n Prague we have around 35 cinemas, most of them showing Western movies, Hollywood blockbusters and some showing Czech films. Dozen of cinemas are located close to Wenceslas Square. Generally movies are screened in their original language with Czech subtitles but some are dubbed into Czech, so check before you go. Tickets cost from 100 CZK to 170 CKZ. An international film festival is held in Karlovy Vary every March, lasting for 10 days. For comprehensive weekly films listing check Prague Post newspaper or Downtown magazine. For online Prague Cinema listing check www.prague.tv/cinema-listings

All about Czech Cinema - www.pragueonfilm.co.uk

Palace Cinemas, Slovansky dum, Na prikope 22, New Town (metro station Namesti Reubliky - look for shopping centre Slovansky dum) Tickets 179CZK - Palace Cinemas - Entertainment and Fun. Located in downtown Prague, Palace Slovanský dům has quickly earned its reputation as the home for not only commercial films but as a host for film events, premieres and the highly popular annual FebioFest held every February. Screenings in English.

Palace Cinemas Letnany
Veselská 663, Praha 9

Palace Cinemas Nový Smíchov
Plzeňská 8, Praha 5

Palace Cinemas Park Hostivar
Svehlova 32, Praha 10

Village Cinemas Czech Republic
Chlumecká 765 / 8 , Praha 9, +420 2 6679099

Kino Svetozor, Vodickova 41, New Town (metro station Mustek) Tickets 90CZK - good choice for seeing Czech films with English subtitles.

Jan Krizenecky  - The first Czech filmmaker

The cinema arrived in the Czech lands of the Austro-Hungarian empire on 15 July 1896 when the Lumière Cinématographe was demonstrated by one Goldschmidt, working for the Lumière concessionary Eugène Dupont, at the Casino, Karlovy Vary. Numerous travelling showmen visited Karlovy Vary and Prague thereafter with film projectors in tow throughout 1896, but it was two years later that the first native Czech films were made. Jan Krizenecky was an architectural student and a keen photographer who had visited Paris and, with colleague Josef Pokorny, purchased a Cinématographe. In June 1898 he first exhibited at the Architecture and Engineering Exhibition in Prague some short actualities and three short comic films under the banner of Cesky Kinematograf (Czech Kinematograph), thus making cinema part of the growing demand for Czechs to be recognised as a nation. The films were Dostavencicko Ve Mlynici (Appointment at the Mill), Plac a Smich (Tears and Laughter) and Vystavni Parkar a Lepic Plakatu (The Billsticker and the Sausage Vendor), and all three starred popular comic café performer and postcard publisher Josef Svab-Malostransky, who went on to have a very successful film career lasting until his death in 1932. Following these first experiments Krizenecky filmed various topical events with his modified Cinématographe, notably the Sokol sports festival in Prague in 1901, taken from a high tower to capture the full effect of the spectacular gymnastic display, an event that he would return to annually. He continued to write and direct films over the next decade, eventually working for Kinofa, the first Czech film company. Leaving the world of film in 1910, he went on to work for the Prague city archive.