Karlovy Vary Film Festival Sets Lineup of Young Directors, International Films

The average age of directors in the main competition is only 39

Journey to Rome
"Journey to Rome"

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will celebrate its 50th festival with a lineup of films heavy on young directors, European filmmakers and character studies set in small towns and big cities around the world.

KVIFF will take place in early July in the picturesque spa town west of Prague in the Czech Republic. Additional bookings will be announced in the coming weeks.

The average age of directors in the main festival selection is only 39, making this the youngest competition lineup in KVIFF history, according to artistic director Karel Och. (By contrast, the average age of directors in the main competition at Cannes, which obviously caters to experienced filmmakers, was more than 49.)

Films in the main competition include German director Dietrich Brüggemann’s anti-Nazi satire “Heil,” Polish filmmaker Marcin Koszałka’s thriller “The Red Spider,” Danish documentary director Daniel Dencik’s narrative debut “Gold Coast,” Ferdinando Cito Filomarino’s “Antonia,” a debut film about the Italian poet Antonia Pozzi, and one American entry, Diego Ongaro’s verite-style “Bob and the Trees.”

Also read: Karlovy Vary to Celebrate 50th Festival With Free Concert, Chris Penn and John Cazale Tributes

The main competition lineup will also include two films from female directors, Anca Damian’s “The Magic Mountain” and Eva Neymann’s “Song of Songs.”

The festival’s documentary competition will include 16 films, among them docs about a n elderly woman in Belfast (Mark Cousins’ “I Am Belfast”), a sniper in Afghanistan (Alba Sotorra’s “Game Over”), a dance school in Havana (Eileen Hofer’s “Horizons”), a film production in Andalusia (Tonislav Hristov’s “Once Upon a Dream – A Journey to the Last Spaghetti Western”) and a beauty salon in Haifa (Iris Zaki’s “Women in Sink”).

Also in the documentary lineup is “Kacey Mottet Klein, Birth of an Actor,” a short film about a child actor from Ursula Meier, the director whose previous film, the Swiss Oscar entry “Sister,” starred Klein.

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Another competition section, East of the West, will include films from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Albania, Romania, Turkey, Kirghizia, Greece, Germany and Croatia, among others. The section will open with Tomasz Mielnik’s “Journey to Rome,” a comedy set on a train to Rome.

The Forum of Independents competition will open with Brazilian director Ives Rosenfeld’s “Aspirantes,” about a young man who dreams of playing on an elite soccer team. Other world premieres in the section include Jan Těšitel’s “David,” Sonia Boileau Bonspille’s “Le dep,” Hugo Bousquet’s “Beyond Here,” Jun Robles Lana’s “Shadow Behind the Moon” and Yasutomo Chikuma’s “The Ark in the Mirage,” along with the European premiere of Sean Baker’s “Tangerine.”

This year’s festival will begin on July 3 and run through July 11. To celebrate the 50th edition of an event that began in 1946 but endured rocky times until it was rescued by its current ownership group in the early 1990s, the festival will throw a lavish opening-night street party open to the public.

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The main competition lineup:

OFFICIAL SELECTION COMPETITION
“Antonia,” Ferdinando Cito Filomarino (Italy, Greece, 2015, World premiere)
“Babai,” Visar Morina (Germany, Denmark, France, Kosovo, Macedonia, 2015, International premiere)
“Bob and the Trees,” Diego Ongaro (USA, 2015, International premiere)
“Box,” Florin Şerban (France, Germany, Romania, 2015, World premiere)
“The Sound of Trees,” François Péloquin (Canada, 2015, World premiere)
“The Red Spider,” Marcin Koszałka (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2015, World premiere)
“Home Care,” Slávek Horák (Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2015, World premiere)
“Gold Coast,” Daniel Dencik (Denmark, 2015, International premiere)
“Heil,” Dietrich Brüggemann (Germany, 2015, International premiere)
“Those Who Fall Have Wings,” Peter Brunner (Austria, 2015, World premiere)
“The Snake Brothers,” Jan Prušinovský (Czech Republic, 2015, International premiere)
“The Magic Mountain,” Anca Damian (Romania, France, Poland, 2015, International premiere)
“Song of Songs,” Eva Neymann (Ukraine, 2015, World premiere)

