The official selection of the 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) has been revealed, featuring 32 premieres. Scroll down for the full list of titles.
The fest will open with Zatopek, David Ondříček’s feature about four-time Olympic gold medalist, the runner Emil Zátopek, who is widely regarded as the most popular athlete in Czech Republic’s history. The film will premiere on August 20, 2021 in the Hotel Thermal Grand Hall at the opening night gala. Also screening is Boiling Point, the drama about a restaurant chef starring Stephen Graham.
A retrospective will take place dedicated to the work of The Film Foundation, Martin Scorsese’s non-profit organization established in 1990 dedicated to protecting and preserving motion picture history, restoring to date more than 900 classic works of cinema. A total of 10 films will be screened at the fest.
In addition to today’s program announcement, a selection of non-competitive strands, featuring notable...
The fest will open with Zatopek, David Ondříček’s feature about four-time Olympic gold medalist, the runner Emil Zátopek, who is widely regarded as the most popular athlete in Czech Republic’s history. The film will premiere on August 20, 2021 in the Hotel Thermal Grand Hall at the opening night gala. Also screening is Boiling Point, the drama about a restaurant chef starring Stephen Graham.
A retrospective will take place dedicated to the work of The Film Foundation, Martin Scorsese’s non-profit organization established in 1990 dedicated to protecting and preserving motion picture history, restoring to date more than 900 classic works of cinema. A total of 10 films will be screened at the fest.
In addition to today’s program announcement, a selection of non-competitive strands, featuring notable...
- 6/29/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
The 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which was canceled last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, will return in late August with a lineup of 32 new feature films plus an extensive tribute to Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, Kviff organizers announced on Tuesday.
The two main sections of the festival, the Crystal Globe Competition and the East of the West Competition, will for the first time include documentary films, which in the past had been excluded from competition or kept in their own sections.
The Film Foundation tribute will include screenings of 10 films restored by the organization Scorsese founded in 1990. They will include Michael Curtiz’s 1950 Hemingway adaptation “The Breaking Point,” the 1934 Mexican horror classic “The Phantom of the Convent,” Timité Bassori’s Ivory Coast drama “The Woman With the Knife,” Robert Downey Sr.’s 1969 satire “Putney Swope,” George Cukor’s 1932 film “What Price Hollywood?” and John Cassavetes’ indie...
The two main sections of the festival, the Crystal Globe Competition and the East of the West Competition, will for the first time include documentary films, which in the past had been excluded from competition or kept in their own sections.
The Film Foundation tribute will include screenings of 10 films restored by the organization Scorsese founded in 1990. They will include Michael Curtiz’s 1950 Hemingway adaptation “The Breaking Point,” the 1934 Mexican horror classic “The Phantom of the Convent,” Timité Bassori’s Ivory Coast drama “The Woman With the Knife,” Robert Downey Sr.’s 1969 satire “Putney Swope,” George Cukor’s 1932 film “What Price Hollywood?” and John Cassavetes’ indie...
- 6/29/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The fiction feature debut by Czech documentary filmmaker Jan Foukal centres on the fragility and evanescence of life. Czech documentary filmmaker Jan Foukal is currently shooting his first fiction feature, The Martian Ships. A graduate of Documentary Filmmaking from Famu, Foukal shot the short documentaries Hello Babu, Egon Bondy’s Last Lecture and The Making Of, while also appearing in supporting roles in Jitka Rudolfová’s films Dreamers and Delight. His feature-length directorial debut was the documentary road movie America (produced by HBO Europe), where he also stars on screen, and which was unveiled in the documentary section of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2015. The story of The Martian Ships is inspired by a collection of poems of the same name by musician Martin Kyšperský and his then-girlfriend, psychologist Alena Černá. The film, billed as a romantic drama, follows their relationship from its inception to its abrupt end,...
Although some serious points were made, the mood was light and even jovial at the closing night of the 22nd Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival. Packed into Kino Dko II, a crowd of filmmakers and producers saw the awards handed out in the presence of a live 15-piece band that blasted out the opening bars of Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” as the winners took to the stage. Handing out the award for Opus Bonum – a prize given, unusually, by a single juror – Poland’s Krzysztof Zanussi, in town for a masterclass, joked that being the lone arbiter “was a special experience – all night I was fighting with myself.”
Many winners – like “Vacancy” director Alexandra Kandy Longuet, who accepted via video – kept their speeches short and thanked the festival, their subject and their colleagues, while Jean-Luc Godard, winner of the Contribution to World Cinema Award, sent over a few...
