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“Our private events generally reflect our public program in the sense that we’re open to any crazy idea and constellation of what the customer wishes”, explains Dominik Hronec, creative director and head of Edison Filmhub.
Located in the centre of Prague and nestled in a quiet square in front of the Jindřišská tram stop, Edison Filmhub is part of the family-owned media distribution company Film Europe, which was founded by Dominik’s father, Ivan Hronec, fifteen years ago.
Curators at heart
Opened in 2019 in a historic functionalist building and former power station site, the boutique venue has since made a name for itself in Prague’s niche scene of arthouse cinemas. It attracts die-hard enthusiasts and curious amateurs of European cinema and screens quality movies from some of the most prestigious European film festivals, including Cannes, Venice, and Berlin.
Presenting fresh and quality content remains Edison’s core purpose, but the venue is also making headways in event management and hosting.
Some of them keep the spotlight on cinema, with the venue offering the possibility of private screenings of more than 600 films from Film Europe’s extensive archive and, of course, titles from other distributors as well.
Book launches, red carpet premieres, award ceremonies… “We can do everything, from students renting the space to present their diploma film to their family all the way to high-end corporate clients hosting business events”, Dominik Hronec tells Expats.cz, adding that the cinema hall and the bar can be privatized either separately or together.
Dominik explains that the 90-person auditorium with integrated tables was built from the start as a hybrid between a classic screening hall and a conference space. It is equipped with a professional DCI projector with 2K resolution and a sound system that is handy for private screenings and any type of corporate event (meetings, seminars, presentations, workshops, team-building sessions, etc.).
Unique space
“What we often hear from clients is that they’re tired of organizing their events in those hotel lounges with barely any windows and really appreciate our venue, the openness, and connection to the exterior, especially during summer”, Dominik says. “The space is unique, central, and well-connected, it’s really all about the experience”.
Integral to that experience is Edison Filmhub’s café-bar, providing everything from locally sourced coffee to a wide range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and snacks – with either in-house or third-party catering with their partner Špejle also available depending on the kind of events and celebrations in the works.
Whether you want to showcase embarrassing pictures for birthday parties or more serious post-workshop debriefing plans, the space can be rebranded thanks to a projector and several TV screens scattered about the café as guests mix and mingle between the outside space, the bar and the movie hall (yes, drinks and snacks are allowed there too; and no, our eco-consciousness keeps us from using plastic).
“It’s great that we can split the space between private and public events”, Dominik says, explaining that slots can be bought in the morning (before the start of the first screenings) as well as throughout the day or evening.
And the cherry on the cake: cinema advertising. Edison also offers varied plans to create 30-second commercials that will be screened before the films and reach an audience that can recognise quality when they see it.
Prague and Bratislava expansion
More exciting plans are also in the works. Several years in the making with the pandemic largely to blame for the delay, Edison Filmhub will soon be getting a baby brother in the sister country of Slovakia. Edison Filmhub Bratislava is set to debut in the historic center of the city after a soft launch later this year.
The upcoming Slovak venue will feature two screening halls with a total capacity equal to that in Prague and an on-site kitchen and bistro.
But the family is bound to grow even more. Over the next few years, a second Prague location will open just a few minutes away from the original Edison Filmhub on Hybernská Street, in the new Cloud One Hotel building – this time with two screening halls, a café with a full kitchen, and even a bakery.
“This one will be even more ambitious than the new Bratislava venue”, Dominik tells us as we sit in the cinema’s backroom office. “We now know that with the original Edison Filmhub, we brought something new to the Prague cinema culture, and we really don’t want to go under the standards we set for ourselves”.
He continues: “It was really a laboratory of events here, we can experiment, and it was hit-or-miss for a long time. Now, we’ve found a good formula, but we also don’t want to just replicate it, we want to keep growing”.
