"I'm really excited about this year's lineup," says Alissa Simon, Variety liaison for the Variety Critics' Choice sidebar at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. "It includes a number of multiple prize winners from the international film festival circuit. Apart from an inclination to favour first and second features, we concentrate on European films with freshness, invention and a sense of discovery. Nevertheless, a strong element of humour is present in eight of the 10 titles, although only two are out-and-out comedies."

EFP is keen to see how the successful romantic comedy Will You Marry Us? (Die Standesbeamtin) by the young Swiss director Micha Lewinsky is received by the audience. The same goes for The Hedgehog (Le hérisson). The debut film by the French filmmaker Mona Achache stood out at the festivals in Cairo and Valladolid and was a big success in the cinemas back home. It is a moving parable about how important unconventionality is. The East European titles show another, darker humour, such as in Reverse (Rewers), a debut work by the Polish director Borys Lankosz. Meanwhile, in Medal of Honor (Medalia de onoare), caustic humour and irony determine the prize-winning story by the Romanian director Calin Netzer.

More information in the Press release

See the films also in the film catalogue