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In 2026, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) commemorates two important milestones: 80 years since the first festival, and the festival’s 60th edition. The anniversary celebrations of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival include a range of accompanying events that reflect on its rich history and important figures, featuring exhibitions, special screenings, and thematic program sections. The festival continues its long-standing charitable initiatives, while also introducing a new architectural concept for the entrance area of the Hotel Thermal’s Grand Hall, aimed at strengthening the overall festival atmosphere and the audience experience during key festival moments.
“The Karlovy Vary festival is an event at which long-term tradition and the format of a modern film festival come together in a unique way. Few domestic cultural events can boast such a rich and varied history. This is thanks in part to the distinctive personalities who have shaped its identity at various points in its history,” says the festival’s executive director Kryštof Mucha, adding:
“There is much that has formed its character over the course of its eighty-year history, but it is up to historians to assess the extent to which the state’s cultural policy, the international situation, and various other factors have influenced the festival’s organizational and artistic qualities. We should nevertheless remember that the foundations laid by the festival’s first editions in the postwar years have given rise to an
event that has managed to survive despite all internal tensions and external influences, that has withstood attempts at ideological control and efforts to abolish it, and that has succeeded in transforming itself into an internationally recognized showcase and a venue where filmmakers and audiences can meet in a unique atmosphere of harmony. It has become a festival that honors its legacy and that manages to reflect the present while confidently shaping the future of cinema.”
Design: Jonatan Kuna in collaboration with: Aleš Najbrt
“For this year’s festival, we reflected on how to best express the celebration of the festival’s 80th anniversary and its 60th edition, and we decided to work with the symbol of the red carpet. The visual has been designed as simply as possible so that it might evoke various associations and interpretations while symbolizing the festival. With our design, we want to convey that the red carpet is for everybody – not just for the filmmakers to present their films, or for the stars arriving for the opening and closing ceremonies. All film lovers and festival visitors can walk across it. The red carpet is there for all, so that everyone can experience a few moments of fame. The shadows that variously appear on the carpet reflect this idea. They represent another layer of this year’s visual and come to life along with the festival as a whole. They are a kind of projection, a film unfolding right there on the red carpet,” say Aleš Najbrt and Jonatan Kuna.
An unmissable part of the jubilee 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which marks 80 years since its inception this year, will be a special edition of the popular „classic“ section.
„One of the festival’s most popular permanent programs, which regularly looks back at the history of cinema, will take on a celebratory form this year,“ says the festival’s Artistic Director, Karel Och. „It will consist of twenty carefully selected films from previous editions of the festival, which are firmly linked to its history as milestones key to the KVIFF’s identity and reputation.„
Among the films, dating from 1946 to the recent past, is the masterpiece by the duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, A Matter of Life and Death, which festival visitors in Czechoslovakia first admired in August 1947. More than twenty years later, in 1970, Ken Loach—a compatriot of the iconic duo—personally accepted the festival’s top prize for best film for his acclaimed drama Kes.
Kes (1969), Fotocredit © Park Circus/Amazon MGM
From its very beginnings, the festival located in West Bohemia has been a warm home for the best of Mexican cinema. Emilio Fernández, a titan of Mexican directing, sent his films to Karlovy Vary several times, starting with Río Escondido in 1948. Konrad Wolf, a legend of East German cinema, also participated in the festival multiple times; his extraordinary drama Lissy won one of the main prizes in 1957.
Representing the colors of the former Czechoslovakia will be the drama The Defendant, winner of the Grand Prix at the 1964 KVIFF, filmed by the future Oscar-winning duo Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos. Also featured is Juraj Jakubisko’s prized film Birds, Orphans and Fools, which will be personally introduced by the legendary actress Magda Vášáryová. This cult „banned“ parable only had its true premiere more than twenty years after it was filmed, at the 1990 KVIFF.
For a long time, the print of one of the fundamental films in Australian cinematic history, the adventure drama Captain Thunderbolt, was considered lost—until 2024, when an original, uncut 35mm print was found in the Czech National Film Archive. This year’s celebratory program will commemorate the premiere of New Zealand director Cecil Holmes’s film in the competition of the 7th KVIFF in 1952.
The complete list of films in the Out of the Past – KVIFF 60/80 retrospective will be published at the beginning of June.
