Line-up for the Czech festival includes 14 world premieres across three feature competitions
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 1-9) has unveiled the programme for its 46th edition, with 14 world premieres in its three feature competitions.
Judi Dench will open the festival by presenting Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre on July 1. The festival will close July 9 with a screening of Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris.
John Turturro will receive the Festival President’s Award and with his wife, actress Katherine Borowitz, will present the world premiere of the film Somewhere Tonight. Directed by Michael Di Jiacomo, Somewhere Tonight is inspired by Theo van Gogh’s film 06 (1-900).
Hungarian director István Szabó will chair the main jury, which includes Slovak director Vladimír Balko, French critic Michel Ciment, Greek critic Michel Demopoulos, Israeli film scholar Edna Fainaru, German actress Sibel Kekilli and Czech producer Pavel Strnad.
John Malkovich will return to Karlovy Vary, not to introduce a film or receive an award, but to present a line of clothing he has designed.
Five of the 12 titles competing for the festival’s grand prize and a $30,000 cash award are world premieres: Martin Šulík’s drama Gypsy considers race relations between the Roma and broader community in Slovakia. Canadian director and actor Martin Donovan’s Collaborator focuses on a struggling playwright coming to terms with his life. From Canada, Ivan Grbovic’s Romeo 11 is a portrait of a young man coping with a physical disability and trying to live up to his father’s expectations. German director Christian Schwochow’s Cracks In The Shell considers a novice actress who finds a dangerous new identity. Danish director Birgitte Stærmose’s drama Room 304 revolves around a mysterious gunshot in a Copenhagen hotel.
Five films in the festival’s East of the West competition are world premieres: Murad Ibragimbekov’s There Was Never A Better Brother tells the story of two temperamentally different brothers in Baku in the 1970s. Ketevan Machavariani’s Salt White takes place on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, where three characters try to change their lives. In Petr Marek’s Nothing Against Nothing, a young couple seeking to adopt pretend to be adopted themselves. Aktan Arym Kubat’s Mother’s Paradise, written by Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, is a social drama about two Kazakh schoolboys whose father left for Russia in search of work and never came back. Peter Krištúfek’s Visible World focuses on a loner who takes an unhealthy interest in his neighbours.
Karlovy Vary’s Forum of Independents competition features four world premieres: Jonathan Cenzual Burley’s The Soul Of Flies is an imaginative story of two brothers who meet for the first time on the way to their father’s funeral. Joshua Moore’s I Think It’s Raining follows a rootless young woman in her wanderings around San Francisco. In Gerard Hurley’s The Pier, a man tries to reconnect with his irascible father after 20 years’ separation. Aaron Houston’s Sunflower Hour is a mockumentary about four puppeteers competing for a spot on a children’s television program.
Most of the festival’s competition films are without sales agents. Memento Films is handling sales on Sameh Zoabi’s Man Without A Cell Phone, in the Forum of Independents. Entertainment One Films has Collaborator and Brendan Fletcher’s Forum title Mad Bastards. Funny Balloons is selling Montxo Armendáriz’s main competition title Don’t Be Afraid. Stark Sales has The Pier.
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Official Selection – Competition
Bedouin
Russia
Dir. Igor Voloshin
Gypsy (world premiere)
Slovakia-Czech Republic
Dir. Martin Šulík
Collaborator (world premiere)
US-Canada
Dir. Martin Donovan
Don’t Be Afraid
Spain
Dir. Montxo Armendáriz
Heritage (world premiere)
Poland
Dir. Andrzej Barański
The Invisible (world premiere)
Germany
Dir. Christian Schwochow
The Jewel
Italy-France
Dir. Andrea Malaioli
Lollipop Monster
Germany
Dir. Ziska Riemann
Not For Sale Not For Rent
France
Dir. Pascal Rabaté
Restoration
Israel
Dir. Joseph Madmony
Romeo 11 (world premiere)
Canada
Dir. Ivan Grbović
Room 304 (world premiere)
Denmark-Croatia
Dir. Birgitte Stærmose
East of the West
Belvedere
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dir. Ahmed Imamović
Generation P
Russia-US
Dir. Victor Ginzburg
George The Hedgehog
Poland
Dir. Wojtek Wawszczyk, Jakub Tarkowski, Tomasz Leśniak
Heart’s Boomerang
Russia
Dir. Nikolay Khomeriki
Marija’s Own
Croatia
Dir. Željka Suková
Mother’s Paradise (world premiere)
Kazakhstan
Dir. Aktan Arym Kubat
Nothing Against Nothing (world premiere)
Czech Republic
Dir. Petr Marek
Punk’s Not Dead
Macedonia-Serbia
Dir. Vladimír Blaževski
Salt White (world premiere)
Georgia
Dir. Ketevan Machavariani
Sneakers
Bulgaria
Dir. Ivan Vladimirov, Valery Yordanov
There Was Never A Better Brother (world premiere)
Azerbaijan-Russia-Bulgaria
Dir. Murad Ibragimbekov
Visible World (world premiere)
Slovakia
Dir. Peter Krištúfek
Forum of Independents
He
Netherlands-Serbia
Dir. Sasha Matijević
I Think It’s Raining (world premiere)
US
Dir. Joshua Moore
Mad Bastards
Australia
Dir. Brendan Fletcher
Man Without A Cell Phone (world premiere)
France-Palestine-Israel-Belgium-Qatar
Dir. Sameh Zoabi
Maybe Tomorrow
Sweden
Dir. Mariken Halle
OK, Enough, Goodbye
Lebanon-UAE
Dir. Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia
The Pier (world premiere)
Ireland-US
Dir. Gerard Hurley
UK
Dir. Andrew Haigh
The Soul of Flies (world premiere)
Spain
Dir. Jonathan Cenzual Burley
Stranger Things
US-UK
Dir. Eleanor Burke, Ron Eyal
Sunflower Hour (world premiere)
Canada
Dir. Aaron Houston
Wangliang’s Ideal
China
Dir. Xiongjie Gao
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