Many winners – like “Vacancy” director Alexandra Kandy Longuet, who accepted via video – kept their speeches short and thanked the festival, their subject and their colleagues, while Jean-Luc Godard, winner of the Contribution to World Cinema Award, sent over a few...
- 10/30/2018
- by Damon Wise
- Variety Film + TV
The 15th anniversary of what's considered ‘Canada's coolest film festival' is rapidly approaching. The 2015 Whistler Film Festival (Wff) will take place December 2 to 6 with new films, special guests, industry connections, great events and time to enjoy on of North America’s premiere mountain resort destinations. Wff has announced its first 18 confirmed films, plus industry and event programming highlights.
The Whistler Film Festival combines an international film competition with a focused industry Summit dedicated to the art and business of filmmaking in the digital age. Featuring over 80 innovative and original films from around the world and opportunities to connect with the people who made them, this year’s fest will be filled with a solid lineup of premieres, honored guests, lively celebrations, and unique industry initiatives.
Wff’s Director of Programming and industry veteran Paul Gratton had this to say about the 2015 lineup confirmed to date: “The Whistler Film Festival continues to be a must-attend event for hip, young, film buffs and emerging filmmakers, and we are pleased to carve out our own unique niche by offering an impressive selection of Canadian premieres. This year's titles cast a wide net in terms of subject matter, and our Summit will complement our film programming by addressing key challenges and opportunities facing the industry this year. WFF15 has something for everyone. "While our final line-up of titles is far from complete, early programming trends suggest a very strong year for female directors and innovative new voices from young directors hoping to find new ways of telling stories and connecting with audiences.”
A great example of innovation will be the World Premiere screening of Daniel Robinson's "Nestor," the first narrative feature ever made by one person, who wrote, produced, directed, edited and stars in this compelling tale of outdoor survival.
Another example of seeking out new narrative approaches, and leading this year's women directors present at Whistler, is Diy queen Ingrid Veninger’s latest "He Hated Pigeons" about a young man pushed to the border of sanity as he steps into manhood. Shot in South America, the film is designed to support a spontaneous live score to be performed during the screening. In other words, each screening will evoke different responses depending on the approach taken by the live musicians accompanying the showing. Other female directed highlights coming to Whistler include the World Premiere of Vancouver filmmaker Melanie Jones' "Fsm," a contemporary study of a female DJ trying to find love in a world of technological innovation and all-night raves.
Continuing its love of quirky musicals, Wff will present the Western Canadian premiere of Jude Klassen’s debut feature film "Love in the Sixth," an unromantic musical comedy of “enviromantic” angst. Another Canadian Premiere is Valerie Weiss' "A Lights Beneath Their Feet," a superb study of the mutually dependent relationship between a young student hoping to leave home for college and her bipolar mother who can't cope with the thought of letting her go. Taryn Manning, Maddie Hasson and Madison Davenport lead the cast. Another moving look at mother/daughter relationships can be found in the World Premiere of Siobhan Devine’s "The Birdwatcher," a family drama about a mother and daughter reconnecting starring WFF14 Rising Star Camille Sullivan and Gabrielle Rose.
Jeremy Lalonde's "How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town," featuring Lauren Holly and Katharine Isabelle; and Sergio Navarretta's "The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship," set during a mouth-watering winetasting tour of the Niagara region; focus on the challenge of maintaining interpersonal relationships. Darker still is the Canadian Premiere of Josh Hope's "The Life and Death of an Unhappily Married Man," in which a disillusioned young man decides to visit his past to see where it all went wrong. Brian Stockton's "The Sabbatical" is a comedic look at a photography professor's mid-life crisis and a young artist who rekindles the lost spirit of his youth, and Matthew Yim's "Basic Human Needs" follows a young couple whose plans to get out of Regina are thwarted by a missing prophylactic.
BC's own Fred Ewanuick stars as a man who can see two minutes into the future in Vancouver filmmaker O. Corbin Saleken's first feature "Patterson's Wager."
BC based genre specialist Jeffery Lando will be gracing the late night screens with the Western Canadian Premiere of his latest horror work "Suspension." John Ainslie will be unveiling the World premiere of his tense psychological thriller "The Sublet," about a new mother unraveling psychologically after and she and her fiance move into a sublet apartment, featuring Vancouver actress Tianna Nori in the lead.