EAST OF THE WEST COMPETITION
“The Wednesday Child,” Lili Horváth (Hungary, Germany, 2015, World premiere)
“Journey to Rome,” Tomasz Mielnik (Czech Republic, Poland, 2015, World premiere)
“Chemo,” Bartek Prokopowicz (Poland, 2015, World premiere)
“CHROMIUM,” Bujar Alimani (Albania, 2015, World premiere)
“The World Is Mine,” Nicolae Constantin Tanase (Romania, 2015, International premiere)
“No Matter How Hard We Tried,” Grzegorz Jarzyna (Poland, 2014, International premiere)
“Dust of the Ground,” Vít Zapletal (Czech Republic, 2014, World premiere)
“Ivy,” Tolga Karaçelik (Turkey, 2015, European premiere)
“Heavenly Nomadic,” Mirlan Abdykalykov (Kirghizia, 2015, World premiere)
“Wednesday 4:45,” Alexis Alexiou (Greece, Germany, 2015, European premiere)
“You Carry Me,” Ivona Juka (Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, 2015, World premiere)
“Zero,” Gyula Nemes (Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, 2015, World premiere)

FORUM OF INDEPENDENTS COMPETITION
“Aspirantes,” Ives Rosenfeld (Brazil, 2015, World premiere)
“David,” Jan Těšitel (Czech Republic, 2015, World premiere)
“Le dep,” Sonia Boileau Bonspille (Canada, 2015, World premiere)
“Guerrilla,” Anders Hazelius (Sweden, 2015, International premiere)
“Beyond Here,” Hugo Bousquet (Belgium, 2015, World premiere)
“Princess,” Tali Shalom-Ezer (Israel, 2014, European premiere)
“Shadow Behind the Moon,” Jun Robles Lana (Philippines, 2015, World premiere)
“The Ark in the Mirage,” Yasutomo Chikuma (Japan, 2015, World premiere)
“Tangerine,” Sean Baker (USA, 2014, European premiere)
“Viaje,” Paz Fábrega (Costa Rica, 2015, European premiere)
“Violator,” Dodo Dayao (Philippines, 2014, European premiere)
“The Violators,” Helen Walsh (United Kingdom, 2015, International premiere)

DOCUMENTARY FILMS COMPETITION
“23 Kilometres,” Noura Kevorkian (Canada, 2015, World premiere)
“Amerika,” Jan Foukal (Czech Republic, 2015, World premiere)
“Cats in Riga,” Jon Bang Carlsen (Latvia, 2014)
“Game Over,” Alba Sotorra (Spain, Germany, 2015, International premiere)
“Horizontes,” Eileen Hofer (Switzerland, 2015, International premiere)
“I Am Belfast,” Mark Cousins (Ireland, United Kingdom, 2015, International premiere)
“IEC Long,” João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata (Portugal, 2014)
“Kacey Mottet Klein, Birth of an Actor,” Ursula Meier (Switzerland, 2015)
“Mallory,” Helena Třeštíková (Czech Republic, 2015, World premiere)
“Once Upon a Dream – A Journey to the Last Spaghetti Western,” Tonislav Hristov (Germany, Finland, Bulgaria, 2015, International premiere)
“Palio,” Cosima Spender (United Kingdom, Italy, 2015, European premiere)
“Resort,” Martin Hrubý (Czech Republic, 2014)
“The Father Tapes,” Albert Meisl (Austria, 2015, International premiere)
“White Death,” Roberto Collío (Chile, 2014)
“Women in Sink,” Iris Zaki (United Kingdom, Israel, 2015)
“The Living Fire,” Ostap Kostyuk (Ukraine, 2014, European premiere)

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