– The Czech human rights festival will showcase 82 documentaries, 16 fiction films and eight VR works across four competitions and eight thematic sections
Meant to Be by Olivér Márk Tóth
The One World International Human Rights Film Festival returns to Prague for its 28th edition from 11-19 March, presenting a wide-ranging programme of 82 documentaries, 16 fiction films and eight virtual-reality works. After the Prague segment, the festival will travel across the Czech Republic until 24 April, reaching a record 60 cities.
The gathering will open with the presentation of the Homo Homini Award, this year honouring Belarusian opposition figure Mikola Statkevich for his long-standing contribution to the democratic movement in Belarus. Statkevich, currently imprisoned at an undisclosed location, will be unable to attend the ceremony in person. The opening film, Meant to Be [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Olivér Márk Tóth, follows Hungarian rap star Pogány Induló, offering a generational portrait of contemporary Hungary and the pressures of early fame.
The programme is organised into four competitive sections: the International Competition, the Czech Competition, Right to Know and the Virtual Reality Competition. The International Competition brings together documentary works that combine pressing political subject matter with distinctive cinematic approaches. Titles include Kaouther Ben Hania’s 2026 Academy Award nominee for Best International Feature Film Voice of Hind Rajab [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kaouther Ben Hania
film profile], Maasja Ooms’ therapeutic documentary experiment My Word Against Mine, and generational or identity-focused works such as Mehrdad Oskouei’s A Fox Under a Pink Moon and Kristina Mikhailova’s River Dreams.
The Czech Competition highlights key domestic documentaries from the past year, exploring themes ranging from personal trauma and social isolation to ecological concerns. Among the selected works are Weronika Mliczewska’s Child of Dust [+see also:
trailer
interview: Weronika Mliczewska
film profile], Martin Trabalík’s What About Petey? and Vojtěch Petřina’s Vojta’s Life: A New Episode, which examines contemporary efforts to build romantic relationships. Other titles address wider systemic anxieties, including Paula Ďurinová’s Action Item [+see also:
film review
interview: Paula Ďurinová
film profile], Dāvis Sīmanis’ Death of Death, and András Földes and Anna Kis’s 80 Angry Journalists.
Meanwhile, the Right to Know section focuses on stories of individuals confronting authoritarian power or social injustice. Films such as Michael T Workman and Kei Pritsker’s The Encampments, Leigh Iacobucci’s A Free Daughter of Free Kyrgyzstan and Patience Nitumwesiga’s The Woman Who Poked the Leopard document acts of civic resistance and personal courage. The section also includes the Berlinale Panorama Audience Award winner Traces [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Ukrainian filmmaker Alisa Kovalenko, addressing the trauma of victims of sexualised wartime violence.
The Virtual Reality Competition once again explores immersive storytelling through new technologies. Beyond the competitions, eight non-competitive sections address a broad spectrum of social issues. The programme highlights topics such as the environmental crisis in How Deep Is Your Love by Eleanor Mortimer, the hidden labour behind artificial intelligence in Henri Poulain’s In the Belly of AI and the growing epidemic of loneliness in Kaspar Astrup Schröder’s Dear Tomorrow [+see also:
film review
interview: Kaspar Astrup Schröder
film profile]. This year’s retrospective, “The Gunnar Myth”, focuses on Norwegian documentary filmmaker Gunnar Hall Jensen, whose diaristic trilogy Gunnar Goes Comfortable, Gunnar Goes God and Portrait of a Confused Father will be screened alongside a master class hosted by the filmmaker.
Running in parallel with the festival will be the 15th edition of East Doc Platform (see the news), unspooling from 19-25 March, offering documentary professionals from Central and Eastern Europe opportunities for networking, project development and industry exchange.
The complete programme is available on the festival’s website.
