14/06/2024 - The Horizons and Imagina sections feature a dynamic mix of current festival highlights and experimental films, including big names such as Miguel Gomes, Noémie Merlant and Bertrand Bonello

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF, 28 June-6 July) has unveiled the full line-up for its 58th edition, building on the previously announced competition section (see the news). The retrospective on Franz Kafka (see the news), titled “The Wish to Be a Red Indian: Kafka and Cinema”, has recently had its programme expanded. It now includes David Lynch’s surrealistic short film The Grandmother and the third episode of the third season of the cult series Twin Peaks. Also featured are Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet’s 1984 flick Class Relations, an adaptation of Kafka’s unfinished novel Amerika; Peter Capaldi’s Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life, which won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film; and Lorenza Mazzetti’s K.

The Out of the Past section will present the world premiere of a digitally restored version of Two English Girls, François Truffaut’s poetic period drama about a love triangle. This screening will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the legendary French filmmaker’s untimely death. Accompanying the movie will be David Teboul’s documentary portrait François Truffaut, My Life, a Screenplay. Another classic in the line-up is John Cassavetes' final feature as a writer-director, Love Streams. Additionally, the festival will host the world premiere of the documentary Actress by Theodora Remundová. The film profiles Remundová's mother, Iva Janžurová, one of the most distinguished Czech actresses, whose career has spanned decades on stage, in cinema and on television.

The KVIFF programming team has selected a diverse array of films for the festival’s Horizons section, showcasing current festival fare. The line-up includes Noémie Merlant’s comedy-horror The Balconettes [+see also:
film review
interview: Noémie Merlant
film profile] (a 2024 Cannes Midnight Screening), Viktor Kossakovsky’s concrete documentary Architecton [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Victor Kossakovsky
film profile] (in competition at the 2024 Berlinale) and Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi flick The Beast [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Bonello
film profile] (in competition at Venice last year). Also featured are Matthias Glasner’s dark family dramedy Dying [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Matthias Glasner
film profile] (Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlinale) and Shuchi Talati’s coming-of-age story set in an Indian boarding school Girls Will Be Girls [+see also:
film review
film profile], which was aired at Sundance. Recent festival picks also include Rúnar Rúnarsson’s youth drama about grief, When the Light Breaks [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rúnar Rúnarsson
film profile] (Un Certain Regard), Emanuel Pârvu’s drama about rural homophobia, Three Kilometres to the End of the World [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emanuel Pârvu
film profile] (Cannes competition), and Juho Kuosmanen’s tribute to silent cinema, Silent Trilogy. Additionally, the section will present Rungano Nyoni’s surreal comedy-drama On Becoming a Guinea Fowl [+see also:
film review
interview: Rungano Nyoni, Susan Chardy
film profile], which scooped the Un Certain Regard Directing Prize this year in Cannes; Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], winner of Best Actor in the Cannes competition for Jesse Plemons; Leos Carax’s self-portrait It's Not Me; and Miguel Gomes’s latest endeavour, Grand Tour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marta Donzelli, Gregorio Pa…
interview: Miguel Gomes
film profile], which snagged Best Director on the Croisette.

More experimental cinema is relegated to the Imagina section. This year's line-up includes Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel’s mysterious Best Secret Place, which explores dreamlike liminal spaces, and Dane Komljen’s documentary The Garden Cadences, following a queer-feminist collective in Berlin. Also featured are Anna Cornudella Castro’s The Human Hibernation [+see also:
film review
interview: Anna Cornudella
film profile] and Sergio Caballero’s wacky western odyssey about two sound artists, 'Lolo & Sosaku' The Western Archive. Additionally, Aura Satz’s documentary about sirens, Preemptive Listening, and Daniel Zimmermann’s experimental doc Spheres will be part of the experimental section.

The full line-up is available to peruse here.