At the Kotva Biograph and Žižkárna creative-cultural center, the One World human rights film festival will take place from April 7-12, 2026, and the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice is once again a proud partner of the festival.
For viewers in České Budějovice, the festival will bring 20 documentaries about human rights from the Czech Republic and around the world. Most screenings are complemented by discussions with guests from the expert community or with people with direct experience of the topics featured; this year we will also meet directly with one protagonist from a screened film.
What can you look forward to?
The festival will open on April 7 with the film Eyes of the Machine - a chilling account of a woman who, as a Uyghur, experienced every possible violation of boundaries by the Chinese regime. At the festival opening, Šimon Pánek, director of People in Need, will speak, and the evening will conclude with a discussion with sinologist Ondřej Klimeš.
A powerful experience will also be the Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab about the rescue of a six-year-old girl trapped under fire in Gaza, whose narrative is enhanced by actual emergency call recordings. From the same region comes the film Coexistence, My Ass!, in which comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi fights prejudice with humor that transcends the limits of tradition and history.
This year's program offers personal stories of many other female protagonists. The documentary Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore maps the life story of deaf actress Marlee, while the film State of Firsts introduces Sarah McBride, who as the first openly transgender politician endured a difficult struggle for a seat in the U.S. Congress.
The festival brings stories to České Budějovice from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Japan, Belarus, and North Macedonia, and we will conclude it with a film, also nominated for an Oscar, Cutting Through Rocks, about Sarah, the first female representative in an Iranian village, who tirelessly fights for the good of her community and for the future of women in Iranian society.
At Žižkárna (April 11-12), it will be possible to experience two VR films throughout the weekend. The first offers an impressive 360-degree view into everyday life in the Gaza Strip, and the second gives us insight into the hopeless situation of domestic violence victims. Complete program information can be found at: https://www.jedensvet.cz/ceske-budejovice
