09/11/2012 - The National Film Archive, newly led by Michal Bregant, is changing its structure and will supervise the work of the Czech Film Center

After the former director of the Czech National Film Archive (NFA) Vladimír Opěla was scandalously fired last autumn, the situation calmed down with the appointment of former FAMU (Prague Film and Television Academy of the Performing Arts) dean Michal Bregant.

Since his induction into the leading position of the NFA, Bregant has been trying to give a new boost to the rather conservatively run institution. A minor change comes with the monthly Filmovy prehled – a black-and-white magazine on Czech film premieres and film industry updates - which will only be available digitally from 2013.

More significantly, the NFA is about to take in three major Czech film business institutions: the Czech Film Center (CFC), Czech Film Commission and Media Desk CZ.

Ten years after its establishment, the Czech Film Center has enjoyed a visible presence at major film markets, where it was promoting local cinema and, despite being founded by the Audiovisual Producers' Association, was actively supported by the Ministry of Culture. The funds are now to be redirected to NFA's budget.

"The Ministry demonstrates that cinema needs institutional backing from the state, which wishes to secure not only a long-term functionality of the NFA but also of the film industry," said Bregant. Recently the NFA has also introduced heads to other newly structured departments: scholar Anna Batistová will lead the audiovisual library, while Tereza Czesany Dvořáková will be responsible for non-audiovisual collections, and Aleš Rumpel, otherwise a long-time director of the queer film festival Mezipatra (currently in its 13th edition), will supervise NFA's PR. Moreover the NFA, currently on the brink of a new era, is to celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2013.