Karlovy Vary's Karel Och on Mixing RPG Cinematic Debut, Gloomier Auteur Fare and That Iran Film

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July 4 is a big date for the film industry, and not only because everyone will be watching the momentum at the North American box office. Friday, July 4, also marks the opening of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF).
This year's edition of the big summer festival in the Czech spa town, which is a favorite of movie buffs, celebrities from Hollywood and beyond, and industry insiders, runs through July 12, once again putting the spotlight on new releases from around the world, as well as highlights of the film festival circuit from the past year, including Cannes and Berlin.
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Stellan Skarsgård, Peter Sarsgaard, Vicky Krieps, and Dakota Johnson are among the big names traveling to picturesque Karlovy Vary this year, along with Michael Douglas, who will present a newly restored version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
But KVIFF is also expanding its offerings this year, adding to the range of audiovisual content it showcases with the world premiere, as part of its Special Screenings section, of 'a cinematic cut of Warhorse Studios' internationally successful video game Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Cinematic Cut,' a role-playing game (RPG), as well as Serbian miniseries Absolute 100.
Ahead of the festival's opening night, Karel Och, who has been serving as the artistic director of the festival since 2010, discussed the 2025 KVIFF lineup, mixing more traditional gloomier auteur fare with messages with gaming adventure, the death and legacy of long-time festival president Jiří Bartoška, and the Iran competition film that his team had to keep a mystery for a while to ensure the safety of its delegation.
Looking across the 2025 lineup for the festival, it looks like a really broad selection. Any thoughts on that, and anything you have noticed as a trend?
Overall, we're really happy with the selection. It's probably the most diverse selection in years in terms of the aesthetics and the formal approach of the filmmakers. But all films included in the competitions, especially the Crystal Globe [main] competition, have this soul or core, which is very strong and through which the filmmaker tries to communicate something important. Sometimes it's in a bit more classical way, formally narratively speaking, sometimes it's a more challenging, more cryptic way.
The second competition, your Proxima section, which is now in its fourth year, wants to provide a space for bold works by young filmmakers and renowned auteurs alike from around the globe. It replaced the East of the West competition, which was established in the 1990s with the goal of helping filmmakers from the former Eastern Bloc. And Proxima seems to have become a really exciting place of discovery. How do you feel about it?
The second competition was geographically limited to first, so we couldn't offer much to up-and-coming filmmakers from Latin America and Asia. But their voices were one of the reasons why we decided to change things and open this up to the whole world. This year, we have three Proxima films from Latin America that were specifically submitted for the section, which is clearly and visibly quite challenging for the spectator. Some titles will always be divisive, but we feel that we can bring them in front of the audience with all the love that we can show to a film.
Any other trends or anything new in your lineup this year?
If we expand beyond the competitions, there is one particular film that I would like to discuss, which is called Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Cinematic Cut. It's a revolutionary moment in the new history of Karlovy Vary when we're presenting a world premiere of a cinematic cut from the narrative scenes of a video game, which I saw a few months ago and was excited about.
During the spring, you're often excited by what you see [as we are planning the festival program], but sometimes it's very gloomy. Of course, art house cinema is working in the territory of the contemporary world and all its problems and tragedies, which makes sense. But then at some point, you're being offered two hours of a beautiful, exciting, and adventurous form of entertainment, and you realize that there are different ways to tell a story, and it can be a video game. And I watched these two hours, which is part of the narrative of the video game, and I was blown away by how engaging this was as an experience for a spectator.
I'm not someone who is very knowledgeable about the world of video games, but I am proud that we are working with Warhorse Studios. And together, we'll put this on a big screen. I'm really curious, because we hope that this event will bring perhaps a new type of audience, or another type of audience. We hope that people like me, who have no clue, will go and enjoy it, but also those who know the game well and maybe less about the world of cinema. So that's something new.
While we're talking about unusual Czech projects and the Special Screenings section, I want to ask you about , directed by Marek Novák and Mikuláš Novotný, which was inspired by Wim Wenders' , shot during the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Karlovy Vary played a key role in the new film, right?
I keep wondering how interesting it might be for people outside of the Czech Republic. Yes, a couple of Czech producers came up with an idea influenced by or inspired by the Wim Wenders documentary about 18 months ago. They asked us: 'Could we use a room in the Hotel Thermal during the festival where we would give five minutes to Czech filmmakers or filmmakers from abroad living in the Czech Republic in front of the camera, talking about what is Czech in Czech film?' So we did this.
We have about 27 filmmakers of all generations, and it's edited into a film called The Czech Film Project. It's interesting from the perspective of what you learn about Czech film, but also what you learn about the characters of Czech filmmakers. I think it's very exciting. At the end of the screening, you can get an idea not just about what is Czech, but maybe what is a central European approach to everything, mainly cinema.
It could be this type of content that starts as a very local thing, in the sense that we want to learn about something from the inside. But it could transcend that and maybe travel [to other places]. So, I'm curious.
The 12th and final movie in your main competition is Soheil Beiraghi's from Iran, which tells the story of a female singer who refuses to accept that women are not allowed to perform in public. How difficult was it to get the film and its filmmakers to the festival, and what went into that?
It was just amazing to have the opportunity to preview this film with my colleagues thanks to the relationships of my colleagues. We watched the film immediately, and we were blown away, not just by the political aspect of the film and the courage of the filmmakers to go that far concerning something, which in our parts of the world is just a natural thing – seeing a young woman singing in the streets of a metropolis, but also by how it's made. It's not just about the content. It's a really well-made film that has the potential to talk to people all around the world. We were really excited and delighted when we got confirmation of the film.
But then the moment came when we discussed the announcement. Because whenever you're announcing something about a movie coming from Iran, which is clearly going to stir some controversy, you have to be careful. And we listened to the team behind the film, and we agreed to postpone until they were out of the country.
Then, of course, the whole problem between Iran and Israel and America's involvement came up, but by that time the crew was already outside of the country, and we could safely announce the film. I can't wait to see the reaction of the people.
After the sad recent death of long-time KVIFF president Jiří Bartoška, the festival with the opening film , directed by Jakub Jurásek, screenings of Radek Bajgar's film , which stars the legendary Czech actor and fest president, and the exhibition 'Jiří Bartoška – KVIFF President.' How has it been to prepare for the festival without him around?
It's still very fresh. And it was strange, because with such a complex, amazing Renaissance person, it's difficult not to think about him all the time, because he was so present everywhere in a way, his persona, his spirit. Maybe he was less involved in the actual [day-to-day] work of the festival over the last few years, so people don't have to be afraid of what is going to happen to the festival. But it's more about his symbolic presence. In Cannes, after his passing, I felt he was kind of walking behind me. It was like when David Bowie died. With people like that, you sometimes feel like they are immortal.
I had a similar experience a few years ago with Eva Zaoralova, the artistic director before me, who chose me as her successor, and a person who was extremely important to me. So, yes, the first months are very sad, because you miss the physical presence of the person. But then at some point, inevitably, it changes, and the pain disappears, and you feel the person coming back in spirit. So I'm still in the office, which I shared with Eva Zaoralova, and I can feel her presence in my mind. I'm discussing things with her, and I'm pretty sure the same thing will happen with Jiří Bartoška. We're lucky and blessed that he was such a big part of our lives.
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