On the documentary front, Wff will be presenting the North American premiere of Jan Foukal's "Amerika," a lyrical look at a unique Eastern European phenomenon known as 'tramping', as Vancouver-based Barbara Adler takes us on a mission into the mountains and the forests of the Czech Republic where she encounters social dropouts who choose to live what they consider to be a North American back-to-the-wilderness lifestyle. "Last Harvest," from director Jane Hui Wang, is a Canadian documentary feature that looks at an elderly Chinese couple forced to relocate by the government to make way for a mammoth water diversion project. Also, on the international front, Whistler is proud to present the Canadian Premiere of "Blood Cells" by Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore about a lost man wandering through the British countryside, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
As always, Whistler is pleased to feature the best of Quebec cinema, and this year the festival has two titles already lined up. Bernard Emond's "Diary of an Old Man" is a deeply moving adaptation of an Anton Chekov story about an old man fighting feelings of bitterness despite his privileged life as an academic, starring Paul Savoie in a Canada Screen Awards worthy performance. Finally, a haunting look at childhood innocence, at risk from the evils of an outside world is Philippe Lesage's "The Demons" starring Pascale Bussières and Laurent Lucas, about a tight-knit small-town community beset by a child serial killer.
Celebrating its 12th edition in 2015, Wff’s coveted Borsos Award for Best Canadian Feature honors independent vision, original directorial style and the diversity of talent found in Canadian independent film. New for 2015, all Canadian feature films in the festival with Western Canadian premiere status will be included in the Borsos Competition and there is no longer a six film restriction to the number that can compete. An international jury of three will decide on four awards including a $15,000 Cdn prize.
Wff’s slate of special events confirmed to date include the Opening and Closing Galas, Signature Series including the Pandora Tribute and Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch In Conversation, ShortWork Showdown, Awards Brunch and a grand15th Anniversary Celebration, with more to come.
New for 2015, Wff introduces the L’Oreal Mens Expert Bobsleigh Race on December 3 at the Whistler Sliding Centre, one of the fastest tracks in the world, where celebrities, filmmakers, VIP guests and corporate teams will experience the thrill of a lifetime reaching speeds up to 125 km per hour. And the adrenaline continues to flow with Wff’s annual Columbia Celebrity Challenge on December 5, with corporate teams and festival guests joining the stars of the screen and the stars of the slopes in a fun, guess your time, dual slalom race on Whistler Mountain. Proceeds from these fun-raising” events will support Wff’s annual programs for Canadian artists, including the industry initiatives, labs and festival.
Film meets music at Wff’s Music Café, which has expanded to two days to include an evening showcase on December 4, and daytime showcase and dedicated industry panel on December 5, with the possibility of additional performances during the festival. Up to 10 export-ready British Columbia songwriters and artists from across the musical spectrum will be selected to each play a live 20-minute set and meet with key international music and film executives and delegates attending the festival.
Wff's Industry Summit will feature three concentrated days of business programs and networking that address the business and future of Canadian film, locally and in the international marketplace, as well as the ever-changing landscape of filmmaking in the digital age. Featuring over 20 interactive sessions, Wff's Summit is designed to provide practical business and creative intel, and foster business collaborations for filmmakers and deal-makers. Offering in-depth conversations, lively debates and critical insight into a broad range of issues vital to the domestic and international film communities while addressing crossing borders and platforms, Whistler is the place to be, connect and deal this December. 1,000 delegates are expected to attend.
The Whistler Summit directly connects to Wff’s slate of project development programs designed to provide creative and business immersion experiences for Canadian artists including the Feature Project Lab, Praxis Screenwriters Lab, Aboriginal Filmmaker Fellowship and Music Café. Wff also collaborates with several industry organizations by hosting specific third party initiatives at the Whistler Summit including the Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch, Women in the Directors Chair Industry Immersion, Women in Film & Television Film Market Preparation Mentorship, and the Mppia Short Film Award Pitch with the Motion Picture Production Industry Association and Creative BC. Application details and information for all Wff industry and project development programs are available at whistlerfilmfestival.com.
The Whistler Film Festival combines an international film competition with a focused industry Summit dedicated to the art and business of filmmaking in the digital age. Featuring over 80 innovative and original films from around the world and opportunities to connect with the people who made them, this year’s fest will be filled with a solid lineup of premieres, honored guests, lively celebrations, and unique industry initiatives.
