A scenic spa town tucked within the forested hills of western Bohemia, Karlovy Vary is among the most picturesque settings you could choose for a film festival — a fact that surely wasn’t lost on organizers when they hosted the fest’s first edition more than 70 years ago.
Today, as the Czech town prepares to hold its 59th edition, running July 4 – 12, the Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival has grown into the most prestigious festival in Central and Eastern Europe. It’s an event that combines the glamour of Hollywood with the youthful exuberance of the countless young cinephiles who flock from across Europe every summer to pitch tents, pack the festival’s cinemas and party deep into the night.
Artistic director Karel Och, who has been with the festival since the turn of the century, credits the “passion and dedication” of the Karlovy Vary team with creating its signature vibe. “It is not just a job for many of us at KVIFF, it is a way of life,” Och tells Variety. “An exciting and sometimes exhausting one, I need to add, but we would not have it any other way.”
The festival remains a key launching pad for Czech filmmakers — Jiří Mádl’s period drama “Waves” rode its Karlovy Vary premiere all the way to the best international feature shortlist at last year’s Academy Awards — with Ondřej Provazník’s “Broken Voices” and Miro Remo’s “Better Go Mad in the Wild” among the titles vying this year for a coveted Crystal Globe.
Meanwhile, the prestigious Czech fest continues to be heavy on star power, with recent editions welcoming Daniel Brühl, Clive Owen, Viggo Mortensen, Ewan McGregor, Alicia Vikander and Russell Crowe — a lifetime achievement award winner in 2023 who rocked the crowd on opening night with a performance by his band, Indoor Garden Party.
Founded in 1946, Karlovy Vary is one of several festivals established during the days of the former Czechoslovakia that have proved their remarkable staying power. The Zlín Film Festival, which was launched in 1961, is billed as the world’s oldest and largest film festival dedicated to children and youth, while Finále Plzeň — a week-long event showcasing films and series from the Czech Republic and Slovakia — has been running since 1968.
The Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, meanwhile, whose 29th edition runs from Oct. 24 – Nov. 2, has established itself as one of the leading doc fests in Europe, while One World has evolved in the quarter-century since its founding into the largest human rights documentary film festival on the planet.
variety.com
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