Pragueshorts 2026 Online: Which Films Should You Not Miss?

From March 1, over 50 films from this year’s Pragueshorts are available to watch on the Karlovy Vary festival’s streaming platform KVIFF.TV. The online portion of the festival runs until March 22. All films are accessible through a subscription, which costs CZK 179 per month.

Highlights from the National Competition
The online program offers a diverse selection of films from the National Competition, including the winner of the Main Prize for Best Film: the animated short Wolfie by Philippe Kastner, about a perfectionist illustrator who accidentally creates a little wolf with an ink-stained nose. The film is also nominated for the Czech Lion for Best Animated Film and the Magnesia Award for Best Student Film. Also available is the Special Jury Recognition winner Better Man by Eliška Jirásková, which takes viewers on a light-hearted journey into the unique world of bodybuilding. Other notable titles include Terézia Halamová’s Dog and Wolf, a subtle and stylishly confident character study of the stripper Rudolf; the mysterious drama Empty Places by Vojtěch Novotný, starring Petra Špalková and Ondřej Malý; and Nora Štrbová’s experimental short What if We Run Out of Stones?, which playfully shows that even minerals can be full of life.

Students’ Oscar Winner, Sundance Hit, and Films from Cannes
The International Competition selection features the Special Jury Recognition winner at this year’s Pragueshorts, the Polish animated documentary Can You Hear Me? by Anastazja Naumenko. The film tells the story of Nastia, a girl trying to teach her mother to use a laptop over Zoom, while unstable internet and old family traumas keep interfering. KVIFF.TV audiences can also see the Slovak film Confession, an intimate testimony of childhood trauma, which won a Student Oscar and the Slnko v sieti Award for Best Short Film.

Other highlights include the Sundance winner Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites, about a grandmother who briefly leaves the calm of the afterlife to help her grandson accept himself; Hyena, a tense American-Chinese co-production awarded at Locarno, offering a harrowing glimpse into the collective agony of students at a prestigious art school; and the Cannes-selected, shocking South African film Vultures, following the intense moments after a car crash.

The online program also features both LABO section winners. The main LABO prize went to the Kafkaesque courtroom drama Loynes by Belgian director Dorian Jespers, set in 19th-century Liverpool, where an anonymous corpse finds itself on trial. Special Recognition in LABO was awarded to Someone to Steal Horses With, by American multimedia artist Dylan Pailes-Friedman, following a horse that reflects on the nature of memory as it disrupts the everyday life of the residents of Grand Theft Auto Los Santos.

As part of the online edition of Pragueshorts’ 20th year, viewers can also watch a curated selection of the most popular films from the festival’s two decades, horror and bizarre titles from the popular Brutal Relax Show, and much more.