The Karlovy Vary Film Festival announced the competition lineup)th edition, will be held from June to July 8 in the idyllic spa town of the Czech Republic.
One of the highlights of this year’s competition is Fremont, from Iranian-born, London-based director Babak Jalali, a film set in Donya. Drama, Donya was an Afghan translator for the US Army and now works at a fortune cookie factory in Fremont, USA. Empty Nets, a love story from Iranian filmmaker Behrooz Karamizade, set in a small fishing village in contemporary Iran while also competing Best film in competition for this year’s Crystal Ball Awards.
Outside of the competition, Karlovy Vary is focusing this year on independent Iranian films, featured in Recent work directors working outside the regime in Tehran.
Other 1235401475 competition highlights include Red Rooms Canadian Dark Web by director Pascal Plante Thriller, Itsaso Arana’s Spanish drama The Girls Are Alright (Las chicas están bien) and Scandinavian Sub-satireThe Hypnosis, directed by Ernst De Geer, tells the story of a power couple trying to launch a women’s reproductive health app.
Eastern European cinema always has a good presence in Karlovy Vary, and this year’s Crystal Globe lineup includes A Sensitive Person from Tomáš Klein, which is A dark Czech-Slovakian drama about an itinerant actor and his family on their grim and sometimes frenzied journey home; Matěj Chlupáček’s We Have Never Been Modern, a detective drama set in the Tatra Mountains; and two Bulgarian features: Tinatin Kajrishvili’s satirical fable Citizen Saint and Stephan Komandarev’s Drama Blaga’s Lessons , a recently widowed retired teacher who falls prey to phone scammers.
This year’s Proxima sidebar in Karlovy Vary includes Albert Hospodářský’s environmental sci-fi drama Brutal Heat , Camila Rodríguez Triana’s Latin American dramaThe Song of the Auricanturi, which explores family relationships after the trauma of war, and Saurav Rai’s Indian specialtiesGuras, follows a nine-year-old girl in search of Her dog goes missing while her family struggles to survive during the cardamom harvest.
Special screenings will include Robert Hloz’s sci-fi drama Restore Point Jean-Gabriel Périot’s Facing Darkness, describing the four-year siege of Sarajevo from 57 to
; and Snake Gas , a Czech/Slovakian drama by David Jařab, inspired by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness , about a man looking for his missing brother.
Oscar nominated actor Patricia Clarkson ( April Pieces , Far From Heaven ) and Irish actor Barry Ward (The End of the Fing World) will sit on the 1235401475 Karlovy Vary jury, with Tunisian filmmaker Dora Bouchoucha (Buried Secrets , to judge this year’s Crystal Ball winners Foreign Objects ), Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu ( Family Films , Winter Flies
) and Sundance Programmer John Nein.
Dutch film critic and author Dana Linssen will be sidelining the festival Proxima together with Memoria producer Xie Meng and Czech director Šimon Šafránek Jury President (King Skate), Lithuanian filmmaker Marija Razgutė (Slow), and writer and Eastern European film expert Barbara Wurm.
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