goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is set to celebrate its 19th edition this year from 10 to 16 April in Wiesbaden, Germany. The full programme for the festival, hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, is now available online at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/program

The centrepiece of goEast is its Competition section, in which 16 works – ten fiction features and six documentary films – vie for honours. “In addition to works tackling current political topics, there are a notable number of films in 2019 that deal with generational conflicts,” revealed festival director Heleen Gerritsen. “30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people expect different things out of life depending on which system they grew up in. This generational conflict is also evident in Teona Mitevska’s opening film GOD EXISTS, HER NAME IS PETRUNYA.”

Juries & Awards Among the 16 entries to the Competition, ten films will be celebrating their German premieres at goEast, while the section also features two international and one world premiere. An international jury will determine the winners of multiple awards: the Golden Lilly for Best Film (featuring prize money of 10,000 euros), the Award of the City of Wiesbaden for Best Director (7,500 euros) and the Award of the Federal Foreign Office for Cultural Diversity (4,000 euros). The 2019 jury is headed by multi- award-winning Macedonian director Teona Strugar Mitevska, who is also responsible for this year’s opening film. Mitevska will be joined by two significant figures from the European festival scene: Magdalena Żelasko, founder and director of Vienna’s LET’S CEE Film Festival, and Stjepan Hundić, founder and director of Fantastic Zagreb Film Festival. They are joined by acclaimed Russian-German arthouse producer Anna Katchko. In addition, a dedicated jury representing FIPRESCI will present two International Film Critics’ Awards, for Best Fiction Feature and Best Documentary Film, to two films chosen from the Competition entries.

goEast Competition The goEast Competition presents a multi-facetted and sophisticated cross-section of Central and Eastern European filmmaking. The documentary STRIP AND WAR (Belarus, Poland, 2019) by East-West Talent Lab alumnus Andrei Kutsila, celebrating its world premiere at goEast, depicts a generational clash between a war veteran and his exotic dancer grandson while holding a mirror up to Belarusian society in the process. Beata Parkanová’s feature debut MOMENTS (CHVILKY, Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2018) revolves around a young woman who has to carve out her own path through the tangled growth of expectations and demands within the three generations of her family. In his coming-of-age drama ACID (KISLOTA, Russia, 2018) actor and director Alexander Gorchilin, a member of Kirill Serebrennikov’s Gogol Center ensemble, pulls his audience full force into the wild lives of a disillusioned

young Moscow clique and right into the middle of a sort of trench warfare between generations. Adilkhan Yerzhanov, who appeared at goEast for the first time in 2013 with his debut outing, tells the bittersweet story of a Kazakh family in THE GENTLE INDIFFERENCE OF THE WORLD (LASKOVOE BEZRAZLICHIE MIRA, Kazakhstan, France, 2018), a Mafia tragicomedy that takes its philosophical cues from Albert Camus. Elmar Imanov’s END OF SEASON (Germany, Azerbaijan, Georgia, 2019) is an evocative drama of emancipation set in a high rise housing estate in the sprawling Azerbaijani capital Baku. The documentary WHITE MAMA (BELAYA MAMA, Russia, 2018, directed by Zosya Rodkevich and Evgeniya Ostanina) also places the unusual fate of a large family centre-stage and shows with uncompromising honesty what happens when a mother’s emotional reserves gradually become exhausted. Ena Sendijarević’s debut film TAKE ME SOMEWHERE NICE (Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2019) takes the audience along on a trip through Bosnia full of fresh, vibrant imagery, showing the Balkan country’s landscape and inhabitants through the eyes of a young woman discovering her roots for the first time. In HOME GAMES (DOMASHNI IGRI, Ukraine, France, Poland, 2018, directed by Alisa Kovalenko), young Ukrainian Alina struggles to reconcile her budding career as a professional footballer with her socially precarious family situation. Eszter Hajdú’s political documentary HUNGARY 2018 (Hungary, Portugal, 2018) offers a look behind the scenes at last year’s parliamentary election in Hungary. Historical themes from Central and Eastern Europe are also present in this year’s Competition section. With JAN PALACH (Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2018), director Robert Sedláček devotes himself to one of the most important figures in Czech cultural memory and probes what moves a young person to set themselves on fire in political protest. Set in Prishtina in 1992, COLD NOVEMBER (NËNTOR, FTOHTË, Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, 2018, directed by Ismet Sijarina) treats the war in then-Yugoslavia and tells of life and survival during the darkest of times. Igor Drljača’s documentary THE STONE SPEAKERS (KAMENI GOVORNICI, Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2018) directs our gaze to what has remained of multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina in the wake of state disintegration, system change and war, while revealing the grotesque excesses of tourism and allowing the locals to spin their yarns. The experimental nature film ACID FOREST (RŪGŠTUS MIŠKAS, Lithuania, 2018) by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, who will represent Lithuania at this year’s Venice Biennale, takes viewers out to the country’s Courland Spit and challenges our anthropocentric mentality with its apocalyptic atmosphere. With his freaky science-fiction drama HIS MASTER’S VOICE (AZ ÚR HANGJA, Hungary, Canada, 2018) Hungarian cult director Györgi Pálfi delivers an unorthodox and quirky Stanisław Lem adaptation that delights in transcending genre boundaries. It is the boundaries between truth and fiction that are blurred on the other hand for the protagonist in Anca Damian’s ambiguous noir thriller MOON HOTEL KABUL (Romania, France, 2018) about a journalist travelling on assignment between Kabul and Bucharest. After 2018’s Golden Lilly went to the Estonian film November, production company Homeless Bob is back once again in the goEast Competition with Kaur Kokk’s mysterious feature debut THE RIDDLE OF JAAN NIEMAND (PÕRGU JAAN Estonia, 2018). Kokk’s film is set in 18th century Estonia and features the camerawork of November cinematographer Mart Taniel. The perspectives and cinematic languages of this year’s Competition films are as refreshingly diverse as the themes they explore.

