The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Taking place from 3–11 July 2026, the festival will once again showcase a strong Slovak presence.
The main Crystal Globe Competition will bring the long-awaited new feature by Ivan Ostrochovský – Only Beautiful Things to Look At (prod. Punkchart Films). Set within the Czechoslovak healthcare system of the 1980s, the drama stars Aňa Geislerová in the leading role of a doctor. A Slovak co-production Chica Checa (dir. Šimon Holý, SK co-producer: ARINAFILM) will compete for the Crystal Globe too.
Martina Buchelová’s feature debut Lover, Not a Fighter (prod. NINJA FILM) has been selected for the Proxima Competition. More about the film, which transports viewers into a teenage summer, can be found in our interview. Joining the Proxima line-up is 33 Steps, a thriller from directing duo Anna & Šimon Domček, produced by Ivan Ostrochovský (prod. escadra). More information about the film in our interview.
Karlovy Vary will also host the second premiere of an authorial work by Ivan Ostrochovský – Igor and After (prod. Punkchart Films). The film, dedicated to the exceptional Slovak cinematographer Igor Luther, will premiere in the Out of the Past section. Within the same section, the festival will screen Birds, Orphans and Fools (dir. Juraj Jakubisko, 1969), on which Luther worked as DoP and which received the FIPRESCI Prize in 1990. Luther was also the DoP of The Tin Drum (dir. Volker Schlöndorff, 1979), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980. More information can be found in the interview with Ivan Ostrochovský.
Four Slovak co-productions will receive Special Screenings at this year’s festival: the documentary opus To Die to Live (dir. Yuliia Hontaruk, SK co-producer: Silverart), exploring the lives of Ukrainian war veterans; the biographical portrait The Pint of Ink, in which director Ester Geislerová traces the life and legacy of her father (SK co-producer: PubRes); the fiction feature City of Fathers (dir. Zdeněk Tyc, SK co-producer: ARTILERIA); and the acclaimed documentary If Pigeons Turned into Gold (dir. Pepa Lubojacki, SK co-producer: guča films), which won the award for Best Documentary at this year’s Berlinale. An interview with the film’s Slovak co-producer Matej Sotník is available here.
The same producing trio is also behind Orla, a short rap eco-feminist fairytale that premiered earlier this year at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Its director, Marie Lukáčová, has been selected among this year’s ten Future Frames participants, a programme organised by European Film Promotion for emerging filmmakers.
Last year, the KVIFF Industry Days platform introduced a new format – KVIFF Central Stage, which aimes to connect established filmmakers from Central Europe. The initiative was created in cooperation with the national film institutes of the region. Slovakia will be represented by Michal Blaško’s new project Cowgirl (prod. nutprodukcia), which is currently in post-production.
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Representatives of the Slovak Film Institute and the Slovak Audiovisual Fund attending the festival:
Peter Dubecký (General Director of the SFI): 5–10 July
Rastislav Steranka (Director of the NCC SFI): 5–10 July
Veronika Krejčová (Festival Dpt. of the NCC SFI): 5–8 July
Vladimír Burianek (Director of the SAF): 5–8 July
Zuzana Bieliková (Slovak Film Commission, SAF): 4–7 July
For more information, please see the Catalogue of Films and the Industry programme website.
