What to do this weekend in Prague: Best events for Jan. 16–18

Prague honors what would have been David Lynch's 80th birthday with a city-wide celebration spanning DOX, Cinema Světozor, and Ponrepo. While DOX's Up in Flames exhibition showcases Lynch's drawings, lithographs, and experimental films through Feb. 8, David Lynch Week (Jan. 16–25) amplifies the tribute with a full film retrospective from Eraserhead to Mulholland Drive, plus a special audiovisual performance by Lynch's long-time collaborator Dean Hurley and support act Freddy Ruppert on Jan. 22. It's a rare convergence of the director's visual art and cinematic legacy, giving fans multiple entry points into the dark, dreamlike universe of one of cinema's most singular visionaries.

The third edition of Prague's largest winter food festival brings twenty top restaurants and chefs from across the Czech Republic under one roof for a weekend of culinary celebration. Beyond exceptional food, the festival features live cooking battles between the country's best chefs, culinary talk shows, and meet-and-greets with celebrities from TV Nova's popular shows including Survivor, Love Island, Bachelor, MasterChef, and Hell's Kitchen. Hosted by Kristina Kloubková and Roman Staša, the two-day event includes cooking demonstrations, food vendor stalls, and a children's corner for families.

The 12th edition of Prague's contemporary Nordic film festival opens with a gala premiere of The Last Viking, a Danish black comedy starring Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas, directed by Anders Thomas Jensen (Riders of Justice). Running through Jan. 21, the festival showcases award-winning films from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Iceland, with highlights including Hannes Holm's Let It Rain (the Oscar-nominated director of A Man Called Ove), Paprika Steen's To New Beginnings, and Norway's Don't Call Me Mama featuring Pia Tjelta's Karlovy Vary Best Actress-winning performance.

Slovak singer-songwriter Jana Kirschner brings her 'Epiphany Evening' to Nová Spirála on Friday, offering Prague audiences a rare chance to experience one of Central Europe's most artistically restless voices. Since her 1999 breakthrough album V cudzom meste, Kirschner has defied pop expectations, evolving from award-winning chart success into progressive folk and art pop experimentation.

Palác Akropolis celebrates 30 years of its modern era with a special concert on January 17 featuring Etc..., Garage, and Velvet Underground Revival Band—the same group that played the venue's first unofficial show before its 1996 reopening. The event doubles as a book launch for Lubomír Schmidtmajer's Každý má svou Akropoli (Everyone Has Their Akropolis), a memoir tracing the legendary Žižkov venue's journey from its 1928 Art Nouveau origins through decades of transformation into Prague's most beloved underground cultural hub. With ticket proceeds supporting the publication, it's both a celebration and fundraiser for a building that turns 100 in 2028, marking nearly a century of hosting everyone from avant-garde theater to indie rock legends.

Danish actress-turned-director Paprika Steen brings her latest film To New Beginnings to Edison Filmhub on January 18, followed by an online Q&A with the filmmaker herself. The drama follows a tight-knit group of friends whose annual New Year's Eve gathering is upended when Nomi introduces her new boyfriend Finn—a socially clueless outsider whose blunt questions force the group to confront long-buried truths about their late friend Martin and their own relationships.

Children aged 7–10 can enjoy an educational space adventure this weekend, where a cheerful cosmic traveler guides young explorers through the Solar System and beyond. The 20-minute interactive planetarium show covers planets, moons, asteroids, stars, star clusters, nebulae, and distant galaxies, combining fantastical storytelling with fundamental astronomy concepts. Presented in the observatory's cinema hall on Petřín Hill, the program includes discussion time for school groups. Part of the observatory's regular weekend programming alongside sky observation through historic telescopes and the permanent astronomy exhibition featuring interactive exhibits, optical experiments, and a meteorite museum.