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Czech and Slovak Films

Growing up in and around Sydney in the 1950s I knew nothing about films other than those made in English until around 1955 when I joined a film society that had screenings of foreign language films in a decrepit room above the Plaza Cinema (now defunct) in George Street, Sydney. One of the first films […]

First Announcement for 2017: Juraj Herz Retrospective

In what is now a well established CaSFFA tradition, it brings us great pleasure to be able to make our first program announcements for our next springtime festival even before the first month of the new year is over! For every year since our outset we’ve partnered with the Melbourne Cinémathèque to present a selection […]

Letter from Humphrey McQueen to Peter Lyssiotis

Esteemed Australian historian and author Humphrey McQueen recently attended the Czech and Slovak Film Festival when it visited the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra in October. Humphrey was kind enough to share his thoughts with us on the festival by way of his correspondence to good friend Peter Lyssiotis, a poet and artist […]

AFCA Award for the Best Feature Film at #CaSFFA2016

One thing that became immediately clear to the jury members as we began to delve into the CaSFFA program was that this was to be a year of exemplary performances by women. Whether it was Aňa Geislerová trying to protect her daughter from folkloric frights in Opening Night film The Noonday Witch (Polednice), to Barbora […]

Voyeurism and The Cleaner

Voyeurism is a popular theme in film. That is presumably no accident since the mere act of sitting in a darkened theatre and watching people’s lives unfold in front of our eyes can often feel like a case of voyeurism in itself. Sometimes that is because any given film is so deeply rooted in honesty […]

If You Go into the Woods Tonight…

For the first time in our four year run, CaSFFA presents a series of unique new short films in If You Go into the Woods Tonight…. This program draws upon the concept of ‘the forest’ – a place quite often used, to great effect, throughout Czechoslovak film and literature. Within the shadows of immense pine trees, […]

Slovakia’s answer to Bill Cunningham?

Slovakia’s answer to Bill Cunningham! That may be how some see fit to describe Zuzana Mináčová, the heavily influential photographer whose story is the centre of the new documentary Through the Eyes of the Photographer (Očima Fotografky). That would be understandable, too, if all you knew of her career was the red carpet scene that […]

Costume Designer Theodor Pištěk

It feels strange to call Theodor Pištěk a costume designer, when in an interview for The Washington Post, back in 1985, he claimed, “I want not to do costume design – it takes time away from the paintings”. This was following the success of Miloš Forman’s period drama Amadeus (1984), which won Pištěk an Academy […]

Meet CaSFFA Juror Hayley Inch

Getting to know Hayley, and getting to know Czech and Slovak cinema I felt a little bit guilty initially on agreeing to be a CaSFFA jury member, as I was convinced that my poor viewing record on Czech, Slovak, and Czechoslovak cinema didn’t put in me in great stead to be a good judge on […]

Meet CaSFFA Juror Glenn Dunks

Like many of a certain generation, I began my film writing life on a blog while simultaneously working the sort of retail and hospitality jobs that you take when you haven’t a clue what you want to actually do with your life. Movies were – and still are in many ways – a respite, but […]

Meet CaSFFA Juror Tom Clift

In the five years that I’ve been fortunate enough to watch movies for a living, I’ve likewise been blessed with the opportunity to attend a number of international film festivals. I’ve felt Oscar buzz start to brew in Toronto. I’ve seen bold freshman films in Rotterdam. I’ve braved the subway crush in peak hour on […]

Out of the Shadows: The Noonday Witch

Horror festers within the shadows, we’re told, but what if it makes its way into the sunshine? In the myriad cultures she has long haunted, the folkloric figure of the noonday witch is a nightmare queen who runs by variations of the same name across borders: she is Poludnytsya in Ukrainian, Poludnitsa in Bulgarian, Poludnica […]

Guests at #CaSFFA2016

What’s a film festival without guests to liven things up? We’ve got a range of remarkable people coming in from outside of the core festival team to share their time, talents, energies, enthusiasm and expertise in order to enliven things no end at #CaSFFA2016! SHAUN TAN Originally from Perth, WA, Shaun Tan works as an artist […]

Welcome

Welcome, one and all, to the 4th Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia (CaSFFA), our biggest and boldest event yet, with its theme of “Text and Texture” encompassing not just the one expected art form (cinema); not just two (cinema and literature), but all those points where the cinematic and literary arts collide – all […]