provided many challenges for the film industry, cinemas, and festivals, we have managed to continue to run the festival through the passion of a committed festival team, a willingness to adapt, and most importantly, the support of the audience and our festival partners. I want to thank our long-time major sponsors, Sense Creative Agency, The Foreigner Brewing Company, Becherovka and Mr Moto, and the Embassies of the Czech and Slovak Republics and their associated grant bodies – Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Office for Slovaks living abroad, Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, Consulate General of the Czech Republic and Slovak Audiovisual Fund. I also want to welcome new sponsors, ESET Internet Security and Burnside City Council, to the CaSFFA family and thank them for further enabling the viewing of Czech and Slovak films in Australia.

When planning our 2022 theme, the CaSFFA committee was again in lockdown and dreaming of movement. Along with many others, our thoughts turned to travel, exercise, car rides, and trips to the cinema. We drew upon this in our selection of ‘Movement’ as our theme, reflecting on how through film – be it viewed in a cinema or on a laptop screen – we can still experience movement and be moved, albeit in different ways. Our selection of the Czech and Slovak latest movie releases both reflect the festival theme and are brought to you in their Australian Premiere. Continuing with CaSFFA’s long-standing mission of screening recent and archival films, we have also included movies for Art cinemagoers and archival movie lovers. 

On behalf of the CaSFFA team, I hope you all enjoy this year’s festival offerings and look forward to seeing you back in cinemas. 

Ľubica Shannon, President 

CaSFFA turns 10! And to mark the anniversary, the programming committee has dug into all different parts of Czech and Slovak cinema – we have the exciting new, the cult classics, the crowd-pleasers, and the art-house. 

Join us on Opening Night for the stirring biopic “Zatopek”, about powerhouse long-distance runner Emil Zátope. For Closing Night, we transport to the coastline with “Happy New Year II”, a rom-com that’s having just as much success as the 2019 original.

Over that time in-between Opening and Closing, we’re screening films that offer all sorts of promises. “Saving One Who Was Dead” promises a passage into the spiritual, gliding between the realms of the living and the dead. With “Kapr Code”, we’re offered a mixture of the abstract, the home-video, and the musical – a trip most definitely worth exploring. At the other end, there is “The Enchanted Cave”, strong in fantasy and magic, it offers a fairy-tale story with a mixture of heart, good old-fashioned sword fighting, and folklore. And don’t forget, “Adam Ondra: Pushing the Limits” a rock climbing biopic that proves just as luminous as it is beautiful. 

Then, there’s online, where you’ll have the chance to see three excellent films from the comfort of your home. If you have an appetite for cult, we have the one-of-a-kind 1966 classic “Daisies”, and the 1963 “The Cassandra Cat”, both striking works from an iconic age of Czechoslovak cinema – now lovingly restored. And from the modern era, we have “Little Harbour” (2017) – first screened at CaSFFA 2017 – we’re recognising it as a movie that deserves (at-least) two viewings. 

Remember too, we have our partnership with the Melbourne Cinémathèque. Bringing you a retrospective on the indefinable Juraj Jakubisko, find yourself – on the Wednesday before Opening Night, and the Wednesday after Closing Night – in the extraordinary worlds of a director who has never given creativity and provocation a moment’s rest. 

Ali Back, Artistic Director

To showcase, celebrate and promote a contextualised range of classic and modern Czech and Slovak live-action and animated films to Australasian and expatriate audiences through a yearly, not-for-profit arts festival.

To encourage active participation in and from the Czech and Slovak communities for the advancement of their culture in Australasia.

To cultivate mutually beneficial partnerships with Czech, Slovak and local businesses and cultural organisations.

The Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia (CaSFFA) is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit organisation
dedicated to showcasing the best of film for the Czech and Slovak Republics and former Czechoslovakia.
Founded in 2011 by Cerise Howard, Brendon Black, Linda Studena, Katrina Wilson O’Brien and Denisa
Cross the festival has run ninth editions in Melbourne as well as festivals in Canberra and Brisbane.
CaSFFA is welcoming to all audiences and considers itself more than just a regular film festival, having
screened silent films accompanied by scores on the Melbourne Town Hall organ, Coburg Drive-In, artistic
and historical exhibitions, as well as children’s events. We are also a source of news and information of
Czech and Slovak films relevant to Australian audiences, so please sign up for our mailing list and follow us
on our socials to keep in touch.

President | Ľubica Shannon

Vice President | Marcel Mihulka

Artistic Director | Ali Back

Finance Manager | Denisa Cross

Association Secretary | Caroline Ondracek

Marketing & Brand Manager | Vera Morgan

Communications | Vanessa Tucek

IT and Technical Production | Ľubica Shannon | Jacob Agius | Lilliana Hajncl

Philanthropy, Grants & Sponsorship | Marcel Mihulka | Ľubica Shannon | Denisa Cross | Vera Morgan

PR & Publicity | Vera Morgan | Vanessa Tucek | Jacob Agius | Eleanor Colla | Ioana-Lucia Demczuk

Community Liaison | Denisa Cross | Ľubica Shannon | Vera Morgan

Festival Consultant | Eleanor Colla

Festival Trailer | Sense

CaSFFA functions with collaborative involvement across all roles.

Adriana Paulovčinová, Adriana Tuček, Ahlia Karam, Barbora Lochmanová, Benji Tamir, Brendan Black, Carla Ajdukovic, Cerise Howard, DAANA catering, Dan Metelkin, Dana Tomecko, Daniela Veres, Daria Špačková, Darina Horákova, David Milne, Debra Knight, Denisa Cochran, Diamantino Li, Erin Oliver, Gabika Derer, Gitka Eckhardt a Jožko Eckhardt, H.E. Mr Tomáš Dub, H.E. Mr Tomáš Ferko, Hana Flanderová, Indra Adams, Ján Strapec, Janka Tomöl, Jeremy Whiteside, Joja Datko, Jonathan Shannon, Karina Libbey, Kateřina Fojtová, Katrina Wilson O’Brien, Kristina Aschenbrennerová, Kristína Palmer, Kristýna Gardášová, Kym Green, Lee Farrell, Lenka Allen, Linda Studená, Lisa Safi, Ľuba Majernik, Ľubomír Slivka, Lucia Petříková, Ludmila Chludil, Margareta Velichova Rebelos, Maria Krizanova, Marika Drienikova, Markéta Šantrochová, Marta a Matej Šútora, Marta Kapusta, Martina Povolní, Martina Tlamsová, Martina Vacková, Matthew Kemp, Miroslav Koman, Missy Kesseler, Nadine Whitney, Nikoleta Tomecko, Nora Kovarčíková, Okan Safi, Ondřej Hovádek, Patrik Nemes, Patrik Tomecko, Pavel Šindelář, Pavel Tomecko, Peter Denison, Peter Dubecky, Peter Krausz, Rastislav Steranka, Rose Poh, Sani Kajtazi, Silvia Panáková, Soňa Tomecko, Stanya Bilek, Steve Virgo, Sylvia Melis, Tereza Krupková, The Zika Family, Tom Danby, Tomáš Žůrek, Vardos Trio, Vítězslav Chovanec, VodaFest, Zdeněk Štěbeták, Zuzana Kovacicova, Zuzana Slováková, Zuzana Vasitch

and all our FABULOUS PARTNERS, GENEROUS SPONSORS and WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS.