During its first four decades, the festival introduced innovative artistic perspectives and opened the doors to great cinematic personalities but also had to resist the pressures resulting from communist totalitarianism. After the revolution in 1989, it suddenly had to defend its right to exist. But under the direction of President Jiří Bartoška and former Artistic Director Eva Zaoralová, the team built a modern, inspirational festival that has found its unique identity by connecting filmmakers and audiences, building platforms for young, ambitious filmmakers and creating an interface between the films of Western and Eastern Europe. Last year the Karlovy Vary IFF celebrated its 50th anniversary. It now enters its next half-century with a strong foundation and many innovative ideas.

The festival team’s longstanding stability was the foundation for it to develop its programming philosophy. “Each year we present new films, guests arrive and events take place”, stated President Jiří Bartoška. “That is always the biggest challenge – building on the success of previous years and making every year better than the last.”

While searching for its place among the film revues in Europe and the world, the Karlovy Vary Festival has long banked on an unforgettable atmosphere for the audiences, a connection between the filmmakers and the public and the opportunity for creative dialogue among the filmmakers. Film professionals, distributors and film journalists are gradually getting used to going to Karlovy Vary to see interesting films from Central or East European filmmakers that they cannot see elsewhere in such a comprehensive programme.

“The festival’s ambition is also to bring young artists to the world of cinema at the beginning of their careers”, explained Kryštof Mucha, executive director of the festival. “We want to connect young filmmakers with important people from the film business at the beginning of their careers so that fledgling directors and producers do not waste an important period in their careers looking for the right contacts. In past years we have managed to push forward many promising projects that, thanks to our support, obtained interesting co-producers and paved the way to other festivals or international distribution.”

That is why the Karlovy Vary Festival emphasises the industry programme, which is a success here. The basis of the 51st KVIFF programme will be the Official Selection – Competition, the international East of West competition, just like the thematic sidebar programs, but there will also be a lot that is new.

This year the festival wants to continue improving its facilities for film professionals and be a place for them to get connected and meet one another while showing the Czech Republic as a destination suitable for film production and post-production. At the same time the Film Industry Office, in cooperation with its partners, is striving to be a better platform for new filmmakers, established directors and producers from the East European region or film buyers  and distributors from all over the world.

Over the 12 years of its existence, the Works in Progress project has enabled the creation and completion of many new films. The prize for the most promising Works in Progress project from Central and Eastern Europe, the post-Soviet countries, Turkey and Greece will be even more attractive thanks to its new partners. The winning project will receive a post-production package, including video and audio services, as well as finances for the completion of the film in Czech post-production studios which, if compared to previous years, will be far more substantial in 2016.

The festival will also be presenting the first Eurimages Lab Project Award, which will be given to a European project that is on the edge of the conventional approach to film and presents a new form of artistic and visual expression. The eight projects that have been chosen and presented will vie for the award with a financial reward of 50,000 euros.

Traditionally, documentary projects from Central and Eastern Europe in the production and post-production phases (Docu Talents from the East), as well as Czech and Slovak projects that are still in the development phase but have international co-production potential (Pitch &Feedback), will also be presented in cooperation with our partners.

For the second year in a row, the Karlovy Vary Festival will be hosting the annual gathering of the network of independent European Distributors, Europa Distribution, whose workshops on the theme of  ““Film Education and Literacy”” will also be open to film professionals. At the same time we hope to be devoting more time to the issue of the digital market in the context of new strategies from the USA.

Educational platforms at the festival enable filmmakers to meet experts in their fields. The partnership with Torino Film Lab opens up an opportunity to look at the comedy genre – how to approach it properly so that it works on an international level. About 60 TFL graduates and tutors will be meeting in Karlovy Vary to examine the genre’s opportunities and pitfalls. This year for the first time the MIDPOINT screenwriting platform, in cooperation with experts from the Sundance Institute, will be presenting an intensive programme as part of the Karlovy Vary Festival. The Future Frames programme will also be taking place for the second time. Its aim, in cooperation with European Film Promotion, is to introduce 10 selected students from European film schools to leading experts from the film industry, helping them make contacts important for their future careers. “The initial year of Future Frames was one of the most successful events at last year’s Karlovy Vary IFF and was the most visible abroad”, stated the artistic director of the festival, Karel Och. “After the world premiere in Karlovy Vary, a rising star of Czech filmmaking, Ondřej Hudeček, made the rounds at various festivals with his student film, Peacock, including at Toronto and Sundance, where the film received the award for best director. Patrick Vollrath, a student at the Filmacademy Vienna, was no less successful. His film, Everything Will Be Okay, can boast an Oscar nomination and the Student Academy Award.”

Thus the Film Industry Office will once again be able to arrange even more interesting creative workshops for the wider public of film professionals, as well.

Since last year the festival has also successfully spread its activities out over the entire year. It has established the distribution label KVIFF Distribution in cooperation with the established local distributor Aerofilms and Czech Television, a longstanding media partner of the festival.

“We were looking for a way to inform the wider film-going public about films that were successful at the Karlovy Vary Festival so that they do not get lost in the weekly offer of films at the cinemas. In addition, thanks to the year-round work of our Program Department, we know about a lot of films that, because of time, for example, we are not able to include in the festival programme, but we would like to draw attention to them. These are films that need an individual approach, both in terms of introduction and promotions. By joining it with the Karlovy Vary IFF brand, we can help lead viewers to exceptional cinematic works that should not escape their attention”, stated festival President Jiří Bartoška.

Thus Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, which won the Audience Award at the 50th KVIFF, and Oscar nominee A War by Danish writer-director Tobias Lindholm were released under the KVIFF Distribution label.

The 51st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival takes place July 1–9, 2016.