The 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival kicks off this Friday (July 4 – 12, 2025)!
This year’s Crystal Globe Competition includes two Slovak minority co-productions. Established Slovak director Miro Remo will world premiere his new documentary Better Go Mad in the Wild (Raději zešílet v divočině, prod. Arsy-Versy). You can learn more about the film in the interview with Miro Remo.
Competing will be also the feature film Broken Voices (Zbormajster), co-produced by Ivan Ostrochovský (Punkchart Films).
The director Paula Ďurinová has made it again to the Proxima Competition section, this time with her new documentary Action Item (Neplatené voľno, prod. guča films, cover photo). Read more about the film in the interview with Paula Ďurinová.
The Special Screenings section will bring many Slovak titles this year. Among them is the highly anticipated premiere of the biopic Duchoň (prod. D.N.A. Production, left photo), about Slovak music icon Karol Duchoň. A behind-the-scenes interview with its producer Rasťo Šesták is available here.
A successful directorial feature debut comes from Katarína Gramatová’s film Promise I´ll be Fine (Hore je nebo, v doline som ja, prod. DRYEYE Film, right photo), which premiered last fall at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Learn more in the interview with the director.
Another eagerly awaited title is Caravan (Karavan, prod. nutprodukcia), which recently premiered at the Festival de Cannes. More information is available in the interview with the film’s Slovak DoPs.
Also co-produced by Jakub Viktorín (nutprodukcia) is the minority Summer School 2001 (Letná škola, 2001), which closes this section.
The Horizons section presents the drama Perla (co-prod. HAILSTONE), which premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and the animated feature film for children Tales from the Magic Garden (Príbehy z čarovenej záhrady, prod. Artichoke), which premiered this year at the Berlinale. An interview with the filmmakers is available here.
The Imagina section will world-premiere the Slovak minority 1+1+1 (dir. Ondřej Vavrečka, co-prod. Virus film).
In the Pragueshorts at KVIFF selection, we can find the audience-favorite animated short Hurikán (dir. Jan Saska, co-prod. Artichoke) and I Died in Irpin (Zomrela som v Irpini, dir. Anastasiia Falileieva, co-prod. Artichoke), which won the Award for Best International Animation at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.
The Out of the Past, section dedicated to the history of cinema, will screen the 1997 film Time Is Running Out and the Water Is Rising (Času je málo a voda stúpa), directed by Ivo Brachtl and Dežo Ursiny.
The Film Industry at KVIFF will present a new program initiative created in collaboration with film institutes from Central European countries – the KVIFF Central Stage. Among Slovak majority productions a project Láska by Marko Škop (prod. ARTILERIA, left image), currently in production phase, has been chosen.
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Festival program: https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/catalogue-of-films/cs
Industry Days program: https://www.kviff.com/en/film-industry/industry-days
Representatives of the Slovak Film Institute and the Slovak Audiovisual Fund attending the festival:
Peter Dubecký (General Director of the SFI): July 6–9
Rastislav Steranka (Director of the NCC SFI): July 6–9
Veronika Krejčová (Festival Dpt. of the NCC SFI): July 7–10
Vladimír Burianek (Director of the SAF): July 6–9
Zuzana Bieliková (SFC SAF): July 6–9
Jana Smokoňová (SFC SAF): July 6–9
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