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The pop-culture festival Comic-Con Prague attracted more than 28,000 fans over three days, the highest attendance in its seven-year history. This year, the organizers also managed to bring a record number of international and Czech stars.

“The biggest success was certainly enjoyed by Mads Mikkelsen, Billy Boyd, Iain Glen, Robert Llewellyn and Claudia Black, but also Jiří Lábus and Jaroslav Satoranský,” said Pavel Renčín, marketing director of the company Active Radio, which co-organized the event.

According to the organizers, the attendance shows that Comic-Con Prague’s reputation is growing across Europe. “Every year more fans visit us from neighboring countries such as Slovakia, Poland, Germany and Austria, but also from Italy or Spain. The cosplay competitions traditionally received a huge response,” noted the festival’s program director Václav Pravda.

The Czech Republic has a pre-negotiated long-term contract to reserve 1.4 billion cubic meters of gas per year at terminals in the United States. This was told to ČTK and Czech Television by Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček (ANO) after his return from the United States. According to him, the goal is to diversify energy sources and strengthen security.

“The company ČEZ is already discussing the details of the gas reservation contract at this moment. It is clearly a step toward energy security. In this way we will secure 20 to 30 percent of the Czech Republic’s gas consumption,” Havlíček said.

The Czech police air service will receive 11 new helicopters from Airbus Helicopters Deutschland under a contract with the Interior Ministry worth about CZK 4.1 billion.

The light multi-purpose helicopters will be used for medical transport, rescue operations with rappelling, firefighting using a “bambi bucket,” search missions with a spotlight, and passenger transport. Converting the aircraft between these roles should take no more than two hours.

The contract also includes training for pilots and technicians, and part of the purchase is expected to be funded by European Union funds.

The film Franz by Polish director Agnieszka Holland won the most awards at the Czech Lion Awards, taking four prizes from 15 nominations. The film about writer Franz Kafka won awards for actor Idan Weiss in the leading role, as well as for set design, costumes and make-up.

The award for best feature film went to Karavan by director Zuzana Kirchnerová. The film Sbormistr by Ondřej Provazník won three awards.

Three prizes also went to the documentary Raději zešílet v divočině and the TV miniseries Studna by Terezie Kopáčová, which was named best series. Actors Johana Matoušková and David Švehlík won the top acting awards for their roles in the series.