Strikes, Stars, Female Filmmakers, Asian Films

Artistic Director of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival: Karel Och

Courtesy of Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary

It’s that time of year again in Europe! The official start of the summer holidays is just around the corner and film fans, people from the film industry, party-goers and world stars are gathering at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) in the Czech Republic.

The Czech spa town has earned a reputation as one of the largest summer film festivals in Central Europe, shining a spotlight on new releases from the region and far beyond, as well as the highlights of the film festival scene from the past year.

This year’s 58th edition will take place from June 28 to July 6. Karel Och, who has served as the festival’s artistic director since 2010, and his team have touted 15 directorial or feature film debuts in the official selection, as well as a whole host of world premieres.

Star power is guaranteed again this year. After all, Viggo Mortenson, Daniel Brühl and Clive Owen will be honored at the KVIFF, Steven Soderbergh will present two films and the British electronic band Kosheen will get the city dancing with a free open-air concert on the opening night.

On Thursday, the festival team put the final pieces of the KVIFF puzzle together, including the unveiling Fingernailswith Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed, as the closing film.

In an interview with THROch, Global Business Editor Georg Szalai, spoke about an increase in Asian titles, female voices and perspectives, and the challenges of bringing Hollywood’s top names to the festival after the double whammy.

You and your team have been expanding the geographical reach of the KVIFF program in recent years, and it looks like you have many films from different places on the list again this year. How do you assess the geographical and other diversity of the festival at this point in time?

I feel great about it. I think it is the ambition of every festival to be as complex and diverse as possible in terms of countries, themes, styles, etc. For example, this year we have an unprecedented number of Asian films in the official selection. We haven’t had time to compile the exact statistics yet. But without a doubt, this is a consequence of the hard and focused work of my colleague Martin Horyna, who was a programmer for the festival until last year. Then he decided to leave his position because he wanted to pursue other independent projects, but we asked him to stay as an advisor for Asian cinema. This way he could focus only on Asia and go there and meet more people. And of course, the fact that he has been working in this area for a longer time has resulted in many more films from different parts of Asia coming to Karlovy Vary. This is something we really appreciate.

Are there any films from Asian or other countries in the Karlovy Vary program that you have never or only rarely shown before?

There are certain countries in Asia that were not represented so often. For example, we had a film from Singapore in the main competition (with Nelicia Low’s Drilling). It shows the traces of the place where it was filmed, but at the same time it is universal in terms of story. This is something we always like to find in films.

We also have a Peruvian film in the Proxima competition (in the form of The night has come by Paolo Tizón). The film is Peruvian in the sense that this is how the nature of the country is imagined and the filmmaker is from this country, but it also offers a story, a narrative and a style that is completely transferable to any part of the world.

That’s why we transformed the East of the West competition into Proxima. (The Proxima competition, now in its third year, aims to give space to bold work by young filmmakers and renowned auteurs alike. It replaced the East of the West competition, which was created in the 1990s with the aim of supporting filmmakers from the former Eastern bloc.) There was this desire to be more geographically diverse, to be able to offer more space for films from Latin America and Asia.

Are there any other growth areas or special features regarding the lineup for KVIFF 58?

We saw that 50 percent of female filmmakers are taking part in the Proxima competition. That was not the intention behind quotas at all, but it is a sign of something.

What could this “something” be?

I think it’s just a very natural process of change that happens at different levels, at different times in a filmmaker’s life, in different institutions. Festivals are the most visible moments in a filmmaker’s life. But there are film schools, there are funding institutions and others and other levels. If those in charge go through a certain kind of reflection and try to look at the kind of work they’ve done with a different gaze, not necessarily a male or female gaze, but just with different eyes, then I think that’s very healthy and creates a different perspective.

Of course, when you reflect like that, change is happening everywhere and all the time in the world, and that’s very healthy. We now live in the time of nuance. You don’t get criticized so much for not meeting certain quotas, which was kind of absurd but understandable. It’s part of a process, and we can now discuss these things with nuance, with a certain philosophy behind it. And with more quality assurance. Oh, and of course not just at Color or at other festivals. The result is a greater presence of female filmmakers and, very interesting in the program this year, many more films with a female protagonist at any point in her life. Whether it’s an older woman or a six-year-old child. And often these are made by a male director. It just puts life in a richer perspective and shows it from all sorts of angles that we weren’t used to seeing before.

This year, the KVIFF has once again presented a lineup of world stars who will be coming to the festival. Viggo Mortensen, Daniel Brühl and Clive Owen will receive awards. How difficult was it to sign such big names this year after the two Hollywood away wins?

This is exactly what we have been working on all autumn, because I usually travel to Los Angeles for this purpose with my colleague Kryštof Mucha, the festival’s executive director. We go in October, January and April.

In the fall and early in the year, it became clear that it was going to be very difficult to get stars to come to Carlsbad because people were catching up on work after the actors and writers’ strikes. For example, when we were in LA in April, a certain actor didn’t know what he or she was going to do in the summer for one week, and the following week he or she had to shoot three movies in the summer. So compared to previous years, it was a little harder to predict certain things.

But what always helps is the ideal situation that we always strive for. That is when a filmmaker, actor or director wants to come and support his or her latest films. In previous years we have featured John Malkovich or Antonio Banderas as directors, although they are much better known as actors.

And that is the case this year with Viggo Mortensen. Viggo Mortensen is also a very talented filmmaker, which he confirms with his second film, The dead don’t hurt. And he continues to promote the film. So we are just very happy and glad that the film will open the festival and that he is so keen to come and support the film. It’s not about the award statuette. Of course the award is a nice part. But it’s really about the film.

What other common themes did you notice in the KVIFF 2024 film program?

I mentioned the theme of female characters at every point in their lives. Also, there is something that I think is more present than it used to be when you watch a film. You follow the main character and there are certain political elements that play out that have a strong impact on the characters’ lives. The most obvious example this year is Noaz Deshe’s competition film Xoftexwhich offers a very special insight into a refugee camp somewhere in Greece, which is very realistic and at the same time very surreal and fascinating to watch. It is one of those films that we always prefer, that grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you.

I think we have more of these urgent films because the times demand a certain urgency. We have a film called Real by Oleh Sentsov, the Ukrainian filmmaker, activist and former prisoner of the Kremlin, who practically places us in the middle of the war because that is where he shot his film.

People go on with their lives, we go on with our lives and face a ton of little problems. But all these problems sometimes make us too tired or too blind to realize that there are certain things around us that we should and must see and feel compassion for.

Festivals are a place where people leave their everyday, practical worries behind and open up to arthouse cinema, meeting people and discussing things. That’s why these stories are very important and we are lucky to be able to share them with others.

Is there anything else you would like to highlight?

This year’s presentation of Czech cinema is, in my opinion, extremely satisfactory and very promising in terms of the further career of these films abroad. One aspect of the ever-improving domestic cinema is that the films are increasingly appreciated by foreign festivals and audiences. They can compete on a European or world level.

There are films by young filmmakers where you feel this urgency. They feel that they have to share these stories with this urgency and they are like hunting dogs, they just run until their films are finished. When I watch a film, I want to feel that it was a matter of life and death for a filmmaker to make this film. Of course, I’m exaggerating or being a bit poetic. But I want to see this passion. And I think that’s a trend that can be found throughout the Karlovy Vary program, and not just this year, but very often. It’s this feeling that was extremely important for the filmmakers to share these stories with the audience.