Killer Films producer Christine Vachon, Mubi’s chief content officer Jason Ropell, and Fatih Abay, diversity and inclusion officer at the European Film Academy are among the international speakers heading to the industry programme of this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), taking place until July 8 in the Czech Republic.
The recently restored Imperial Spa will house the entire industry programme. It’s wood-panelled interiors will host the Industry Days’ Eastern Promises for four days of project pitches, talks, events, and workshops as well as the Film Industry Office and Lounge. There is an afternoon forum dedicated to issues facing the Czech film industry.
Scroll down for full list of projects
The industry focal point is the Eastern Promises project pitches, a showcase of 39 projects (36 films and three series) in development, production or post-production.
They are being pitched across several platforms: KVIFF Talents, which supports Czech and Slovak filmmakers; Works in Development; Works in Progress; and First Cut+ Works in Progress. The most promising projects receive awards with a total value of €110,000. Among the industry attendees are representatives from sales companies including mk2, Films Boutique, Level K, Mad Solutions, Gaumont and Trust Nordisk.
Hugo Rosák, KVIFF’s head of industry, says there were over 120 submissions for this year’s Eastern Promises. Rather than pick out individual projects, he stresses the quality and diversity of all of those on offer. He says his team have sought to present projects that represent a fair mix of countries from Central and Eastern Europe, former Soviet territories and the Middle East, but that are also diverse in terms of genre and gender balance.
Many films that pass through Eastern Promises go on to premiere at festivals such as Berlin, Venice and Locarno as well as Karlovy Vary. They include Slovakian director Martin Pavol Repka’s family drama March To May, which premieres in Karlovy Vary’s Proxima competition this year.
The winner of last year’s Works in Progress strand, Klára Tasovská’s’s I’m Not Everything I Used To Be, premiered in the Berlinale Panorama section this year and will have its Czech premiere at Karlovy Vary this year. Other WIP alumni include Slovak director Michal Blaško’s Victim, which debuted in Venice Horizons in 2022 and Veronika Liskova’s Visitors, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Locarno the same year.
Among the Works in Progress projects being presented this year is Kazakh film director Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s thriller Moor. Yerzhanov’s The Gentle Indifference of the World played at Cannes Un Certain in 2018, while his Yellow Can premiered at Venice Horizons in 2020. Eygptian director M Siam comes with family drama My Father’s Scent, having previously opened IDFA in 2017 with his documentary Amal.
In the First Cut+ Works in Progress strand, meanwhile, is Caroline Strubbe’s arthouse drama The Silent Treatment. Strubbe’s debut Lost Persons Area was selected for Cannes Critic’s Week in 2009 and won the SACD Prize for best script, and in 2013 she premiered with I’m the Same I’m an Other at Toronto.
Works in Progress
In This Darkness I See You (Leb-Qatar-Fr)
Dir: Nadim Tabet
Sandbag Dam (Cro-Lith-Ser-Slovenia-N Mac)
Dir: Čejen Černić Čanak
Yugo Florida (Ser-Bulg-Cro-Montenegro)
Dir: Vladimir Tagic
My Fathers’s Scent (Egypt-Fr-Nor-Qatar-Swe)
Dir: M Siam
Smaragda - I Got Thick Skin and I Can’t Jump (Cyprus)
Dir: Emilios Avraam
A Hunter Girl (Kyrgyzstan)
Dir: Suiumkan Sulaimanova
Baltic UXO (Lith-Ger-Lat)
Directors: Agne Dovydaityte, Alexander Belinski
Amedspor (Turkey)
Dir: Rezan Yesilbas
Mommy Blue (Hun)
Dir: Bernadette Mayer
Moor (Kaz-Fr)
Dir: Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Lover, Not a Fighter (Slovak-Czech)
Dir: Martina Buchelová
Virtual Girlfriends (Czech-Slovak)
Dir: Barbora Chalupová
Works in Development
Feature Launch
Antonie (Czech)
Dir & Script Rozálie Kohoutová
Anxiety of the Heart (Poland)
Dir: Michał Edelman
Eli and Them (Czech)
Dir & script: Petr Pylypčuk
Grammatik (Ger)
Dir & script: Popo Fan
Horses (Slovenia)
Dir & script: Jernej Kastelec
Klára Is Here (Hun)
Dir & script: Dávid Csicskár
Pushback (Cro)
Dir & script: Bojan Radanović
Sunbruise (Greece)
Dir & script: Stavros Markoulakis
The Art of Biting Your Tongue (Lat)
Dir: Ieva Norvele
Intensive Queer:
Berlin-Budapest (Ger)
Script: Viktoria Vay
Euro Pop Bubble (UK)
Dir & script: Grant Gulczynski
Girls in Uniform (Ger)
Dir & script: Justina Jürgensen
The Face of a Woman (Slovakia)
Dir & script: Lukáš Vízner
KVIFF Talents
Feature Pool:
Inbetween Worlds (Czech-Slovak)
Dir: Diana Cam Van Nguyen
Prod: Karolína Davidová, Jakub Viktorín
Rusalka (Czech)
Script: Hana Neničková
Letters to the Future (Czech)
Dir: Myro Klochko
Prod: Karolína Franková
Creative Pool:
Into the Endless Unknowns (Czech)
Dirs: Veronika Jelšíková, Petr Vlček
Script: Veronika Jelšíková, Petr Vlček
Casting (Czech)
Dir: Terézia Halamová
Script: Jan Černý
Prod: Natália Pavlove
Spectrum (Czech)
Dir: Igor Smitka
Script: Adél Škvrna
Prods: Klára Mamojková, Wanda Kaprálová
First Cut+ Works in Progress
Idyllic (Neth-Belg-Estonia)
Dir: Aaron Rookus
The Silent Treatment (Belg-Hun-Neth)
Dir: Caroline Strubbe
The Origin of the World (Hun-Ger-Fr)
Dir: Borbála Nagy
Numakage Public Swimming Pool (Japan)
Dir: Shingo Ota
Mayflies (Hun-Slovak)
Dir: Emília Goldberg
My Boyfriend The Fascist (Italy)
Dir: Matthias Lintner
Blood of My Blood (Brazil-Chile-Fr)
Dir: Rafaela Camelo
Wheels of Forgotten Dreams (Ser-Bulg-Cro)
Directors: Milos Ljubomirovic, Danilo Lazovic
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