Accreditation and Press Conference Members of the press can still receive accreditation for goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film until 29 March by registering at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/Press/accreditation

The press conference for the 19th edition of goEast will take place at 11 am on 4 April at Wiesbaden’s Caligari FilmBühne cinema. Please RSVP to attend the event.

Festival images are available for download at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/de/presse/downloads

The full programme for the 19th edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is available at: www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/program

goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and supported by numerous partners. The festival is primarily funded by the State Capital Wiesbaden, the Hessen State Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, ŠKODA AUTO Deutschland, Renovabis, BHF BANK Foundation, Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege, the Federal Foreign Office and Deutsch-Tschechische Zukunftsfonds. Media partners include among others 3sat, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

For the 10^th time, film industry professionals from all over Europe will take part in the audiovisual industry event Meeting Point – Vilnius (MPV), taking place April 2–4. This year’s programme will include new initiatives, such as Talents Nest and individual meetings for professionals, as well as traditional Coming Soon and private Industry screening sessions.

 

The brand new initiative Talents Nest will take place on the first day of MPV. It aims to explore, nurture and offer industry and networking opportunities to emerging professionals from the Baltics, former Soviet and Caucasian countries.

The MPV programme is set to start with an afternoon all about the Baltics. Jeremy Zelnik, head of industry at Les Arcs Industry Village, will preview the upcoming Baltic Focus for Les Arcs Industry Village. Three speakers from each Baltic country will present six case studies about their arthouse distribution practices. These case studies will draw on audience differences, marketing and exhibition strategies, the panel will question the territory’s homogeneity and tackle points of collaboration rather than competition.

Recently, Lithuania’s shooting locations and film professionals have attracted the attention of such huge production companies as BBC and HBO. Due to the positive impact, these productions have on the film industry as well as the economy overall, the level of the Lithuanian tax incentive was increased to 30% until 2023. On April 3^rd, a presentation will provide an overview of the new plan.

Thanks to a new partnership with Cinemarket, the blockchain platform that facilitates payment between audiences and the film right holders, Alan R. Milligan, founder of the blockchain platform, White Rabbit will give a masterclass on the positive usage of the blockchain in the film industry, while Jordan Mattos, co-founder of Cinemarket, will hold individual meetings with professionals interested in discussing the topic more thoroughly. Masterclasses and presentations will focus on film festival management, marketing movies in the era of social influencers, and more.

On April 3^rd, 11 fiction and 6 documentary features that are in development will be presented to a jury comprised of film producers, agents, distributors and festival representatives during the Coming Soon pitching session. The lineup includes various genres, from comedies to dark psychological thrillers, coming from Albania, Italy, Czech Republic, Latvia, Moldova, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Poland, France, Lithuania, Sweden, Germany, Romania and Brazil. For the second year, the Coming Soon session will only present debuting filmmakers, whose works go on tobe noticed by film professionals and continue to be screened and awarded at international festivals.

You can find the entire programme here.

“The wind. A documentary thriller” directed by Michał Bielawski will open the 59th Krakow Film Festival. It is an emotional story about the “halny” wind – one of the most unpredictable winds in the Polish mountains. The film will be showcased as a part of the international documentary competition and the Polish competition. The opening gala for the Festival will take place on 26th May at the Kijów.Centrum cinema and it will also be the Polish premiere of this picture.

More information: "The wind. A documentary thriller" dir. Michał Bielawski

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The world of music in a nutshell at Krakow Film Festival

Each year the films showcased in the DocFilmMusic competition surprise the viewers with great diversity of sounds and music genres. The selection is a meeting place for biopic stories of world renowned stars, such as Miles Davis and Steven Tyler, and tales about anonymous heroes. We can see the most grand stages of the world juxtaposed with intimate home studios or small rehearsal rooms of local culture centers. This will also be the case during the 59th edition of the Krakow Film Festival.

More information: The world of music in a nutshell at Krakow Film Festival

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Focus on Finland at the 59th Krakow Film Festival

The annual special section of the Krakow Film Festival, which presents the latest documentary, short and animated films from a selected country, this year will be dedicated to Finland. The Festival will host numerous screenings, as well as special events and industry meetings.

“It is yet another Baltic country, after Sweden, Estonia and Lithuania, whose cinema we want to present to the audience of the Krakow Film Festival” – Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła, the head of programme department of the Krakow Film Festival, explains. – “Finnish cinema is not known well enough in Poland, especially documentary and short films. And in Krakow we like to discover and show to the audience what they cannot say anywhere else. And there’s so much to discover! During the selection process we found out what filmmakers there find interesting and why Finland seems to be a perfect place to live. But is that really the case? The films we selected to this section show both the complicated history and contemporary problems that Finnish people have to face”.

More information: Focus on Finland at the 59th Krakow Film Festival

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The call for volunteers for 59th Krakow Film Festival

Each edition of the festival cannot do without support of Volunteers who are committed and ready to face every challenge.The KFF Volunteers will work, among others, at the reception of the festival, in the cinemas, in the promotion department, in the press office and the festival newspaper, the accompanying events department, in the KFF Industry and in many other fields indispensable for the festival.If you want to co-operate with the oldest Polish film festival, volunteer! 

More information: The call for volunteers for 59th Krakow Film Festival

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Conference on New Emerging Business Models in Animation 
23 – 25 Apr 19 
Tampere (Finland)

Creating and financing animation programmes that grow into
commercial brands

33 International top-level speakers (from Sony Pictures Television, ZDF, ZDF Enterprises, YLE, Turner EMEA, ROVIO, Dandelooo, IPR.VC, Gigglebug Entertainment, APCKids, etc.) will share their expertise, best practice, original case studies on how to improve the development and longevity of European animation brands in today’s global market.

Discover the programme.

Practical information:

• Dates: 23-25 APRIL 2019
• Venue: Tampere Hall, Tampere (Finland)
• Registration: Go to the online form (My Cartoon > My Registrations > Cartoon Business 2019)
• Deadline: 12 April

The Federation of European Film Directors (FERA), the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE) and the Society of Audiovisual Authors (SAA) welcome the European Parliament’s final vote on the Copyright Directive in the Digital Single Market. This is a great achievement for European authors.

On 26 March 2019, despite an unprecedented pressure, the European Parliament had the courage to adopt the Copyright Directive with 348 votes in favour, 274 against and 36 abstentions. The European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA), which represents over 50,000 professional composers and songwriters in 26 European countries, welcomes this historical decision for European cultural diversity and towards fair remuneration of authors in the digital age.

Organizers of the 53^rd Karlovy Vary IFF thank to all partners which help to organize the festival.

53^rd Karlovy Vary IFF is supported by: 

                                                         Ministry of Culture Czech Republic 

Main partners:                               Vodafone Czech Republic a.s.

                                                         innogy

                                                         MALL.cz

                                                         Accolade

                                                         City of Karlovy Vary

                                                         Karlovy Vary Region

Partners:                                          UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia, a.s.

                                                         UNIPETROL

                                                         KKCG investment group

                                                         Breweries Lobkowicz

                                                         DHL Express (Czech Republic), s.r.o.

                                                         Philip Morris ČR, a.s. 

                                                         EP Industries

                                                         CZECH FUND – Czech investment funds

                                                         Sokolovská uhelná

Official car:                                     BMW

Official coffee:                               Nespresso

Supported by:                                CZ - Česká zbrojovka a.s.

Supported by:                                construction group EUROVIA CS

Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary, Panská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic Tel. +420 221 411 011, 221 411 022 www.kviff.com

In cooperation with:                    CzechTourism, Ministry of Regional Development

Partner of the People Next Door section:  Sirius Foundation 

Official beverage:	Karlovarská Korunní
Official champagne:	Moët & Chandon
Official drink:	Becherovka
Official beauty partner:	Dermacol
Main media partners:	Czech Television
	Czech Radio Radiožurnál
	PRÁVO
	Novinky.cz
	REFLEX
Media partners:	JCDecaux Group
	ELLE Magazine
	magazine TV Star
Festival awards supplier:	Moser Glassworks
Software solutions:	Microsoft
Consumer electronics supplier:	LG Electronics
Partner of the festival Instagram:	PROFIMED
Main hotel partners:	SPA HOTEL THERMAL
	Grandhotel Pupp
	Augustine, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Prague
Partner of the No Barriers Project: innogy Energie Wine supplier:         Víno Marcinčák Mikulov - organic winery GPS technology supplier:        ECS Invention spol. s r.o. Official bike:                                          Specialized

KARLOVY VARY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL TO AWARD OSCARWINNING ACTOR AND DIRECTOR TIM ROBBINS

This year’s 53rd KVIFF will present a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema to actor, director, screenwriter, producer and musician Tim Robbins, who won an Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance in Mystic River (2003) and who was nominated for a best director Oscar for Dead Man Walking (1995).

Thanks to his family background, Tim Robbins had contact with the world of art from an early age. He began his acting career at theatres in New York, and after completing his education he worked as an actor and director with the experimental theatre ensemble The Actor’s Gang, which under his guidance earned widespread audience acclaim and more than a hundred critics’ awards. 

After appearing in several smaller film and television roles, Robbins gained more widespread attention thanks to his part in director Ron Shelton’s sports film Bull Durham (1988). Proof that Robbins was an actor of great promise came with his performance in the drama Jacob ’s Ladder (1990). A decisive moment in his acting career was his collaboration with the outstanding director Robert Altman – Robbins’ appearance in the main role in Altman’s The Player (1992) earned him a Golden Globe and the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. 

That same year, Robbins showed that he was a multifaceted auteur by filming his directorial debut Bob Roberts (1992) according to his own screenplay. Besides appearing in the title role, he also wrote (in collaboration with his brother David) the music for the film and even sang many of the songs himself. 

Soon thereafter, Robbins again joined with Robert Altman to shoot Short Cuts (1993). The ensemble cast won a Special Golden Globe and also took home the Volpi Cup from the Venice Film Festival.

There followed appearances in the Coen brothers’ The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), another outing with Robert Altman (the comedy from the world of fashion Prêt-à-Porter, 1994), and his work with Frank Darabont on The Shawshank Redemption (1994), which was nominated for seven Oscars. 

Also around this time, Robbins successfully continued with his work as director and screenwriter. Dead Man Walking (1996) earned him an Oscar nomination for best director, while Susan Sarandon won an Oscar for best actress. His next auteur outing, Cradle Will Rock (1999), which premiered at Cannes, explored the relationship between the individual artist and society during a tumultuous time in the U.S. though this time in another era. As with Dead Man Walking, Robbins produced, and the music was written by his brother David. 

After Stephen Frears’s romantic comedy High Fidelity (2000) and Michel Gondry’s bizarre Human Nature (2001) – the latter of which was based on a script by Charlie Kaufman – Robbins appeared in one of his most successful roles in Clint Eastwood’s crime drama Mystic River (2004), for which both Robbins and lead actor Sean Penn won an Oscar and a Golden Globe. Recently Robbins has been seen in Marjorie Prime (2017) and HBOs The Brink (2016) and Here And Now (2018). 

At the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Tim Robbins will present his two auteur films Bob Roberts and Cradle Will Rock. In addition, he will appear on stage for a special concert performance by Tim Robbins and The Rogues Gallery Band.

TERRY GILLIAM TO PRESENT THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE IN KARLOVY VARY

Director Terry Gilliam will personally appear at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival to present his new film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which had its premiere at this year’s festival in Cannes.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote faced many trials and tribulations and was many years in the making. Eighteen years ago, the original shoot starring Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort was halted after just six days. 

The series of catastrophes that halted the project, which Gilliam had spent ten years preparing, was later the subject of Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s documentary Lost in La Mancha (2002), which was shown at the 37th KVIFF. But the legendary director did not give up on his dream and now, eighteen years later, he can present his film to the public. 

Cynical advertising director Toby comes across his nearly forgotten student film and sets out for the place where he had filmed his adaptation of Cervantes’s famous novel. He discovers that his film project has forever changed the hopes and dreams of a small village. He meets a confused shoemaker who is convinced that he is Don Quixote and that Toby is his Sancho Panza. Soon,Toby finds himself prisoner of the old man’s bizarre fantasies, and it becomes more and more difficult to discern fact from fiction. Over the course of his comical and surreal adventures, Toby is forced to face up to the tragic consequences of his film.

Gilliam’s film stars Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce, Olga Kurylenko, Stellan Skarsgård and Joana Ribeiro.  

Terry Gilliam, one of the most distinctive contemporary directors in the world today, gained fame as a member of the famous comedy troupe Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and along with Terry Jones he co-directed several of the Pythons’ feature film projects. His best known solo outings as director include The Fischer King (1991, nominated for a Golden Globus for director), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) and The Brothers Grimm (2005).

In 2006, Terry Gilliam visited the KVIFF to personally present his film Tideland (2005). 