Wff’s Director of Programming and industry veteran Paul Gratton had this to say about the 2015 lineup confirmed to date: “The Whistler Film Festival continues to be a must-attend event for hip, young, film buffs and emerging filmmakers, and we are pleased to carve out our own unique niche by offering an impressive selection of Canadian premieres. This year's titles cast a wide net in terms of subject matter, and our Summit will complement our film programming by addressing key challenges and opportunities facing the industry this year. WFF15 has something for everyone. "While our final line-up of titles is far from complete, early programming trends suggest a very strong year for female directors and innovative new voices from young directors hoping to find new ways of telling stories and connecting with audiences.”
A great example of innovation will be the World Premiere screening of Daniel Robinson's "Nestor," the first narrative feature ever made by one person, who wrote, produced, directed, edited and stars in this compelling tale of outdoor survival.
Another example of seeking out new narrative approaches, and leading this year's women directors present at Whistler, is Diy queen Ingrid Veninger’s latest "He Hated Pigeons" about a young man pushed to the border of sanity as he steps into manhood. Shot in South America, the film is designed to support a spontaneous live score to be performed during the screening. In other words, each screening will evoke different responses depending on the approach taken by the live musicians accompanying the showing. Other female directed highlights coming to Whistler include the World Premiere of Vancouver filmmaker Melanie Jones' "Fsm," a contemporary study of a female DJ trying to find love in a world of technological innovation and all-night raves.
Continuing its love of quirky musicals, Wff will present the Western Canadian premiere of Jude Klassen’s debut feature film "Love in the Sixth," an unromantic musical comedy of “enviromantic” angst. Another Canadian Premiere is Valerie Weiss' "A Lights Beneath Their Feet," a superb study of the mutually dependent relationship between a young student hoping to leave home for college and her bipolar mother who can't cope with the thought of letting her go. Taryn Manning, Maddie Hasson and Madison Davenport lead the cast. Another moving look at mother/daughter relationships can be found in the World Premiere of Siobhan Devine’s "The Birdwatcher," a family drama about a mother and daughter reconnecting starring WFF14 Rising Star Camille Sullivan and Gabrielle Rose.
Jeremy Lalonde's "How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town," featuring Lauren Holly and Katharine Isabelle; and Sergio Navarretta's "The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship," set during a mouth-watering winetasting tour of the Niagara region; focus on the challenge of maintaining interpersonal relationships. Darker still is the Canadian Premiere of Josh Hope's "The Life and Death of an Unhappily Married Man," in which a disillusioned young man decides to visit his past to see where it all went wrong. Brian Stockton's "The Sabbatical" is a comedic look at a photography professor's mid-life crisis and a young artist who rekindles the lost spirit of his youth, and Matthew Yim's "Basic Human Needs" follows a young couple whose plans to get out of Regina are thwarted by a missing prophylactic.
BC's own Fred Ewanuick stars as a man who can see two minutes into the future in Vancouver filmmaker O. Corbin Saleken's first feature "Patterson's Wager."
BC based genre specialist Jeffery Lando will be gracing the late night screens with the Western Canadian Premiere of his latest horror work "Suspension." John Ainslie will be unveiling the World premiere of his tense psychological thriller "The Sublet," about a new mother unraveling psychologically after and she and her fiance move into a sublet apartment, featuring Vancouver actress Tianna Nori in the lead.
On the documentary front, Wff will be presenting the North American premiere of Jan Foukal's "Amerika," a lyrical look at a unique Eastern European phenomenon known as 'tramping', as Vancouver-based Barbara Adler takes us on a mission into the mountains and the forests of the Czech Republic where she encounters social dropouts who choose to live what they consider to be a North American back-to-the-wilderness lifestyle. "Last Harvest," from director Jane Hui Wang, is a Canadian documentary feature that looks at an elderly Chinese couple forced to relocate by the government to make way for a mammoth water diversion project. Also, on the international front, Whistler is proud to present the Canadian Premiere of "Blood Cells" by Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore about a lost man wandering through the British countryside, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
As always, Whistler is pleased to feature the best of Quebec cinema, and this year the festival has two titles already lined up. Bernard Emond's "Diary of an Old Man" is a deeply moving adaptation of an Anton Chekov story about an old man fighting feelings of bitterness despite his privileged life as an academic, starring Paul Savoie in a Canada Screen Awards worthy performance. Finally, a haunting look at childhood innocence, at risk from the evils of an outside world is Philippe Lesage's "The Demons" starring Pascale Bussières and Laurent Lucas, about a tight-knit small-town community beset by a child serial killer.
