FESTIVAL HISTORY

The idea to organize a festival of Czech and Slovak films in Pilsen was presumably born in 1967. It was above all the former director of the Regional enterprise for film, concerts and shows Ladislav Ženíšek, who stood behind the idea.
Year 1968 became the festival year “one”.
The official name of the festival was FINALE (FIlmy NAšich LEt = films of our years, later the abbreviation was changed to Czech “Finále”) – festival of Czech and Slovak film in Pilsen.

From the Festival statute of that time:

“…The mission of this festival is to present to public every year the most valuable film works of the Czech and Slovak production, created in the period of a passed year. These are exclusively full-time feature films and the decisive criterion for their selection is the social involvement in the widest and most humane meaning of the word together with a craftsmanship and searching of new qualities and possibilities of the film language…”

The venue of the festival should be every year Pilsen and the main festival cinema Moskva (or the cinema of the same name later on renamed to Elektra, than Moskva again, now presently Elektra again), at that time the biggest cinema in the Republic with a capacity of 1100 seats.