OSCAR-WINNING ACTOR ANNA PAQUIN AND ACTOR/DIRECTOR STEPHEN

MOYER TO BE GUESTS AT THE KARLOVY VARY FESTIVAL

Among the guests coming to the festival, the 53rd Karlovy Vary IFF will welcome actor Anna Paquin and director Stephen Moyer, who will present The Parting

Glass along with screenwriter, and co star Denis O’Hare, and producer Cerise

Hallam Larkin

Moyer currently stars in FOX/MARVEL’S  “The Gifted”.“The Parting Glass” is Moyer’s feature film directorial debut. Paquin will next be seen in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman,  a crime drama for Netflix, and is starring in and Executive Producing Flack, directed by Peter Cattaneo. O’Hare was most recently nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance on the acclaimed series This Is Us and will next be seen in the feature films Late Night, The Goldfinch and Swallow.

ACTOR RORY COCHRANE WILL PRESENT FILM HOSTILES

The film Hostiles will be presented at KVIFF by american actor Rory Cochrane, known to audience primarily for the television series CSI: Miami.

Rory Cochrane recently starred in the critically acclaimed film Black Mass opposite Johnny Depp, and portrayed the real-life character 'Stephen Flemmi'.  Before this, Rory was honored as a member of the ensemble cast of the 2012 Oscar-winning Best Picture Argo, directed by and starring Ben Affleck.  Cochrane shared in several accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Motion Picture Ensemble, for his role as one of six American Embassy staffers trapped in Iran after the 1979 embassy takeover.  His more recent film credits include another true-life drama Parkland, and the horror thriller Oculus, which premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.  Upcoming, he stars in the independent war drama Soy Negro and The Most Hated Woman in America, Netflix’s drama feature starring Melissa Leo and produced by Elizabeth Banks (Pitch Perfect). 

Born in New York, Cochrane spent much of his childhood in England, eventually returning to Manhattan to study at the La Guardia High School of Performing Arts.  His first notable role was as Jeff Goldblum’s character’s son in the drama Fathers and Sons.  His early film roles also include Slater, the young stoner in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, Billy Mack Black, the crazed tattooed killer in Love and A 45 and Lucas in Empire Records.  

His subsequent film credits include The Low Life and Dogtown for director George Hickenlooper; Joel Schumacher’s Flawless, with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Robert De Niro; The Prime Gig with Vince Vaughn and Ed Harris; Hart’s War, opposite Colin Farrell and Bruce Willis; A Scanner Darkly which reunited him with Richard Linklater; Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale; Passion Play, with Bill Murray and Mickey Rourke; and Bringing Up Bobby, with Milla Jovovich.

ACTRESS THOMASIN HARCOURT MCKENZIE TO PERSONALLY PRESENT

THE FILM LEAVE NO TRACE

Young New Zealand actress Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, considered one of the greatest up-and-coming acting talents today, will be at this year’s festival in Karlovy Vary to present Leave No Trace (2018) by director Debra Granik, whose Winter’s Bone (2010) was nominated for 4 Oscars, including Best Actress. “There was something about the way she approached the character that told me she had a very rich understanding of this role. I think with some actors who get exposed early to working in the television and film world, it’s very hard for them to recover their innocence. There was something non-urban and unjaded about Thomasin.” says the director.

Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie played Astrid in The Hobbit - Battle of the Five Armies (2014) and was the co-lead in the short film The Boyfriend Game (2015) by Australian Filmmaker Alice Englert. This short was selected for the Generation K section of the 2015 Berlin Film Festival. Thomasin is an award-winner in two categories of the 2017 New Zealand Web-Fest as Best Actress in comedy Lucy Lewis Can’t Lose (2017) and as an ensemble member in The Candle-Wasters’ Bright Summer Night (2017), an adaptation of Midsummer Night’s Dream. At 13 Thomasin played rape victim Louise Nicholas to great acclaim in the award-winning TV drama Consent (2014). She also played central character Pixie Hannah in long-running New Zealand TV soap Shortland Street in which her battle with cancer won the heart of the nation. (Photo credit © David Shields) Thomasin is currently filming a main role in Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit in Prague. 

WORLD PREMIERE OF IN-COMPETITION “TO THE NIGHT” TO BE PRESENTED BY ACTOR CALEB LANDRY JONES

Actor Caleb Landry Jones, whom audiences will recognize from the series Twin Peaks and Breaking Bad or from the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, will be at the festival to present the in-competition film To the Night. Caleb Landry Jones started out with small film roles, after which he got the chance to appear in several episodes of Breaking Bad (2009–10) and Twin Peaks (2017). In 2011, he appeared as one of the mutants in X-Men: First Class, which was followed by appearances alongside Tom Cruise in the thriller American Made (2017), in the horror movie Get Out (2017), which won an Oscar for Best Screenplay, and in the widely acclaimed Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).

