S Viswanath

It is that time of the year when Czech Republic’s Spa Town of Karlovy Vary dons a festive and carnival mood as it rings the Eastern Europe’s annual Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

The film festival which marks a unique double this year feting its 60th edition as also the 80th year of its founding, is renowned for not one but two prestigious competitions that light up its showpiece cinema extravaganza.

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which daintily and prettily is perched between the Cannes Film Festival in May, the Venice Film Festival on between September 2-12, 2026 and Toronto International Film Festival on between September 10-20, 2026, is Capital City Prague’s premier summer gala that draws cinephiles and who’s who of film and entertainment cosmos to jet into hot springs haven and hostelries of vibrant and vivacious happening quaint town of Karlovy Vary.

With the festival drawing close and just exactly a month before the July cinema jamboree turns the city town into a Cinema Paradiso the festival organisers led by the irrepressible Artistic Director Karel Och sounded the bugle announcing the line up of films that make the eagerly awaited and coveted Crystal Globe & Proxima Competitions.

Besides, of course, the refurbished and expanded Special Screenings Section – with all the three constituting a compendium of sumptuous two score scintillating titles ensuring another dream film festival for the cine enthusiasts and itinerant film aficionados.

Needless to state that winning the coveted Crystal Globe & Proxima Awards at KVIFF ensures the winners a special passage of rite to other film festival circuits as also theatrical releases and purchases by the sales agents and film festival organisers.

That KVIFF provides a window of opportunity and an ideal platform for films that failed to pass master at the Cannes as also those that were yet to be completed picked for competitions and screenings at KVIFF makes the film festival that much more endearing while providing the ones that find favour at KVIFF a special lustre prior to their theatrical release at their respective home nations.

It is to the truly singular curation and programming character of KVIFF by its elite programming team which makes KVIFF not just another film festival to head to but a must attend itinerary of the true blue film critics and cineastes.

This magnetic attraction aspect, has ensured KVIFF has stood its own braving all odds even as fellow film festivals such as the Berlin, Sundance, Toronto, and the like have been daunted by the financial challenges to keep their respective calendar dates with hosting the film festival ensuring continuity of the rich film festival legacy.

A cursory glance at the films in contention in the competitions scroll bespeak of how the seasons auteurs and renowned film festival veterans are joined by some of the emerging and aspiring talents from across the cinema coliseum to catch the discerning eyes of the juries.

The quintet, who, would weigh the works before announcing their winners as also audiences who would love to watch and experience what is current in the contemporary cinema and thematic narratives that have been woven into films.

Be it by the veteran as also the adventurous emerging filmmakers. That several among them feature women centred sagas as also comprise those by women filmmakers makes KVIFF a truly holistic film festival.

The line up of films in fray in the Crystal Globe Competition that have been drawn range from a wide spectrum of countries from Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Lebanon, Myanmar, Slovak Republic, Switzerland. Incidentally, among these, there are several first timers marking their presence at KVIFF such as Myanmar (Burma), Colombia, Switzerland, besides a handful of previous victors at the competition.

Such is the spread of films that cinephiles and audiences can look forward to a multitude and multifarious thematic narratives ranging from the Ukraine war, personal, political and social issues, and the like, with each of the work representing “a relentless search for the relationship between the artistic and the political, the intimate and the societal.”

The other aspect is that all the films being featured in the two competition sections are making their World Premieres with several of them being debutant forays by the filmmakers. So, without much ado, here then are the films that one can look forward to in the Crystal Globe Competition.

The Chilean, 97 min feature Behind the Rain (Detrás de la Lluvia) by woman filmmaker Valeria Sarmiento, in which the director dwells on the issue of repression.

Then you have the 94 min, Bulgarian-Greece fare Black Money for White Nights (Cherni pari za beli noshti) by the director-duo Kristina Grozeva & Petar Valchanov, which speaks of how an elderly couple’s dream trip to Russia’s St. Petersburg is dashed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, spotlighting on the still festering strife between the two nations.

Five Years, Four Months (Cinco años, cuatro meses) is a 83 min flick by the Colombian filmmakers duo Esteban Hoyos García & Juan Miguel Gelacio Ramírez which is a debut feature. Spotlighting on the country’s long lasting armed conflict the film speaks of the sufferings that the women undergo as a result while wondering what has happened to their dear ones on the battle front.

Fruit Gathering or Thit-thee Khu sees the 97 min Myanmar entry making its maiden foray into KVIFF. Directed by Aung Phyoe this sophomore film takes audiences through the contemporary oppressive Myanmar regime told through the experiences of the film’s two young women workers in a textile factory in a lesbian relationship.

The 99 min Danish film The Guest aka Gæsten is a debut directorial flick by Mads Mengel wherein we watch a family falling apart in the wake of old festers opening up in the course of a close-knit family union.

Swiss director Jan-Eric Mack’s debut fare A Happy Family a two hour drama spotlights on the struggle of a mother whose children are taken to a foster care taking a critical look at the severe social system that sees the State in its overarching concern comes into conflict with parental responsibility.

Iranian director Nader Saeivar, schooled under the tutelage of Jafar Panahi and has given impressive films returns to Karlovy Vary with his latest Hijamat a 103 min feature which takes a probing look into the contemporary gay scene and the resultant conflict between the traditional vs modern outlook on the contentious subject.

The 96 min Czech Girl or Chica Checa by Czech Republic’s very own Šimon Holý sees him yet again focus on a female protagonist the widowed village mail carrier working to fulfil her ailing mother’s last wish, which also brings her closer to her son Lukáš that awakes in her a longing for a different life.

The Lion at My Back a 106 min Cyprus film is a sophomore fare of woman director Tonia Mishiali, who returns to Karlovy Vary, with a narrative woven around a young Senegalese asylum seeker who bonds with a middle aged woman seeking to break free from the clutches of addiction and make a fresh start.

Slovakian director Ivan Ostrochovský’s 88 min Only Beautiful Things to Look At (Prameň) set in the mid-1980s, sees the director’s beguiling drama returning to a hitherto unresolved issue of Czechoslovak history, where the option of having children was determined by the State.

The 112 mins Lebanese fare Pipes by Karim Kassem presents a moving portrait of an elderly man caught between helping his townspeople with the water problem and mourning the loss of a dear friend who died under unclear circumstances giving the film a detective thriller feel while also tackling a larger social issue.

3 Weeks After the 94 min feature from Sebia by Miroslav Terzić tackles one of the most universal issue of suicide and the rampant bullying in campuses through a group of high school students wherein during a class trip one of them speaks of a pal’s suicide due to being bullied.

While these constitutes the complement of dozen films in the Crystal Globe Competition, we shall return to the dozen in the Proxima Competition in my next essay. Until then it’s time to take a peek into the trailers, browse over the synopsis and possible initial comments on these films to make a wish list of films to watch as the nine-day KVIFF 2026 gets going feting a twin milestones in its chequered history. Until then Sbohem as one would say in Czech.