01/10/2026 - Martina Buchelová’s feature debut has taken home the festival’s Award for Best Film, while Pepa Lubojacki’s If Pigeons Turned to Gold prevailed in the documentary competition

The 39th edition of Finále Plzeň (see the news) has come to a close with its Golden Kingfisher awards ceremony, which underlined the vitality of emerging filmmakers. This year’s edition presented more than 100 titles across 151 screenings, including around 20 premieres and previews. Forty screenings sold out and a further 12 were added in response to demand, helping the festival reach a record attendance level of 17,827 people. “I am delighted that Czech cinema is increasingly producing films that open up socially important issues and continue to engage with them, films that are unafraid to cut to the bone, to be deeply personal or formally inventive. At the same time, we are also seeing more distinctive genre works bearing an original directorial signature. The international awards that these films have received demonstrate that Czech audiovisual production has something to offer beyond our borders, as does the considerable praise bestowed on domestic work by Finále’s international juries,” said Finále Plzeň artistic director Lenka Tyrpáková.

The Golden Kingfisher for Best Fiction or Animated Feature went to Martina Buchelová’s debut, Lover, Not a Fighter. The international jury praised the film’s freshness and confidence as well as its refusal to reduce its young protagonists to generational stereotypes. Its combination of irony and absurdist humour, coupled with a sensitivity to loneliness and the awkwardness of human connection, also received particular recognition. In the documentary competition, Pepa Lubojacki’s If Pigeons Turned to Gold, the Czech Republic’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, took the top prize. Martin Kollár’s dialogue-free Chronicle received a Special Mention.

Tomáš Mašín’s two-part historical miniseries Gerta Schnirch won the television and online competition, earning both the international jury’s and the student jury’s prizes. The jurors highlighted its performances, cinematography and restrained score, as well as the authenticity created by its bilingual Czech-German cast. A Special Mention went to Vojtěch Hönig’s Nika, the opening instalment in the series Generation Nika. Marie-Magdalena Kochová’s The Tower, presented as a world premiere, was unanimously named Best Student Short; Živa Divjak’s Our Walls received a Special Mention. Šimon Holý’s Chica Checa, which premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary this year, emerged as the audience favourite. What’s more, its leads, Pavla Tomicová and Jan Cina, also shared a Special Mention from the feature-film jury for their portrayal of a mother and son. The student jury’s Best Fiction or Animated Feature Film Award went to Jitka Rudolfová’s Dancing with the Bear.

As for the industry strand, at the second Czech Leonarda Awards, a Czech film prize and creative stipend established to support female filmmakers, the festival handed out development bursaries totalling CZK 450,000 (approximately €18,400). Zuzana Piussi received CZK 200,000 (€8,200) for Virtual Reality, a planned feature-length adaptation of Martina Mátlová’s novel about a 19-year-old who, after a climbing accident leaves him in a wheelchair, seeks refuge from reality in video games. Bára Valecká secured CZK 150,000 (€6,100) for Nia at the End of the World, a post-apocalyptic coming-of-age story set a millennium after the collapse of human civilisation and conceived as a feature-length puppet stop-motion film combining traditional animation, projections and new technologies. The CZK 100,000 (€4,100) documentary prize went to Adéla Špaljová’s The Voices That Remained, about three pioneering Czech world-music and a cappella singers whose two-decade partnership has endured parenthood, bereavement and major personal upheavals.

The full list of award winners is as follows:

Golden Kingfisher Awards – International Jury

Best Fiction or Animated Feature Film
Lover, Not a Fighter – Martina Buchelová (Slovakia/Czech Republic)

Special Mention
Pavla Tomicová, Jan Cina – Chica Checa (Czech Republic/France/Slovakia)

Best Documentary Film
If Pigeons Turned to Gold – Pepa Lubojacki (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
Special Mention
Chronicle – Martin Kollár (Slovakia/Czech Republic)

Best Television or Online Project
Gerta Schnirch – Tomáš Mašín (Czech Republic/France)
Special Mention
Generation Nika: Nika – Vojtěch Hönig (Czech Republic)

Best Student Short Film
The Tower – Marie-Magdalena Kochová (Czech Republic)
Special Mention
Our Walls – Živa Divjak (Czech Republic)

University of West Bohemia Student Jury Awards

Best Fiction or Animated Feature Film
Dancing with the Bear – Jitka Rudolfová (Czech Republic/Slovakia)

Best Documentary Film
If Pigeons Turned to Gold – Pepa Lubojacki

Best Television or Online Project
Gerta Schnirch – Tomáš Mašín

Audience Award
Chica Checa – Šimon Holý