The Astronaut

Lots of kids want to be astronauts when they grow up but most of them eventually lose interest: not so Jim, an engineer working for a space travel company. The reclusive Jim has devoted himself to a secret project: he is building his own rocket to finally fly among the stars. In order to come even close to fulfilling his lifelong dream, he must open the door of a well-sheltered workshop and let a few like-minded dreamers into it and into his mind. Nicolas Giraud’s atmospheric film gives a glimpse into the determined soul of a man who refuses to give up. The film’s gradual pace handles the subject matter sensitively and movingly with the help of modern visuals and a minimalist soundtrack.


The director of the film Nicolas Giraud will be a guest of the screening in Prague. After the screening, you can look forward to a Q&A with him.

The Pod Generation

British director Sophie Barthes’ romantic sci-fi comedy The Pod Generation tells the story of New York couple Rachel (Emilia Clarke) and Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor). In a society madly in love with technology, everyone longs for an even more comfortable life. But there are some things that just inherently can’t get more comfortable… or can they? Rachel and Alvy’s wild journey to parenthood is just beginning.

Mars Express

Stubborn private investigator Aline has a problem not only with alcohol: together with her android partner Carlos, she sets out to find a young hacker named June. But Aline and Carlos aren’t the only ones interested in the girl on the run. Director Jérémie Perin’s film is inspired by classics such as RoboCop and Ghost in the Shell. This suspenseful sci-fi noir, full of unexpected twists and turns, has an action-packed pace but is not afraid to reflect on serious and topical existential themes such as the colonisation of space or the slowly dying planet Earth. An impressive peek into contemporary French animation, which is still a major force in cinema.

Divinity

Step into the twisted mind of director Eddie Alcazar – with producer Steven Soderbergh holding your hand on the journey. Divinity is their collaborative effort that will thrill fans of experimental bizarro and actress Bella Thorne. The indie film, with its sci-fi elements reminiscent of early David Lynch, demands the viewer’s full attention: behind a jumble of brutal black-and-white images that include sex, violence and mutated monsters, lies a sharp critique of a society obsessed with youth and beauty, which fetishises physical appearance and places it above all other values.

Something in the Dirt

Mysterious symbols, sweltering L.A., two friends with video cameras and a penchant for unraveling mysteries. This mystery thriller with mockumentary elements was directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead who are behind sci-fi films such as Synchronic. This time the creative duo offers viewers a quality slow burn. Something in the Dirt is primarily a psychological study of conspiracy theory fans and asks the question of how far this predilection can go. The film, which will remind experienced filmgoers of genre films such as Nope or Under the Silver Lake, handles a topical subject and builds on a solid atmosphere. Will you succumb to paranoia or can you maintain your sanity in the face of the unexplainable?

White Plastic Sky

Budapest, 2123. The earth is fast approaching extinction but scientists have come up with a solution: they have developed special plants that can only grow in the human body. That’s why anyone who reaches the age of 50 must sign up as a host and turn into a life-giving tree. According to psychologist Stefan, this is an effective way to save humanity from extinction but he changes his mind when his young wife Nora volunteers to be transformed without having to. Stefan has only a few days to save her and find out why she made this decision. Hungarian animated sci-fi entices with an original theme that will make you want to start recycling properly and turning off the water while brushing your teeth.

Student Sci-Fi Film Competition 2023

The Student Sci-Fi Film Competition is already an integral part of the Future Gate programme. The festival wants to give a platform to young filmmakers and introduce their works to the general public. This year, you can also look forward to a collection of the best work by emerging directors in Czechia and Slovakia.

2027

director Daniel Geisseder, 2022, 3 min., Filmová akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku

The story takes place in a large city affected by an unknown calamity that has made it uninhabitable. The once lively and rich city has become a ruin, in which only damaged buildings with broken windows and barricaded doors remain. Its inhabitants left little evidence of their former existence. The only thing we can see moving in this abandoned city is an exploring little robot that is trying to find something rare. The area he must explore is vast, so it won’t be an easy task. The robot sets out to search the wreckage and various nooks and crannies with great determination and stamina, but only time will tell if it succeeds.

It’s a Match

director Michael Klemm, 2023, 15 min., Slezská univerzita v Opavě

The world is ruled by artificial intelligence in the near future. In addition to running a smart household and helping with everyday activities, she can also find perfect love, the so-called perfect match, on the modern dating site Blinder. Adam, a young man living only with his voice assistant Lucy, is also looking for the perfect match. However, there’s one problem that is bothering Adam. Lucy can’t find Adam’s perfect match, even though it should be easy in this modern world. Something must be wrong.

