Attendance

By surpassing the milestone of 122,000 tickets sold, One World has placed itself on the same level as Denmark’s CPH:DOX, and ahead of, for example, Poland’s Watch Docs, Greece’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, or Britain’s Sheffield DocFest.

“One World is growing primarily thanks to its unique content. Documentary and feature films with social and political themes unfortunately have only a marginal presence – and thus limited viewership – in the current Czech cinema distribution. One World, therefore, plays the role of the largest domestic festival offering these unique titles. The vast majority of our film selection cannot be viewed online. Another extraordinary feature of One World is its decentralised nature and broad reach across the Czech Republic due to the number of festival towns,” says the festival’s director, Ondřej Kamenický.

This year, 44,225 members of the general public attended One World, 78,365 pupils and students took part in school screenings, and the Prague Echoes attracted a total of 1,948 attendees. The total attendance for the 2025 edition was 122,590.

A Good Soul from Vlašim

Festival attendance increased this year not only in Prague but also thanks to nine new towns that hosted the event in 2025. One of them was Vlašim in Central Bohemia, where a group of enthusiasts was brought together by Dana Kucharčíková – a former economist and now the owner of a zero-waste shop. She works with Charity Vlašim and clearly has a gift for uniting the local community; local newspapers even feature her in a section titled The Good Soul of the Daily.

In the very first year of One World Vlašim, she managed to assemble an effective organising team and a group of volunteers. Thanks to their efforts, this festival newcomer ensured an excellent launch of One World in the new location. They invited a number of interesting guests to post-screening discussions – for example, director Marie-Magdalena Kochová for the film The Other One, and for Year of the Widow, both director Veronika Lišková and actress Pavla Beretová, who won a Czech Lion this year for her leading role in the film. School screenings were also organised with great success.

A European Dimension

Attendance in Brussels, where One World has been held since 2007, rose by two-thirds year-on-year. Audiences in Copenhagen also had the opportunity to see this year’s Best International Competition Film, Songs of Slow Burning Earth. The screening and subsequent discussion at the Ukraine House in Denmark was attended by director Olha Zhurba and Nadiia Ivanova, director of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (People in Need).

A Safeguard of Democracy

In Prague and other festival towns, this year’s edition was accompanied by an anonymous survey aimed at finding out how the festival impacts society and how it is perceived by its audience.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) produced an excellent result of 68, placing One World among the most successful cultural institutions of its kind.

Among other findings, the survey showed that 95% of participants see the festival as beneficial and 93% perceive it as a trustworthy source of information on human rights. The results also confirmed that the festival effectively reaches and activates civil society outside the capital, thereby strengthening democratic values across the Czech Republic. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) produced an excellent result of 68, placing One World among the most successful cultural institutions of its kind. For comparison, a similar NPS score is achieved by commercial giants such as Netflix.

Growing Echoes

The 2025 edition was also unique in Prague due to the relocation of screenings outside the city centre, through the Prague Echoes. These began in 2024 as a follow-up to the main Prague festival and aim to bring festival screenings closer to audiences in the outer districts.

While the Echoes premiered in Suchdol last year, this year they expanded to five locations. In addition to the KC Půda in Suchdol, new venues included Kino Kavalírka, Modřanský biograf, Velký Mlýn in Libeň, and the Community Hall Pod Normou in Vinoř.

Photo: © Lukáš Bíba