Line-up for the Czech festival includes 14 world premieres across three feature competitions

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 1-9) has unveiled the programme for its 46th edition, with 14 world premieres in its three feature competitions.

Judi Dench will open the festival by presenting Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre on July 1. The festival will close July 9 with a screening of Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris.

John Turturro will receive the Festival President’s Award and with his wife, actress Katherine Borowitz, will present the world premiere of the film Somewhere Tonight. Directed by Michael Di Jiacomo, Somewhere Tonight is inspired by Theo van Gogh’s film 06 (1-900).

Hungarian director István Szabó will chair the main jury, which includes Slovak director Vladimír Balko, French critic Michel Ciment, Greek critic Michel Demopoulos, Israeli film scholar Edna Fainaru, German actress Sibel Kekilli and Czech producer Pavel Strnad.

John Malkovich will return to Karlovy Vary, not to introduce a film or receive an award, but to present a line of clothing he has designed.

Five of the 12 titles competing for the festival’s grand prize and a $30,000 cash award are world premieres: Martin Šulík’s drama Gypsy considers race relations between the Roma and broader community in Slovakia. Canadian director and actor Martin Donovan’s Collaborator focuses on a struggling playwright coming to terms with his life. From Canada, Ivan Grbovic’s Romeo 11 is a portrait of a young man coping with a physical disability and trying to live up to his father’s expectations. German director Christian Schwochow’s Cracks In The Shell considers a novice actress who finds a dangerous new identity. Danish director Birgitte Stærmose’s drama Room 304 revolves around a mysterious gunshot in a Copenhagen hotel.

Five films in the festival’s East of the West competition are world premieres: Murad Ibragimbekov’s There Was Never A Better Brother tells the story of two temperamentally different brothers in Baku in the 1970s. Ketevan Machavariani’s Salt White takes place on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, where three characters try to change their lives. In Petr Marek’s Nothing Against Nothing, a young couple seeking to adopt pretend to be adopted themselves. Aktan Arym Kubat’s Mother’s Paradise, written by Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, is a social drama about two Kazakh schoolboys whose father left for Russia in search of work and never came back. Peter Krištúfek’s Visible World focuses on a loner who takes an unhealthy interest in his neighbours.

Karlovy Vary’s Forum of Independents competition features four world premieres: Jonathan Cenzual Burley’s The Soul Of Flies is an imaginative story of two brothers who meet for the first time on the way to their father’s funeral. Joshua Moore’s I Think It’s Raining follows a rootless young woman in her wanderings around San Francisco. In Gerard Hurley’s The Pier, a man tries to reconnect with his irascible father after 20 years’ separation. Aaron Houston’s Sunflower Hour is a mockumentary about four puppeteers competing for a spot on a children’s television program.

Most of the festival’s competition films are without sales agents. Memento Films is handling sales on Sameh Zoabi’s Man Without A Cell Phone, in the Forum of Independents. Entertainment One Films has Collaborator and Brendan Fletcher’s Forum title Mad Bastards. Funny Balloons is selling Montxo Armendáriz’s main competition title Don’t Be Afraid. Stark Sales has The Pier.

 

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Official Selection – Competition

 

Bedouin

Russia

Dir. Igor Voloshin

 

Gypsy (world premiere)

Slovakia-Czech Republic

Dir. Martin Šulík

 

Collaborator (world premiere)

US-Canada

Dir. Martin Donovan

 

Don’t Be Afraid

Spain

Dir. Montxo Armendáriz

 

Heritage (world premiere)

Poland

Dir. Andrzej Barański

 

The Invisible (world premiere)

Germany

Dir. Christian Schwochow

 

The Jewel

Italy-France

Dir. Andrea Malaioli

 

Lollipop Monster

Germany

Dir. Ziska Riemann

 

Not For Sale Not For Rent

France

Dir. Pascal Rabaté

 

Restoration

Israel

Dir. Joseph Madmony

 

Romeo 11 (world premiere)

Canada

Dir. Ivan Grbović

 

Room 304 (world premiere)

Denmark-Croatia

Dir. Birgitte Stærmose

 

 

East of the West

 

Belvedere

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dir. Ahmed Imamović

 

Generation P

Russia-US

Dir. Victor Ginzburg

 

George The Hedgehog

Poland

Dir. Wojtek Wawszczyk, Jakub Tarkowski, Tomasz Leśniak

 

Heart’s Boomerang

Russia

Dir. Nikolay Khomeriki

 

Marija’s Own

Croatia

Dir. Željka Suková

 

Mother’s Paradise (world premiere)

Kazakhstan

Dir. Aktan Arym Kubat

 

Nothing Against Nothing (world premiere)

Czech Republic

Dir. Petr Marek

 

Punk’s Not Dead

Macedonia-Serbia

Dir. Vladimír Blaževski

 

Salt White (world premiere)

Georgia

Dir. Ketevan Machavariani

 

Sneakers

Bulgaria

Dir. Ivan Vladimirov, Valery Yordanov

 

There Was Never A Better Brother (world premiere)

Azerbaijan-Russia-Bulgaria

Dir. Murad Ibragimbekov

 

Visible World (world premiere)

Slovakia

Dir. Peter Krištúfek

 

 

Forum of Independents

 

He

Netherlands-Serbia

Dir. Sasha Matijević

 

I Think It’s Raining (world premiere)

US

Dir. Joshua Moore

 

Mad Bastards

Australia

Dir. Brendan Fletcher

 

Man Without A Cell Phone (world premiere)

France-Palestine-Israel-Belgium-Qatar

Dir. Sameh Zoabi

 

Maybe Tomorrow

Sweden

Dir. Mariken Halle

 

OK, Enough, Goodbye

Lebanon-UAE

Dir. Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia

 

The Pier (world premiere)

Ireland-US

Dir. Gerard Hurley

 

Weekend

UK

Dir. Andrew Haigh

 

The Soul of Flies (world premiere)

Spain

Dir. Jonathan Cenzual Burley

 

Stranger Things

US-UK

Dir. Eleanor Burke, Ron Eyal

 

Sunflower Hour (world premiere)

Canada

Dir. Aaron Houston

 

Wangliang’s Ideal

China

Dir. Xiongjie Gao