Fourth Room

director Adam Kůs, Matyáš Vivodík, 2022, 12 min., Filmová akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku

In 2079, the world is shrouded in thick, smoggy fog, cities are rundown and there is no sign of life. Two explorers in protective clothing and technology of the near future go through the remains of human dwellings, and apartment after apartment looking for any hope for the future of the human race.

Metro

director Mikuláš Hrdlička, Petr Vlček, 2023, 5 min., FAMU

A dystopian story set in an abandoned subway. After a man discovers the first anomalies, he decides to enter the unknown and put his physical and mental state to the test. He boards the subway, which takes him to the realm of timelessness. He desperately tries to cope with the new concept of time and space, but this test is harder than he thought.

Retrograde

director Gabriel Malík, 2023, 17 min., Filmová akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku

Val and Alex make a living as modern-day treasure hunters in a dystopian future. They strive to find long-forgotten technology from past civilizations and subsequently sell it. While exploring many years’ worth of abandoned laboratories, Val accidentally activates an experimental device that transports her to seemingly random locations at random intervals. She is unable to turn off the device, so she communicates with her senior colleague Alex through a transmitter to figure out what to do. Another problem for Val is that by activating the device, she also triggered planetary defense, including patrolling drones that can quickly neutralize her if they find her. Eventually, Alex discovers that this device is extremely valuable and there is only one way to deactivate it in order to sell it on the black market. That option is to kill its current carrier.

Somnio Ergo Sum

director Michal Špitálský, 2023, 3 min., Northumbria University

An AI takes millions of inputs and rehashes them into something semi-new. The same thing human brain does when sleeping. Humans call it “dreams”. Michal Špitálský’s short experimental film follows the surrealist tradition of finding inspiration in the human subconscious and contains only a loose plot constructed from the artist’s dreams. The film is a digital stop-motion animation in a dadacollage style. In addition to that, all elements of the film have been generated by artificial intelligence models (simulating dream generation in our brains) and then reworked by the human hand. In this way, the film touches on themes such as originality and the function of algorithms as an artist’s tool.

Beyond the Border

director Dominik Zbořil, 2023, 27 min., Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve Zlíně

It’s the year 2032. In the People’s Republic of Czechia, people are denied all fundamental rights. The right to opinion. The right to life. To freedom. People are fleeing from the oppression of this totalitarian regime across the heavily guarded border into the state of Zlín, but many of them do not survive the journey to paradise. Twenty-year-old Miro wants to try to escape with his friend Juraj, but he struggles not only with his own fear but also with his conscience. Emigration would mean leaving his beloved mother, who is also in trouble with the regime because of her low social credit. Miro faces the most difficult choice of his life: to stay, or to leave? The hopeless situation drives him to a desperate solution.

Short sci-fi films by iShorts 2023

This year’s edition will also feature the traditional iShorts selection of short films. And it’s truly going to be a ride – you can expect the alien and the supernatural, and forces of evil and human love. The power of gravity and the desire to conquer distant worlds and to control new technologies and the future. This time we have focused on European short films that transcend established genre categories.

Crazy Crabs from Outer Space (Finland) Director: Magdaleena Jakkila | Producer: Johan-Sebastian Rintala | Cast: Lena Labart, Tuomas Rinta-Panttila, Saana Koivisto | Year: 2022 | Lenght: 23 min

As an impending invasion of space crabs threaten Earth, Pirjo and her alien pet crab Sebastian attempt a desperate escape. The Land of Milk and Honey (Belgium) Director: Isabelle Nouzha | Producer: Fragments asbl, Isabelle Nouzha, Zoo Théâtre | Cast: Olindo Bolzan, Romain David, Jérôme De Falloise | Year: 2022 | Lenght: 11 min | Animation

After a series of massive destruction the inhabitable territories left are protected by huge walls of separation. In between these walls, there is on one side a population of destitute survivors and on the other, elites willing to transform the popular rage into a workforce.

Growing (France) Director: Agata Wieczorek | Producer: Le Fresnoy | Cast: Nina Andre, Dominika Walo, Nela Wieczorek | Year: 2021 | Lenght: 18 min

Ewa takes up training in maternity nursing at medical simulation center. In the life-likerealm, pregnancy and labour are repetitively performed by artificial bodies in automatic procedures that allow no interruption. Recognizing human features in a pregnancy simulation female mannequin gives a start to a series of events that makes Ewa radically question the simulated maternity as a predestined experience.

