Karlovy Vary deluged with film offers

Spanish actress and writer Itaso Irano with her first feature as a director, The Girls Are Alright in Crystal Globe Competition at Karlovy Vary Photo: Courtesy of KVIFF

Patricia Clarkson will be on the Crystal Globe Jury in Karlovy Vary Photo: Courtesy of KVIFF

As a pointer to the way world cinema production is bouncing back after the pandemic the selectors at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival were deluged with more than 2000 submissions for the 57th edition in the Czech spa town.

Karel Och, KVIFF’s artistic director, said: “It has been an incredible adventure for the programming team to get acquainted with this year’s state of the arthouse cinema via almost 2000 submissions. We are proud of the selection and simply cannot wait to share it with the audience.”

The main Crystal Globe competition has new features from a varied range of countries and directors including the thriller Red Rooms (directed in French by Canadian Pascal Plante) about a woman obsessed with a serial killer who is standing trial.

Stephan Komandarev, the Bulgarian director, offers Blaga’s Lessons, about a woman who is scammed out of money she had saved for her husband’s grave. Tinatin Kajrishvili from Georgia in his third feature Citizen Saint has devised a parable about a saint who comes to live in a mining town.

Iranian-UK director Babak Jalali deals with an Afghan refugee in California who works at a fortune cookie outlet and attempts to build bridges with the rest of the world. The film is titled Fremont.

Irish actor Barry Ward joins the Karlovy Vary Crystal Globe jury Photo: Courtesy of KVIFF

Dancing On The Edge Of A Volcano from Lebanese director Cyril Aris which receives its world premiere at the Festival, follows a film crew whose production is paralysed by the huge explosion in the Port of Beirut in 2020.

There are more world premieres in the Competition from Spanish actress and writer Itaso Irano with her first feature as a director, The Girls Are Alright focussing a group of young women rehearsing a play in a house in the country and from Italian director Marco Righi with Where the Wind Blows.

The jury for the Crystal Globe comprises: US actor Patricia Clarkson, Irish actor Barry Ward, Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha, Sundance senior programmer John Nein and Slovak director Olmo Omerzu.

The event’s other prominent section Proxima (replacing East of the West) features ten world premieres and includes films by Swiss director Thomas Imbach, Poland’s Olga Chajdas, Cyprus-born Kyros Papavassiliou, French filmmaker Émilie Brisavoine and Romanian documentarist Alexandru Solomon.

The Festival runs from 30 June to 8 July

Juliette Gariépy in the Quebec thriller Red Rooms in Competition at Karlovy Vary Photo: Courtesy of KVIFF