DIRECTOR ROMAIN GAVRAS TO PRESENT HIS FILM “THE WORLD IS YOURS”

Romain Gavras has been making films since he was young, when he began directing shorts. He co-founded the cinematic group Kourtrajmé, which focused on recording Paris’s hip-hop scene. He has also shot numerous music videos that have been viewed by millions of people – for instance for M.I.A., Kanye West and Jay-Z – and for which he has been nominated for the Grammy Awards. His video for M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls” won two MTV awards in 2012 and was also nominated for a Grammy. Gavras is also a respected director of commercials. In 2010, he made his feature-film debut with Our Day Will Come starring Vincent Cassel. The son of the famous director Costa-Gavras, Romain Gavras will appear at the 53rd KVIFF to present The World Is Yours (Le Monde est à toi, 2018), a gag-filled comedy that surprised audiences at this year’s festival in Cannes and that features such actors as Isabelle Adjani and Vincent Cassel.

OSCAR-WINNING PRODUCER TO PRESENT “HOSTILES”

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is proud to welcome as one of its guests producer John Lesher, who won an Oscar for Birdman (2014) starring Michael Keaton.

With over 25 years years of experience, John Lesher is an Academy Award-Winning Producer, having worked on Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Birdman”.  In addition to that, Lesher produced “Hostiles”, starring Christian Bale, "Black Mass", starring  Johnny Depp, “Fury”, starring Brad Pitt and “End of Watch” starring Jake Gyllenhaal.  Lesher has “White Boy Rick” and “The Beach Bum” in post production both starring Matthew McConaughey. Prior to producing, Lesher founded Paramount Vantage in addition to being president of the film group at Paramount Pictures and before that Lesher was a partner at Endeavor and UTA. John Lesher has produced numerous successful films, including the Brad Pitt wartime drama Fury (2014) and the biographical crime drama Black Mass (2015) with Johnny Depp. At this year’s festival, Lesher will present the latest film by director Scott Cooper, Hostiles, starring Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike. Karlovy Vary audiences may remember Cooper thanks to his Crazy Heart (2009), which was shown at the 45th KVIFF.

PRODUCER GREG SHAPIRO TO AGAIN VISIT KVIFF

Producer Greg Shapiro, who won a Best Picture for director Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, will make his fourth appearance at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Shapiro also collaborated with Bigelow on the critically-acclaimed Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and produced Daniel Espinosa’s Child 44 (2015), which was filmed in the Czech Republic. He is currently completing several films, including Serenity with Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey and Richard Says Goodbye with Johnny Depp.

INTERNATIONAL JURIES  

Statutory Juries:

Grand Jury 

Mark Cousins

Mark Cousins, Irish-Scottish director and writer. His films – including The First Movie, The Story of Film: An Odyssey, What Is This Film Called Love?, Life May Be, A Story of Children and Film, I Am Belfast, Atomic, Stockholm My Love and The Eyes of Orson Welles – are about childhood, cities, recovery, walking, and cinema. They have won a Prix Italia, a Peabody, and a Stanley Kubrick Award and have screened around the world. His books include Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentary and The Story of Looking. He writes for Sight & Sound and Filmkrant and has collaborated with Tilda Swinton on playful film events. His new project is a 15-hour documentary which rethinks cinema.

Zrinka Cvitešić

Zrinka Cvitešić, film, TV, and theater actor, was born in Croatia and began acting on stage at age 13 in a production of Cinderella. She graduated in acting from Zagreb’s Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 2005 she joined the Croatian National Theater, starring in such plays as Romeo and Juliet, Three Sisters, War and Peace, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Threepenny Opera. Her acting career has been honored with numerous awards, with the pivotal role of Luna coming in Jasmila Žbanić’s On the Path (2010); the part earned her a nomination from the European Film Academy and she was selected as a Berlinale Shooting Star for 2010 – one of Europe’s ten best young actors. In 2014 she became the first Croat to win the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a musical (Once). She was recently seen in Woody Harrelson’s Lost in London.

Marta Donzelli

Marta Donzelli, Italian producer, founded Vivo film with Gregorio Paonessa in 2004, and to date they have a catalogue of over 40 titles. Their productions include Michelangelo Frammartino’s Le Quattro Volte – Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes 2010, Emma Dante’s A Street in Palermo (Via Castellana Bandiera – main competition at Venice 2013); Laura Bispuri’s Sworn Virgin (Vergine Giurata – main competition at Berlin 2015) and Daughter of Mine (Figlia mia – main competition at Berlin 2018), Andrea De Sica’s Children of the Night (I Figli della Notte), and Nico, 1988 by Susanna Nicchiarelli, whose picture took Best Film from the Orizzonti section at last year’s festival in Venice.

Zdeněk Holý

Zdeněk Holý worked as an editor for Cinepur film magazine, serving as editor-in-chief in 2007–2010. In his 2005 study “Emptied Narration” he identified the rising tide of minimalist films. In 2008–2012 he was director of the academic press at Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts (AMU). He authored the story for Daniel’s World (Panorama section at Berlin 2015), which he also produced. In 2017 he was producer and script editor for a cycle of popular educational documentaries entitled “Man, That’s Science” and for the experimental film Recovering Industry (2016). In 2016 he was selected to become dean of Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU).