Heartless (Island) Director: Haukur Björgvinsson | Producer: Haukur Björgvinsson, Tinna Hrönn Proppé | Cast: Jóhann Kristófer Stefánsson, Bríet Elfar, Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir | Year: 2021 | Lenght: 16 min

Young couple Anna and Gunnar live in a society in which people are assigned a new spouse in a lottery every seven years. Full of heartache the couple lives their biggest nightmare in face of life with a new partner.

The Wooden Ghost (Česká republika) Director: David Daenmark | Producer: FAMU | Cast: Tomáš Pichl | Year: 2023 | Lenght: 11 min

An atmospheric film about a stubborn carver working on a woman’s effigy and an uninvited visitor in the middle of a dark night. Once the shutters fly open, strange things begin to happen. The horror short is a variation on EA Poe’s poem, The Raven, and cleverly combines live action with animated scenes.

Restore Point

Imagine a world in which you don’t have to fear an early violent death because you will always be brought back to life thanks to a consciousness backup – as you have a constitutional right to do so. The much-discussed Czech sci-fi Restore Point offers more than just impressive visuals. Obviously inspired by classics from Blade Runner to Minority Report, director Robert Hloz has made a quality crime thriller with a smart protagonist and an entertaining plot. But he’s not afraid to tackle current moral issues that we as a society should be addressing – proving that the domestic genre scene still has a chance to rise from the ashes.

The Creator

In the midst of a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence is Joshua (Washington), a hardened former special forces agent who is mourning the disappearance of his wife (Chan). He has been recruited to track down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of an advanced artificial intelligence that has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war and the existence of humanity itself. Joshua and his team of elite agents venture across enemy lines into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory only to discover that the weapon destined to destroy the world is an AI in the form of a small child.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

The moment Dr Robotnik (Jim Carrey) was fatefully stranded on the Mushroom Planet, Sonic the Hedgehog lost his only truly capable enemy. And he became very bored. Occasionally, he helps the police catch a few “uncatchable” crooks but otherwise, he’s got nothing to throw his blue energy at, which stresses out his biggest buddy, Sheriff Tom (James Marsden)– much more than the damages Sonic causes he has to pay for. Only, the resourceful Robotnik has managed to find a way to escape his mushroom prison and return to Earth, and he’s also teamed up with an echidna named Knuckles who’s is a furry red ball full of malice and unique abilities similar to Sonic’s. This dangerous duo has two main goals. The first is revenge on Sonic, and the second is to find and control an infinite source of energy that would make Robotnik ruler of the entire planet. Fortunately, Sonic won’t face the odds alone but with the support of Tails, the two-tailed fox who has come to his aid from another dimension, because everything is at stake here.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

A plumber named Mario travels through an underground labyrinth with his brother, Luigi, trying to save a captured princess.

Starship Troopers Deadlock

A live-action short movie within the Starship Troopers universe. Meet new types of Arachnids, faced with new enemies, follow a small squad of the Mobile Infantry to protect the Earth. One special mission of the Mobile Infantry.

Projection 30.9. from 23:59 at Galeria Lucerna / free entry

In Search of Tomorrow

Get ready for a massive sci-fi documentary that will take you into the depths and wonders of this genre like never before! You’ll witness top-notch interviews with such film legends as Clancy Brown, Peter Weller, Nancy Allen and many more. Some of the most iconic films of all time are in the spotlight: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Back to the Future and Aliens, as well as cult classics Flash Gordon and Blade Runner. Everything is also enriched with insider perspectives from directors such as John Carpenter (The Thing) and Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters). And, of course, we can’t forget the development of special effects that are inherent to building fictional worlds, as well as the immortal Star Wars, which completely changed the rules of the science fiction movie game.

The Sights of Space

The Universe is enormous, it never ceases to fascinate us, it is home to a huge number of diverse worlds, or exoplanets. We currently know of 5,500 of them, too far away to explore in detail. But that won’t stop us from taking an imaginary journey to see them, based on the latest current scientific findings!

Our spaceship is called Navis III, and it will take you to any place in our galaxy where 200 billion stars can be found. First, we’ll head to the wildest planets yet discovered by humankind. These are worlds beyond our imagination – from planetary oases to hot gas giants with clouds of metal. This interstellar journey will give us a glimpse of just how deep nature’s imagination goes while opening the way for future pioneers who may one day make our second home in deep space. If you could visit any place in the galaxy, where would you go?


