The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is the largest film festival in the Czech Republic and the most prestigious such festival in Central and Eastern Europe. It is one of the oldest A-list film festivals (i.e., non-specialized festivals with a competition for feature-length fiction films), a category it shares with the festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, San Sebastian, Montreal, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Among filmmakers, buyers, distributors, sales agents, and journalists, KVIFF is considered the most important event in all of Central and Eastern Europe. 

Festival programme

Each year, the Karlovy Vary IFF presents about 200 films from around the world.

In addition to the regular programme sections showcasing works by the world's leading filmmakers and by promising new creative talents, festival visitors can also look forward to watching films as part of retrospectives and specialised sections.

With the exception of retrospectives and the section presenting current Czech films, all films will be shown in the Czech Republic for the first time, and many of them will have their world, international or European premiere in Karlovy Vary.

A brief history

The first edition of one of the oldest film festivals in the world took place in 1946 in Mariánské Lázně, and some screenings were also held in Karlovy Vary. The festival moved exclusively to Karlovy Vary in 1950. The Crystal Globe Award was first awarded in 1948. In 1956, the festival was classified by FIAPF as Category A.

The Karlovy Vary festival spent 40 years operating under political pressures in socialist Czechoslovakia. In 1994, a new team headed by well-known Czech actor Jiří Bartoška and leading film journalist Eva Zaoralová took over the festival’s organization and decided to reshape the stagnating festival into a film forum deserving of international attention. In just a few years, the new programming and organizational approach implemented by Bartoška and Zaoralová helped the festival regain its previous level of prestige and win back the interest of film professionals and the general public.

More about KVIFF: https://www.kviff.com/en/homepage