Celebrating its 12th edition in 2015, Wff’s coveted Borsos Award for Best Canadian Feature honors independent vision, original directorial style and the diversity of talent found in Canadian independent film. New for 2015, all Canadian feature films in the festival with Western Canadian premiere status will be included in the Borsos Competition and there is no longer a six film restriction to the number that can compete. An international jury of three will decide on four awards including a $15,000 Cdn prize.
Wff’s slate of special events confirmed to date include the Opening and Closing Galas, Signature Series including the Pandora Tribute and Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch In Conversation, ShortWork Showdown, Awards Brunch and a grand15th Anniversary Celebration, with more to come.
New for 2015, Wff introduces the L’Oreal Mens Expert Bobsleigh Race on December 3 at the Whistler Sliding Centre, one of the fastest tracks in the world, where celebrities, filmmakers, VIP guests and corporate teams will experience the thrill of a lifetime reaching speeds up to 125 km per hour. And the adrenaline continues to flow with Wff’s annual Columbia Celebrity Challenge on December 5, with corporate teams and festival guests joining the stars of the screen and the stars of the slopes in a fun, guess your time, dual slalom race on Whistler Mountain. Proceeds from these fun-raising” events will support Wff’s annual programs for Canadian artists, including the industry initiatives, labs and festival.
Film meets music at Wff’s Music Café, which has expanded to two days to include an evening showcase on December 4, and daytime showcase and dedicated industry panel on December 5, with the possibility of additional performances during the festival. Up to 10 export-ready British Columbia songwriters and artists from across the musical spectrum will be selected to each play a live 20-minute set and meet with key international music and film executives and delegates attending the festival.
Wff's Industry Summit will feature three concentrated days of business programs and networking that address the business and future of Canadian film, locally and in the international marketplace, as well as the ever-changing landscape of filmmaking in the digital age. Featuring over 20 interactive sessions, Wff's Summit is designed to provide practical business and creative intel, and foster business collaborations for filmmakers and deal-makers. Offering in-depth conversations, lively debates and critical insight into a broad range of issues vital to the domestic and international film communities while addressing crossing borders and platforms, Whistler is the place to be, connect and deal this December. 1,000 delegates are expected to attend.
The Whistler Summit directly connects to Wff’s slate of project development programs designed to provide creative and business immersion experiences for Canadian artists including the Feature Project Lab, Praxis Screenwriters Lab, Aboriginal Filmmaker Fellowship and Music Café. Wff also collaborates with several industry organizations by hosting specific third party initiatives at the Whistler Summit including the Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch, Women in the Directors Chair Industry Immersion, Women in Film & Television Film Market Preparation Mentorship, and the Mppia Short Film Award Pitch with the Motion Picture Production Industry Association and Creative BC. Application details and information for all Wff industry and project development programs are available at whistlerfilmfestival.com.
- 9/7/2015
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
Anti-Nazi satire from Stations of the Cross director Dietrich Bruggemann and a new documentary from Mark Cousins among titles.Scroll down for competition line-ups
The 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 3-11) has unveiled the competition titles in its Official Selection, East of the West, Forum of Independents and Documentary sections.
The main competition will comprise seven world premieres and six international premieres, including the new film from Stations of the Cross director Dietrich Brüggemann, Heil, a satirical comedy centred on neo-Nazis.
Polish documentary director Marcin Koszałkaʼs will present his feature debut, The Red Spider, a psychological thriller inspired by true events from the 1950s that delves into the mechanisms that give rise to a mass murderer.
Danish documentary maker Daniel Dencik will present his first feature, Gold Coast, about a young anti-colonial idealist who sets out for Danish Guinea to set up a coffee plantation - but not everything goes to plan. The music is...
The 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 3-11) has unveiled the competition titles in its Official Selection, East of the West, Forum of Independents and Documentary sections.
The main competition will comprise seven world premieres and six international premieres, including the new film from Stations of the Cross director Dietrich Brüggemann, Heil, a satirical comedy centred on neo-Nazis.
Polish documentary director Marcin Koszałkaʼs will present his feature debut, The Red Spider, a psychological thriller inspired by true events from the 1950s that delves into the mechanisms that give rise to a mass murderer.
Danish documentary maker Daniel Dencik will present his first feature, Gold Coast, about a young anti-colonial idealist who sets out for Danish Guinea to set up a coffee plantation - but not everything goes to plan. The music is...
- 6/2/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
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