About the project
In 2021, we established the Center for Innovation and Cultivation of the Audiovisual Environment, which operated under this name until 2022 and was supported by the EEA and Norway Grants. In 2023, the name was shortened to Audiovisual Center.
It is a platform that offers film and video game professionals, critics, and the public guidance in the ever-changing audiovisual industry. Workshops, lectures, industry brunches, and conferences are held here.
The Audiovisual Center focuses on connecting the film and video game industries, strengthening networks, associations, and platforms, supporting women and marginalized groups in the industry, short film production, debuts, production for children and youth, and audiovisual education (films, new media, video games).
The Audiovisual Center at Kino Kavalírka is a place for reflection on the latest trends and phenomena in audiovisual media and for generating discussion. It is a platform that offers professionals, critics, and the public guidance in the ever-changing discourse of the audiovisual industry. The aim is to create a collective awareness of connections and cultivated feedback within all sectors of the audiovisual industry, whether it be communication between producers and creators, critics, cinemas (including galleries and video game institutions) and distributors, or between individual interest groups.
Current program
Recently held
June 24
CLOSURES | FAMU GAME DESIGN DEPARTMENT
June 10
June 3
GIRLS IN FILM | SPEED NETWORKING
History of Audiovisual Center events
At the AV Center, we have successfully organized several networking meetings. Industry Night for representatives of a wide range of associations and platforms in the Czech audiovisual industry, who had the opportunity to present their current projects and future challenges. As part of Industry Night, we focused on data collection and evaluation and wellbeing in the Czech film industry.
Other types of networking events, lectures, and seminars were created thanks to cooperation with platforms such as film-animation-theory, Girls in Film, Association of Cinema Operators, New Cinema, Association for Film and Audiovisual Education or the international project FilmED. For the latter, we organized a workshop as part of the first official meeting of the project partners (Goethe-Institut, Wajda Film Centre, krutón, National Film Institute - Film Archive Hungary, Kino Úsmev, and Kinoteka North Macedonia).
In collaboration with the Pitch podcast, a live recording took place with sales agent Daniel Vadocký, Deputy Minister of Culture Michal Šašek, and Heleen Rouw, then director of Cinekid, the largest film and media festival for children in Amsterdam.
In the past, the AV Center's program also included informal industry brunches focused on specific audiovisual topics, such as television dramaturgy, experimental film, the sustainability of film festivals, contemporary TV production, and sales. Guests included Tomáš Feřtek, Michal Reitler, Michaela Čajková, Tereza Nvotová, Julie Marková Žáčková, and Dagmar Sedláčková.
The Audiovisual Center has also long been dedicated to the topic of women's representation in audiovisual media. Tereza Czesany Dvořáková presented the pilot results of a study by the Association of Audiovisual Producers focused on the position of women in the Czech film industry. Subsequently, together with the Carl Data Company research team, they presented the final presentation of a follow-up three-year research project on the representation and attitudes of women in key film professions in Czech feature films. Gilles Fontaine (Head of the Department for Market Information, European Audiovisual Observatory) also participated in the program, presenting a long-term mapping of the situation of female filmmakers in Europe.
In cooperation with Young Film Fest, we presented the current reality of the film industry in Ukraine. We focused on how it is possible to keep the industry running during the war and what role women play in it. The guest of the discussion was Sasha Prokopenko, film dramaturge and program director of the International Short Film Festival in Kiev.
The Audiovisual Center also hosted several film festival industry programs, such as Das FilmFest, which focused on the female perspective on the film industry in German-speaking countries. The main guests included Heleen Gerritsen (goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film), Marija Milovanovic (LEMONADE FILMS, Vienna Shorts, Berlinale Generation), Nicole Biermeier (First Hand Films), and Fiona Ziegler (screenwriter and director).
Other festival collaborations included a case study of the film Rituals with producer Martina Netíková and film publicist Pavel Sladký at the FOFR festival, and the ELBE DOCK – FILM INN industry program at the IFF, which included workshops for aspiring screenwriters and producers from the V4 countries, masterclasses, round-table discussions, and networking. Guests of the program included: Nicoló Galio (Alphapanda, TorinoFilmLab Audience Design Fund), Anne Gensior, Alexandra Gramatke (Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg), Hrönn Marinósdóttir (Reykjavik International Film Festival), Birgitte Weinberger (OFF - Odense International Film Festival), Liisa Nurmela (Göteborg International Film Festival), Gudrun Sommer (DOXS RUHR), Rebekka Garrido (Manderley Films), Dagmar Sedláčková (Masterfilm, Girls in Film) and Tereza Czesany Dvořáková (FAMU).
An important event organized by the AV Center in cooperation with Young Film Fest was the International Forum for Audiovisual Education – the largest industry program focused on audiovisual education in the Czech Republic, which provided a space for networking among key European players.
Guests of the program: Heleen Rouw (Cinekid Festival), Samira Jakobi (Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum), Anne Schultka (KIDS Regio), Lisbeth Juhl Sibessen (Danish Film Institute), Eveline van Stuijvenberg (Film Education Network in the Netherlands & Filmhub Zuid-Holland), Amelie Jennequin (Quai10), Emese Erdös (National Film Institute – Film Archive, Hungary), Karolina Śmigiel (Andrzej Wajda Film Culture Center), Karin Spišáková (Kino Úsmev), Šimon Bauer (Documentary Film Center), Martin Peroutka (Aeroškola), and Tomáš Machek (Sladovna Písek).
At the Audiovisual Center, we have also been focusing on videogames for a long time, as evidenced by the Summoning Game Design series. As part of regular lectures and showcases, personalities from the field of indie game design were introduced, along with games by students from FAMU, VOŠ Scholastika, and independent developers. During the Young Film Fest, the Summoning Game Design program focused on the use of video games in education, with the participation of an international guest from the video game department of the Quai10 cinema in Charleroi, Belgium. The AV Center also organized final exams for students of the Department of Game Design at FAMU.
We also regularly organize workshops for students of FAMU and the Department of Film Studies at Charles University, focusing on topics such as sales and distribution (Daniel Vadocký), the history and methodology of computer games (in collaboration with the Game Archive), and the creation of lecturer introductions to films (David Havas and Viktor Licek).
Since 2025, we have been expanding our activities to include regular Speed Networking events, which we organize in cooperation with Girls in Film, for example. These meetings serve as a space for quick and effective networking between filmmakers across professions. The aim is to promote new collaborations and the sharing of contacts and experiences in a friendly and informal atmosphere.
Audiovisual Center Coordinator: Eliška Šimková – eliska@krutonfilm.cz
The operator is bujón s.r.o. in cooperation with the krutón, z.s.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.