We are adding a projection in Brno: Kino Art 5.10. 17:00 tickets for 100 CZK (screening without guest / discussion)

The Longest Goodbye

Space is by no means a friendly place to live and our dreamt-of spaceflight will encounter major pitfalls, especially in terms of the effects on the human body and its psyche. A flight to Mars, for example, will take at least nine months. The isolated environment and severely limited social contact will be a major stress test for astronauts.

Psychologists will be tasked with preparing the crew of the longest space mission in the history of astronautics for conditions no human has ever encountered. The astronauts will experience prolonged separation from our home planet but most importantly from family, friends and all the comforts of life that our planet Earth provides. Despite the use of state-of-the-art technology in interplanetary flights, the success of the missions will depend mainly on the people themselves and their mental health.

You Can Call Me Bill

We know him as Captain Kirk but he’s so much more. In the feature-length documentary You Can Call Me Bill, television legend William Shatner goes beyond the hilarious stories of the set and delves into his own depths. With devastating self-reflection, the ninety-two-year-old sci-fi icon realizes the nearness of his own demise, and in this intimate portrait, he and director Alexander O. Philipp embark on a compelling journey across nine decades of his personal and professional life. This frank and candid documentary will appeal to Shatner fans and beyond. If you missed it at KVIFF, we suggest you remedy that.

Beyond Tomorrow

Beyond Tomorrow is a documentary about the life of one of the greatest space artists of the 20th century, Roy Scarfo (1926-2014). It will take you into the fantastical world of the futuristic illustrator who collaborated with such luminaries as the world-famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov and the German-American aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun. Scarfe’s myriad works have fired (and continue to fire) the imaginations of millions of people around the world about what space exploration and our lives in it might look like. Roy Scarfo is still with us, he was truly one of the greats whose futuristic visions continue to provoke and inspire us, and at the very least, appear in films. But who knows what tomorrow will bring…

Starship Troopers

Humanity is on the brink of destruction. Those who want to be fully fledged citizens must enter the service. But in Starship Troopers, it’s not just a formality: Earth is under threat from world-eaters in the form of bloodthirsty alien bugs. To prove his worth, high school student Johnny Rico is sent straight into the thick of the battle. Faced with carnage, he loses his illusions and sets out with his friends on a crucial mission that will change their lives forever. The iconic adaptation of Robert A. Henlein, directed by Paul Verhoeven, is one of the best films of the 1990s but still holds up today as a social commentary.


Michael Ironside will be guest of the screenings in Prague and Brno. You can look forward for a Q&A after the screenings. The Q&A will be only in English language.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Do you carry a towel? Because you’re really gonna need it! The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy takes you on a fun ride through the universe. The now-classic film adaptation of Douglas Adams’ cult classic features the great Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent who escapes Earth seconds before its destruction and embarks on an intergalactic hitchhike with his alien friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def). He’s about to clash with the life-threatening Vogon poetry and the dullness of Zafod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell). He’ll fall under the spell of the willful Trillian (Zooey Deschanel) and, with the constant lamentations of the depressed android Marvin (voiced by Alan Rickman), may even find the answer to the fundamental question of life, the universe and everything.

Scanners

Cameron Vale teeters on the edge of madness: his mind is plagued by strange voices and incessant buzzing. He is one of the “scanners”, people with the ability of telepathy and telekinesis. Dr Paul Ruth wants to use his special talents to fight Darryl Revok, the leader of an illegal terrorist organisation with immense power and an insatiable desire to control humanity. Legendary Canadian sci-fi introduced David Cronenberg and his penchant for body horror to mainstream cinema. An absolute classic that should not be missing from any genre fan’s must-see list. Just be careful it doesn’t make your head explode.


Michael Ironside will be guest of the screenings in Prague and Brno. You can look forward for a Q&A after the screenings. The Q&A will be only in English language.

Blind Date Future Gate

Do you like surprises? Do you trust cinema programmers to surprise you?

When you accept our game and try “Bio Central Blind”, you won’t know until the last minute what movie you’ve gone to. On the other hand, you will be sure to pay exactly the amount you see fit. You pay nothing in advance. After the screening, you will then have the opportunity to value the newly acquired experience with an amount that you determine yourself.

And there’s one more thing you can be sure of – if you arrive and find that you’ve already seen the film, we’ll make up for that loss of time with a free beer. Are you in?