The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival opened yesterday with a renewed emphasis on the concerns of the European film industry in the form of a sales co-ordination office.

Four years after abandoning efforts to establish a working film market where international rights could be bought and sold, the festival has this year introduced a Film Industry office to facilitate contacts between producers, sales agents and distributors.

"It wasn't a success, because the festival was still a little small," says Andrea Szczuková, the festival's new Film Industry Coordinator, of event's previous attempts at developing a market strand.

The ten-day Festival opened on Thursday evening with the international premiere of Petr Zelenka's Year Of The Devil, (pictured) one of 18 films in the main competition. Special guests include Sean Connery, who is set to receive an award for outstanding contribution to world cinema on the festival's closing night, July 14.

Also screening on the opening night was the Czech premiere of New Line's Blade II, which was shot in Prague last summer, and is just one of a number of Hollywood productions flocking to the city to exploit its competitive production costs.