Czech Republic, Karlovy Vary / established in 1949
Held in July
This respected Czech film festival, which traditionally opens at the beginning of July and will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, is interesting primarily because it focuses on Central and Eastern European countries, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. Not surprisingly, Russian films regularly appear in all of the competition programs envisioned by the organizers: the non-specialized main competition (for example, Angelina Nikonova’s “Velkam Hom” was shown here in 2014), the East of the West program (Ivan Tverdovsky’s “Correction Class”), the independent and documentary films (Pavel Kostomarov, Alexander Rastorguev and Alexei Pivovarov’s “Term”). Each section hands out its own awards, many of them accompanied by tangible cash prizes. Russian films are also not ignored by the organizers of the out-of-competition programs, which offer fresh international, experimental and radical cinema.
The Karlovy Vary IFF also offers the opportunity for filmmakers from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to present their projects, in production or in the post-production stage, to the distributors and selectors of other international festivals. For this purpose special pitches Works in Progress (feature films) and Docu Talents from the East (full-length documentary films) are organized.