Nanouk Leopold

Nanouk Leopold, Dutch director, graduated from Rotterdam’s Academy of Fine Arts in 1992 and from the Dutch Film and Television Academy six years later. Her debut feature Îles flottantes screened in competition at the Rotterdam IFF in 2001. In 2005 Guernsey was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, while two other pictures, Wolfsbergen (2007) and Brownian Movement (2010), were invited to the festivals in Toronto and Berlin (Forum). It’s All So Quiet opened the Berlinale’s Panorama section in 2013. This year her sixth feature Cobain premiered in the Generation section at Berlin. Last year Leopold directed her first play From the Life of the Marionettes for Amsterdam’s TGA theater group.

East of the West Jury

Peter Badač

Peter Badač, Slovak producer, is a graduate of Bratislava’s Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) and Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU), and he currently teaches at both. In 2010 he studied at Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF in Potsdam, Germany. He received a 2014 Fulbright scholarship and studied at Ohio University in Athens (USA). He founded BFILM, a production company based in Bratislava and Prague where he has produced the features Filthy and Freedom and the shorts Pandas and Untravel. A member of the Slovak Film and Television Academy and the European Film Academy, this year he represented Slovakia as a Producer on the Move at Cannes.

Iris Elezi

Iris Elezi, Albanian filmmaker, studied film criticism, anthropology and women’s studies before completing film production studies at NYU in 2001. Her feature debut Bota (2014) premiered in the East of the West competition at KVIFF, subsequently garnering eighteen international awards and representing Albania at the Academy Awards in 2016. Along with US archivist Regina Longo and cineaste Thomas Logoreci, Elezi cofounded the Albanian Cinema Project, an initiative to preserve Albania’s film heritage. As of October 2017 she is the director of Albania’s Central State Film Archive.

Myriam Sassine

Myriam Sassine, Lebanese producer, majored in audiovisual studies at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) and received a master’s in cinema research from the IESAV Institute at Beirut’s Saint Joseph University. She worked in development for Lucky Monkey Pictures (USA) and Abbout Productions (Lebanon). In 2013 she began producing both dramas and documentaries for Abbout Productions. She is the COO of Schortcut Films, a firm dedicated to coproducing international features. Sassine cooperated on setting up the Maskoon Fantastic Film Festival, the first modern genre film festival in the Middle East, and serves as its executive director.

Dounia Sichov

Dounia Sichov, actor, editor, and producer, was born in Paris as a stateless refugee.

She has appeared in the movies of Catherine Breillat, Mikhaël Hers, Denis Côté, and Abel Ferrara. She has edited the work of Andrew Steggall (Departure), Mantas Kvedaravičius (Mariupolis), and Sharunas Bartas (Frost). Her company The Addiction produced Abel Ferrara’s Alive in France and Denis Côté’s A Skin So Soft (this year at KVIFF). She is currently directing a documentary about the history of transgender identity and producing Jonathan Caouette’s latest picture.

Andrei Tănăsescu

Andrei Tănăsescu, festival programmer and curator, is based in Toronto and Bucharest. After getting a degree in film studies from the University of Toronto, he cofounded the Romanian Film Festival Toronto. He completed a master’s degree in literature at the University of St Andrews in Scotland with a thesis on Gilles Deleuze and Romanian cinema. Since 2010 he has been part of the programming team at the Toronto IFF, as well as a regular collaborator with the Berlinale, the Bucharest International Experimental FF, and Bucharest’s American Independent FF.

Documentary Film Jury

Raúl Camargo Raúl Camargo, Chilean festival programmer and professor, joined the programming team of the FICValdivia festival in 2007, becoming its artistic delegate three years later and its director in 2014. He has written articles for respected periodicals, including La Fuga, Fuera de Campo, Otros Cines, and Hambre Cine. He contributed to the work El novísimo cine chileno (2011) and is at present working on his first solo book, focusing on the affiliations and changes in perspective between Latin American films from the last century to the current one. He lectures in film history at a number of Chilean universities.

Mohamed Siam

Siam, film director, has received grants from Sundance, World Cinema Fund, CNC, and Doha Film Institute, among others. His pictures have been presented at IFFs in New York, Karlovy Vary, and Nyon, and he was awarded Best Cinematography at the Journées Cinematographiques de Carthage festival. His latest feature documentary Amal, included in the KVIFF program this year, was selected to compete at the 2017 IDFA and opened the festival to boot. Two years ago his movie Whose Country? screened in the documentary competition at KVIFF. Siam is an alumnus of many prestigious film institutions, such as Sundance Labs, IDFA Academy, La Fémis, and La Fabrique des Cinémas du Monde in Cannes.

