The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The Czech Republic has a hilly landscape that covers an area of 78,871 square kilometers (30,452 sq mi) with a mostly temperate continental and oceanic climate. The capital and largest city is Prague; other major cities and urban areas include Brno, Ostrava, Plzeň and Liberec.
Jiří Menzel was a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films are adapted from works by Czech writers such as Bohumil Hrabal and Vladislav Vančura.
Emília Vášáryová, Doctor Artis Dramaticae (hon.) is a Slovak stage and screen actress, whom Variety and other publications refer to as the "First Lady of Slovak Theater". During a career of more than five decades, she has received numerous awards including Meritorious Artist (1978), the Alfréd Radok Award (1996), the Czech Lion Award, the Golden Goblet Award (2008), and a 2010 ELSA award from the Czech Film and Television Academy (2010). Because her younger sister is former diplomat Magdaléna Vášáryová, the daily newspaper iDNES said fans consider her an "Honorary Consul of Czech and Slovak Relations".
Czech culture has been shaped by the nation's geographical position in the middle of Europe, the Slavic ethnicity of Czechs, influences from its neighbors, political and social changes, wars and times of peace.
Markéta Irglová is a Czech-Icelandic singer-songwriter, musician and actress, who starred in the film Once, which earned her a number of major awards, including the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly", with co-writer and co-star Glen Hansard.
Miss Czech Republic is a national beauty pageant in the Czech Republic where the winner represents the country at Miss World.
Božidara Turzonovová, is a Slovak film and stage actress of Bulgarian origin, often referred to as The First Lady of Slovak Theater and Film.
Jan Budař is a Czech actor, director, singer, composer and script writer.
The video game industry in the Czech Republic has produced numerous globally successful video games such as Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis and the subsequent ArmA series, the Mafia series, Truck Simulator series, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, the Samorost series and others. There were 300–400 video game developers and around 30 video game companies focusing on video game development in 2014. In 2017 it was 1,100 developers and 47 companies. Video games are also considered by some experts to be the country's biggest cultural export. The video game industry did not enjoy a good reputation and was unsupported by the state until 2013, when the Ministry of Industry and Trade started to seek ways to kickstart the economy. By 2014, programs were planned to support the video game industry. Another problem is a lack of video game development specialization at any university.
Jaroslav Kubera was a Czech politician for the Civic Democratic Party, who served in the Czech Senate representing Teplice from 2000 and the Senate President from 2018 until his death in 2020. He previously served as mayor of Teplice from 1994 to 2018.
Mikoláš Josef is a Czech singer-songwriter and former model. He represented the Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal with the song "Lie to Me", and finished in sixth place, the best result for the Czech Republic in Eurovision history.
The Painted Bird is a 2019 internationally co-produced black and white war drama film written, directed and produced by Václav Marhoul. An adaptation of Jerzy Kosiński's novel of the same name, it is the first film to feature the Interslavic language; Marhoul stated that he decided to use Interslavic so that no Slavic nation would nationally identify with the story.
Winter Flies is a 2018 Czech-Slovak-Polish-Slovenian co-production road movie drama by Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu. It premiered at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on 1 July 2018.
2019 Czech Lion Awards ceremony was held on 7 March 2020. It will be moderated by Václav Kopta. Nominations were announced on 15 January 2020. Owners received highest number of nominations. The Painted Bird then won in 9 categories including the Best film.
Zátopek is a 2021 Czech biographical film about Emil Zátopek. It is directed by David Ondříček and stars Václav Neužil. It was selected as the Czech entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.
Charlatan is a 2020 Czech-Polish-Irish-Slovak drama directed by Agnieszka Holland based loosely on the healer Jan Mikolášek (1889–1973), who cured hundreds of people using plant-based remedies. It was selected as the Czech entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards making the February shortlist. It won five awards including Best Film at the 2021 Czech Lion Awards.
Daughter is a 2019 Czech short animated drama film directed by Daria Kashcheeva. The film received 38 awards during half a year after its premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, including the Annecy Cristal for the best film in the graduation films category, and a Student Academy Award. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Ben da Silva Cristóvão, known professionally as Ben Cristovao or Benny Cristo, is a Czech singer. He was nominated to represent the Czech Republic in the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam, after winning the national round with the song "Kemama". After the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Czech Television confirmed that Cristo would instead represent the nation in the 2021 contest. Cristo sings in both Czech and English.
