Agnieszka Holland’s Franz, a Czech-German-Polish biographical drama about Prague-born writer Franz Kafka, arrives in U.S. cinemas this weekend, bringing one of 2025’s most significant Czech productions to American audiences.
The film opens Aug. 21 through Cohen Media Group, with screenings scheduled in cities and communities including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Pasadena, Santa Barbara, Denver and San Diego, among others.
The U.S. release represents another stage in the international journey of a production that used the Czech capital extensively to recreate the world of its most famous literary resident. Holland’s film premiered internationally at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and subsequently played festivals including San Sebastián, before opening theatrically in the Czech Republic in September 2025.
A Kafka biopic filmed in Kafka’s Prague
Franz stars Idan Weiss as Kafka, with Peter Kurth as his father Hermann, Katharina Stark as his sister Ottla, Sebastian Schwarz as Max Brod and Jenovéfa Boková as Milena Jesenská. Holland co-wrote the screenplay with Czech screenwriter Marek Epstein.
Rather than following a conventional cradle-to-grave biographical structure, the film approaches Kafka’s life as a kaleidoscopic collection of episodes, memories, dreams, letters and imagined sequences. It moves from his childhood in Prague through his relationships, family conflicts and literary ambitions to his final illness and death in 1924.
The approach also allows Holland to incorporate elements from Kafka’s fiction into the story. The film includes a stylized sequence inspired by In the Penal Colony, while Kafka’s writing and imagination are treated as part of the fabric of his life rather than simply as achievements cataloged within a traditional biopic.
That unconventional structure was one of the film’s defining characteristics in The Prague Reporter’s review, which describes Franz as an “offbeat biopic” that rejects conventional attempts to explain its subject, while praising Weiss for a central performance that could become a lasting cinematic image of Kafka.
The production itself was deeply rooted in the Czech Republic. Principal photography took place over roughly 40 days during spring 2024, with filming in Prague and elsewhere in Czechia before production moved to Germany.
Prague locations included Charles Bridge, Golden Lane at Prague Castle, Legion Bridge, Prague Main Railway Station, Malá Strana, Střelecký Island, Vyšehrad and the Faculty of Law. Production also traveled outside the capital to Terezín, Hýskov, Homolák and Vyžlovka, while German locations included Berlin and Nauen.
The decision to film Kafka’s Prague on location presented a particular challenge. The modern city has changed substantially since Kafka lived there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, requiring Holland and production designer Henrich Boráros to identify surviving locations that could evoke the period. Holland has noted that Prague itself looked considerably more like the city associated with Kafka when she first arrived in the 1960s.
Franz was a co-production between the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland, with Barrandov Studio, Czech Television and Czech Anglo Production among its Czech partners. The project received support from the Czech Audiovisual Fund and Prague Audiovisual Fund, as well as European and German funding bodies.
From Prague to Poland’s Oscar submission and the U.S.
The international profile of Franz grew quickly following its 2025 festival launch. The film was selected for Toronto’s Special Presentations section and later competed at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. It was also screened at festivals in North America and Asia, including Chicago, Vancouver and Busan.
Poland selected Franz as its official submission for the 98th Academy Awards in the international feature category. The film also collected four prizes at the 50th Gdynia Polish Film Festival, including best film and best actor for Weiss, along with awards for cinematography and makeup.
The film’s international distribution reflects its status as a multinational production. Films Boutique handles world sales, while Cohen Media Group acquired North American rights. The U.S. release follows theatrical distribution across numerous European territories, including the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Austria.
For American viewers, the film offers a portrait of Kafka that is inseparable from Prague. The city is not simply a backdrop for the writer’s biography but a recurring character in the film, connecting the historical figure to the contemporary tourist industry that has grown around his legacy.
That idea is reflected in the film’s framing device, which periodically shifts to modern-day Prague. A multilingual tour guide leads visitors through locations associated with Kafka, including the Kafka Museum and places where he lived, creating a deliberately playful contrast between the private writer and the international cultural icon he became after his death.
It is an appropriate setting for Holland’s approach to Kafka. Franz does not attempt to reduce the author of The Metamorphosis, The Trial and The Castle to a single explanation. Instead, it treats his life, work and enduring influence as an accumulation of contradictions — much like the city in which he was born.
The Aug. 21 U.S. release extends that portrait well beyond Central Europe, giving American audiences an opportunity to encounter Holland’s distinctly Prague-centered interpretation of one of the 20th century’s most influential writers.