Diana Tabakov

Diana Tabakov, head of acquisitions and film programming, works for Doc Alliance Films, an international VOD platform that brings together seven key European documentary film festivals (CPH:DOX, DOK Leipzig, FIDMarseille, Jihlava IDFF, Docs Against Gravity FF, Visions du Réel, Doclisboa). She studied philosophy and sociology at Charles University in Prague and documentary film at University of the Arts London. In the UK she worked at various film festivals, including Sheffield Doc/Fest where she was involved in film selection.

Nonstatutory Juries:

FIPRESCI Jury

René Marx

Marita Nyrhinen

Alejandra Trelles

Ecumenical Jury

Michael Otřísal

Milja Radovic

David Sipoš

FEDEORA Jury 

Stefan Dobroiu

Natascha Drubek

Nenad Dukić

Europa Cinemas Label Jury

Daira Āboliņa

Simon Blaas

Balázs Kalmanovits

Jan Makosch

KARLOVY VARY FILM FESTIVAL TO CLOSE WITH THE FILM SINK OR SWIM

Downcast Bertrand is suffering a midlife crisis. When he answers an ad placed by a group looking for a new member for their male synchronised swimming team, he has no idea that he'll be treading water with a truly colourful bunch of lovable outcasts. The team – all sagging muscles and thinning hair and each with his own particular set of problems – is aiming for high-level competition. French director Gilles Lellouche made a splash at this year’s Cannes festival with a hugely entertaining and moving comedy about dreams that can come true even if we don’t dare believe in them.

FILM INDUSTRY AT THE 53^RD KARLOVY VARY IFF

As part of the Film Industry program, accreditation has been given so far to over one thousand film professionals arriving to the festival every year – distributors, producers, sales agents or international film festival programmers who represent over seven hundred companies at the festival. In addition to the selection of premieres of competing films, these representatives will have the opportunity to select from among unfinished projects that are in various stages of production from the Central and Eastern European Region and now also the Middle East within the new KVIFF Eastern Promises platform. The festival has chosen a total of 38 films from almost three hundred submissions. These films will be presented by their creators and producers in four independent presentations in Cinema Čas. Also new to the program are Works in Development, which will be presented to potential producers. A total of three juries of the KVIFF Eastern Promises platform will hand out awards to the most hopeful projects at an overall value of 155,000 Euro (4 million CZK). 

This year, the industry program itself will focus on how to boost interest in art-house film among the youngest generation and also on how to estimate the potential commercial and artistic success of a film while it is still in its script phase while taking into consideration the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and more. Together with Variety magazine, the festival will return to last year’s successful launch of efforts to highlight various film professions that often linger behind the camera or “on site”. The Artisans in Focus panel discussion will host Austrian cameraman Matthias Grunsky, Slovak editor Jana Vlčková, or Polish sound engineer Jonas Maksvytis.

Mogador's Christoph Thoke appointed member of Main Jury at ART FILM FEST, Kosice, Slovakia

Mogador Film is honoured and pleased to announce that Christoph Thoke, head of Mogador Film,

has just been appointed member of Main Jury at ART FILM FEST, Kosice, Slovakia.

The 26^th International Film Festival ART FILM FEST KOSICE will be held from June 15^th till 23^th 2018.

Thirteen films will be competing for the Blue Angel award,

which goes for Best Film, Best Director, Best Female Actress and Best Male Actor.

Bests from Germany,

i.a.

Tim Diestelmeier

Executive Assistant

To Christoph Thoke

Mogador Film

Berlin/Frankfurt/Mainz

Mogador Film

Industry Days

Announcing our Industry Programme

We are pleased to announce the official industry programme line up for 53rd Karlovy Vary IFF. You can find complete information here.

The KVIFF Eastern Promises Industry Days take place between July 1-5, 2018 and we look forward to welcoming close to 1,000 film professionals.

This year we have decided to travel even farther eastward by expanding the territory of our Works and Docs in Progress to include promising talents from the Middle East in addition to the entire interesting region of Eastern Europe. We are now also including Works in Development: Feature Launch from the region of Central and Eastern Europe and Eurimages Lab Project Award.  

Highlights for this year:

• Works in Progress – selected projects in production and post-production
• Docs in Progress – selected documentary projects in late stage of production and post-production or just finished
• Works in Development: Feature Launch - selected projects ready for co-production
• Eurimages Lab Project – selected projects in production and post-production
• Artisans in Focus panel
• Artificial intelligence and script analysis: Predicting commercial and critical success for European and independent film
• How to win over Generation Z for European film?
• New Creative Europe programme post 2020
• Touch Me Not: The politics of intimacy – open debate
• Fostering international development – open roundtables with TorinoFilmLab
• Creative Sharing: An open debate with filmmakers

We are close to completing our on-line Film Industry Guide. Access to the List of Attendees will be sent to all accredited Film Proffesionals in the next edition of our Newsletter, along with the list of selected projects for this year’s edition.

We are looking forward to see you very soon at Karlovy Vary!