This year’s edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will present a gala screening of a digitally restored copy of Věra Chytilová’s tragicomedy Tainted Horseplay.
When the Karlovy Vary festival began its tradition of showing world premieres of digitally restored works of domestic cinema fifteen years ago, it joined the international trend toward the restoration of important films that have shaped cinematic history. The goal of this undertaking has been to call attention to works by leading directors whose message transcends the time in which they were made – films that are not just cinematic classics but that continue to resonate with new generations of viewers today. As the most important cinematic event in the Czech Republic, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival initiated and continues to support the digital remastering of important works of Czech cinema.
The festival’s digital restoration project has since the beginning involved collaboration with the National Film Archive, which preserves and safeguards works of Czech cinema. Besides receiving support from the Czech Ministry of Culture, the project has been financed by contributions from its partners, the ČEZ Foundation and the Czech Film Foundation. Several dozen films have been digitally restored thanks to the systematic and ongoing support of Milada and Eduarda Kučera, and more are in the works.
Věra Chytilová shot her tragicomedy Tainted Horseplay in 1988. At the center of this generational portrait of thirty-somethings is a group of friends who engage in regular drinking sessions, the occasional borderline prank, and casual sexual adventures – until, that is, the wild and promiscuous Pepe ends up in the hospital. The group of friends subsequently undergo an anonymous blood test, which shows that one of member of their wild gang is HIV positive. This harsh confrontation with reality leads to a radical crisis of friendship.
Tainted Horseplay, Fotocredit © Národní filmový archiv
In 1989, Tainted Horseplay was selected as Czechoslovakia’s candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. At the 2000 edition of KVIFF, director Věra Chytilová was awarded the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema.
Actress Magda Vášáryová will receive the President’s Award at the festival’s 60th edition.
Magda Vašáryová in Birds, Orphans and Fools (1969, dir. Juraj Jakubisko), Fotocredit © Slovak Film Institute
For much of its existence, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – which celebrates the 80th anniversary of its founding this year, was an important representative of Czechoslovak cinema. By presenting an award to Magda Vášáryová, thefestival aims not just to express its respect for the performances of one of the greatest Slovak actresses of all time, but also to remember the unique artistic connection between the Czech and Slovak filmmakers who shaped our two countries’ shared cinematic history.
In honor of Magda Vášáryová, the Karlovy Vary festival will be screening Juraj Jakubisko’s Birds, Orphans and Fools. The film, a Czechoslovak-French co-production written by Jakubisko in cooperation with the writer Karol Sidon, was filmed in the turbulent year of 1968. Its three main protagonists – Yorick, Marta, and Andrej – manage to survive in a world full of hopelessness and disillusionment thanks to “foolishness,” lighthearted play, and a philosophy of joy that, in their view, is the only possible path toward happiness.
Future Frames – Generation NEXT of European Cinema, a program organized by the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and European Film Promotion, has been helping talented European directors start their careers in the film industry since 2015. For the fourth year in a row, the program has been able to significantly expand the opportunities it offers thanks to its partnership with lottery and entertainment company Allwyn, and also by collaborating with American talent agency UTA and Range Media Partners, which provide young filmmakers with valuable expert guidance and the chance to make important contacts.
Every year, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival programming team selects ten film school students and graduates for Future Frames from a broader pool of candidates nominated throughout the year by member organizations of European Film Promotion. The participating filmmakers present their short and medium-length films at the festival and take part in a specially tailored mentoring program that includes training, networking, and promotion. This year’s Future Frames will take place from 5 to 8 July at the Hotel Thermal, which will once again host the creative and networking space that is the Allwyn Lounge. Here, participants will attend training sessions and individual meetings with representatives from UTA and Range Media Partners, who will provide them with feedback and subsequently select one director for a residency in Los Angeles sponsored by Allwyn, a company that invests in the development of emerging talent across the arts, entertainment, sports, and culture. Last year’s recipient of this great opportunity was German director Simon Schneckenburger. During a month-long residency in Los Angeles, UTA and Range Media Partners organized individual meetings with distributors, producer, and other American film industry representatives, with whom he could consult his planned feature-length film and other projects.
2025 Future Frames participants, Fotocredit © Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary
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