The Czech capital is certainly no stranger to cultural film festivals, having played host to French, Aussie & Kiwi, Brazilian, German, and Israeli film festivals in recent weeks alone.
And from November 30 to December 5, Prague welcomes the Italian film festival MittelCinemaFest to central Prague cinema Kino Lucerna.
A Central European film festival celebrating highlights among recent Italian-language films, MittelCinemaFest has been held annually for the past 15 years in Prague and other cities including Bratislava, Budapest, and Krakow.
This year’s festival in Prague will kick off tonight (November 30) with a pair of screenings (at 18:30 and 21:00) of Moglie e marito (Husband & Wife), a body-swap comedy from director Simone Godano about a married couple on the verge of divorce who suddenly find themselves in each other’s skin.
The fest continues on Friday with presentations of the romantic comedy Amori che non sanno stare al mondo (Stories of Love that Cannot Belong to this World) and the working-class drama Fortunata, which had its Czech premiere earlier this year at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Over the weekend, the festival continues with films including the hugely popular dinner game comedy Perfect Strangers (pictured at top), from director Paolo Genovese, which was released wide in Prague earlier this year; the musical comedy Ammore e malavita (True Love), from the Manetti brothers; and the animated Cinderella the Cat, a dark update of the classic fairy tale that is certainly not for kids.
On Monday, the festival will present Genovese’s latest film, The Place, which was only just released in Italian cinemas this month. The movie will see wide release in Czech cinemas from December 7.
And on Tuesday, the festival will close out with a live concert of Italian movie music at Kino Lucerna under conductor Walter Attanasi that will feature scores from classic Italian cinema.
All of the films screened during the MittelCinemaFest will be presented in Italian with both Czech and English subtitles. Tickets to films run 120 CZK; the closing concert is 500 CZK.
After Prague, the Italian film festival will continue in Ostrava from December 7-8 and Brno from December 9-11.
The MittelCinemaFest is held in cooperation with the Italian Embassy to the Czech Republic in Prague. More info about the festival can be found via the official MittelCinemaFest website and Facebook page.
