The festival's president Jiří Bartoška said in a statement: “When we announced the special Karlovy Vary IFF 54½, we were met with a lot of enthusiastic feedback. People were looking forward to visiting Karlovy Vary to see new films at an unusual time of year. We are sorry that we will not be able to hold this event either, but in this era people’s health absolutely takes priority, and I am sure that everyone sees it the same way.”

The Czech Republic has had some of the worst numbers of COVID-19 cases in the world, and a nation-wide lock-down was put into effect in late October.