Watching porn with strangers: Prague’s daring new sex-positive festival

For decades, Prague has been the de facto back lot of Europe’s adult film industry—a city where production companies rent baroque apartments by the hour, and actors arrive from across the continent for shoots that stay out of the headlines.

Czechia quietly ranks among the world’s top producers of adult content, and according to P*fest, is home to some of the world's most visited porn sites, major production studios, and a large number of sex workers. Yet the country itself remains largely silent on the subject.

P*fest, a two-day festival of alternative and feminist pornography taking place at art-house cinema Bio Oko on Feb. 7, represents something Prague has never quite attempted: turning the lens around. Organizers Zuzana Černá, Anna Krejčířová, and Dorota Vašíčková describe the festival as a space for critical engagement, discussion, and education.

The festival will showcase content created in a safe, inclusive space that celebrates diverse identities, body types, and fantasies.

“Pornography is a common part of many people’s lives and shapes sexual experiences. While it can carry stigma, it can also inspire, liberate, and help us understand and embrace our own sexuality in a healthy way.”

Their vision manifests through six distinct screenings that challenge every assumption about what adult content can be.

The festival opens with "Ear Candy: A treat for ears & imagination," an audio-only block presented in Czech that asks audiences to experience desire through sound alone—a radical rejection of an industry built on the gaze.

"Kinky Joy: delightful fetishes & blissful BDSM" centers on consent, creativity, and the reclamation of kink from mainstream misrepresentation, while "Pornagenda: Fuck for Believe" frames explicit content as political statement. The festival concludes with "Porncore: Extremes, fantasies & taboos laid bare," confronting what mainstream culture refuses to acknowledge.

The three women behind the festival were inspired by a similar festival in Vienna; they brought the idea to Prague, where two sold-out test screenings received enthusiastic responses.

And they are explicit about their aims: ethical production, diverse bodies, and a “shame-free” environment with films that feature queer creators, non-normative bodies, and prioritize female pleasure.

Each screening has a clear theme, letting audiences choose what screenings to attend while offering a unique experience intended to challenge prejudices.

“The films screened open up topics such as authenticity in pornography, different genres and forms of erotic expression, access to sex in the digital age, and the question of what pornography literacy actually means and how to acquire it,” organizers say.

In a city long known for its underground adult film scene, the festival is pulling back the sheets to take an unflinching look at the power and peril of porn today.

“Watching porn with a full hall of strangers can feel like a step out of your comfort zone, but there’s nothing to be afraid of.”