Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s industry strand has unveiled 14 projects from Central Europe taking part its new co-production platform Central Stage.
The 14 projects include new work in development, production or post-production from filmmakers such as Andreas Horvath, Nader Saeivar and László Csuja.
Scroll down for ful list of projects
Iranian director Nader Saeivar brings the German-Turkish co-production Hijamat, written with his long-term collaborator Jafar Panahi, who won this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes and who is also editing this project. Saeivar won the audience award at Venice last year for Witness (2024) and best screenplay at Cannes for the Panahi-directed 3 Faces. The film is now in production and seeking production and distribution partners.
Austrian director Andreas Horvath, whose feature Lillian premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2019, will showcase The Lime Works, an adaptation in development of the eponymous novel Nestbeschmutzer by Thomas Bernhard.
Hungary’s László Csuja, whose feature debut Blossom Valley won the jury prize at KVIFF and whose sophomore feature Gentle premiered in Sundance’s World Cinema Competition, will present Some Good News, his new project in development.
Czech director Julius Ševčík will present Masaryk: The Coup, a standalone sequel to A Prominent Patient, which premiered at the Berlinale and won 12 Czech Lion Awards.
Polish director Jagoda Szelc, whose first two films premiered at Berlinale and Rotterdam respectively, will showcase her new drama Lakome, based on the eponymous novel by Polish writer Malgorzata Lebda.
Ukrainian director Yelizaveta Smith, whose Militantropos (co-directed with Alina Gorlova and Simon Mozgovyi) recently premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, will present Vacuum.
The bew Central Stage initiative was created by the KVIFF Film Industry Office with collaboration from national film institutes of eight Central European countries - Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. The selected projects will be showcased through interactive conversations about the filmmakers’ career paths and co-production possibilities across the participating countries.
Each project will have access to post-production work through a partnership with studios UPP and Soundsquare, and also be eligible for the €20,000 Eurimages Co-Production Development Award.
“We introduced this new format to address a notable gap in the Central European film landscape. While emerging filmmakers often receive substantial support, mid-career filmmakers typically have fewer opportunities for visibility and financing, despite their equally compelling projects. We were fortunate to collaborate closely with Central European film institutes, who helped us identify filmmakers currently working on highly anticipated projects that genuinely reflect the established voices already resonating with audiences,” said Hugo Rosák, the head of KVIFF Industry Office.
Central Stage projects 2025
The Lime Works (Austria)
Dir, script, prod: Andreas Horvath
Masaryk: The Coup (Cz-Pol-Slovak)
Dir: Julius Ševčík
Script: Julius Ševčík, Petr Kolečko
Prod: Vanessa Biermannová, Rudolf Biermann
Around the Fire (Cz-Neth-Slovak)
Dir, script: Michal Hogenauer
Prod: Marek Novák
First Dates (Cz-Bulg-Pol)
Dir, script: Šimon Holý
Prod: Marek Novák
Hijamat (Ger-Turkey)
Dir, script: Nader Saeivar
Prod: Said Nur Akkus, Tatiana Tsyganova, Emre Oskay
Some Good News (Hun-Rom)
Dir: László Csuja
Script: Éva Zabezsinszkij, László Csuja
Prod: Anna Szijártó
Democracy Work In Progress (Hun-Czech-Ger)
Dir, script: Mihály Schwechtje
Prod: Genovéva Petrovits
Starska (Pol)
Dir, script: Piotr Adamski
Prod: Anna Gawlita, Marta Szymanowska
Voracious (Pol)
Dir, script: Jagoda Szelc
Prod: Joanna Szymańska
Láska (Slovak-Cz-Cro)
Dir: Marko Škop
Script: Zuzana Liová, Marko Škop
Prod: Marko Škop, Ján Meliš, Alice Zárubová Tabery, Marina Andree Škop
Purgatory (Slovenia-Austria)
Dir: Žiga Virc
Script: Iza Strehar
Prod: Žiga Virc, Iza Strehar
The Happiest Day (Slovenia-Nor-It)
Dir, script: Sonja Prosenc
Prod: Rok Sečen
Vacuum (Ukraine)
Dir, script: Yelizaveta Smith
Prod: Eugene Rachkovsky
Making-of (Ukr-Czech-Slovak)
Dir, script: Ivan Tymchenko
Prod: Svitlana Soloviova, Alžběta Janáčková
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