Caravan, a poetic road movie about freedom, the different forms of love, and an urgent desire to finally start living instead of merely surviving is produced by Dagmar Sedláčková of MasterFilm. The film is a Czech-Slovak-Italian co-production, with Slovak company nutprodukcia and Italian production firm Tempesta participating as co-producers. Additional partners include Czech Television, STVR: Slovak Television and Radio, Amygdala Pictures, and Innogy.

The Czech Audiovisual Fund supported the film for production and through the production incentive programme.

The film also received support from the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, MIC Direzione Generale Cinema e Audioviso, EURIMAGES, ARTE G.E.I.E., Calabria Film Commision, Emilia Romagna Film Commission, Creative Europe MEDIA, Torino Film Lab, South Moravian Film Fund, and Film Foundation.

“I thought about Anna Geislerová for a long time, I was looking for an actress who would truly connect with the script, one who would relate to it and not be afraid to go to the core. From the first moment we met, I could feel that she truly understood the script, that it deeply moved her, and she perceived all its layers,” explains the director the choice of the lead role.

Zuzana Kirchnerová had already achieved success at the Cannes Film Festival in the past with her short film Baba, for which she was awarded in 2009 the Cinéfondation Prize for Best Short Film, one of the most important accolades for young filmmakers.

“We are honored to present Caravan in Cannes, in a section that celebrates auteur voices and sensitive cinematic approaches. For me personally, Caravan is a film that explores parenthood in a way rarely discussed – without idealization, full of doubts, desire, and guilt. It’s a story about love and the freedom we sometimes need to allow ourselves to embrace,” adds producer Sedláčková.

Caravan's participation marks her second success of this kind. In 2022, she co-produced director Maksym Nakonechnyi's film Butterfly Vision, which was presented in the Un Certain Regard section.

The inclusion of Caravan in the main program of the Cannes Film Festival marks a historic moment for Czech cinema. The last majority Czech film featured in this prestigious festival was Jan Švankmajer's surreal mystery, Faust, in 1994. The only female director to make it into the Cannes festival program was Věra Chytilová with her film Fruit of Paradise, which was featured in the competition in 1970.

"I’m absolutely delighted that, after 12 years of operating as an independent fund, we’ve succeeded – and Czech film is returning to Cannes. What’s more, it’s happening in the very year we’re introducing major changes to our audiovisual sector: expanding support to include series and video games, increasing film incentives, and securing stable funding, including contributions from the state budget,” comments Helena Bezděk Fraňková, CEO of the Czech Audiovisual Fund.

The 2025 Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 13 to May 24.

The Cannes Festival was first held in 1946, and Czechoslovakia was involved from the beginning. However, the real breakthrough came in the 1960s, when the Czechoslovak New Wave emerged on the international stage. One of the most significant achievements from this period was the double award for Vojtěch Jasný’s film All Good Countrymen, which received a Special Mention from the Technical Grand Jury and the Best Director Award in 1969.

In recent years, Czech participation at Cannes has mainly involved short films or student projects. In 2023, director Daria Kashcheeva attracted attention with her animated short Electra, shown in the prestigious student section La Cinef. That same year, Petr Pylypčuk’s live-action short Eighth Day was also included in the section. In 2024, the animated short Weeds by Polina Kazak—one of the most successful Czech films of the year—was also selected for La Cinef.