04/07/2008

Czech-born director Ivan Passer will lead an international jury in selecting the grand-prize winner of the 43rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival .

Fourteen films are competing in the official selection, with an additional 16 titles vying for honours in the documentary competition and 15 in East of the West.

European world premieres in the main competition include Michaela Pavlatova's urban drama Night Owls, Tom Schreiber's Dr. Aleman [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Henrik Ruben Genz's True Enough, Zrinko Ogresta's Behind the Glass, Manuel Poutte's Distant Tremors. Also competing for the Crystal Globe are Attila Gigor's Hungarian Film Week standout The Investigator and Petr Zelenka's Dostoevsky adaptation The Karamazovs.

An additional 16 titles vying for honours in the documentary competition, including Slovak director Juraj Lehotsky's Directors Fortnight title Blind Loves [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. World premieres among the documentaries are Jana Bokova's Bye Bye Shanghai, Gyula Nemes' Lost World and Helena Trestikova's René.

Fifteen films from Central and Eastern Europe are competing in East of the West, including the world premiere of Rene Vilbre's I Was Here [+see also:
film review
film profile]. Ilmar Raag (The Class [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) adapted the script from Sass Henno's novel about a teenage drug dealer.

The festival opens today with a gala screening of Barry Levinson's What Just Happened? and conclude July 12 with Phyllida Lloyd's Abba musical, Mamma Mia!.

Guests expected at the festival include Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Saffran Burrows, John Sayles, Christopher Lee, Arturo Ripstein and Nicolas Roeg.

The festival will also see the long-awaited world premiere of Juraj Jakubisko's historical thriller Bathory [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Jakubisko will receive a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema, as will De Niro, Passer and Slovak director Dusan Hanak.

Official Selection – Competition

Behind the Glass (Croatia, dir. Zrinko Ogresta)
Captive (Russia/Bulgaria, dir. Alexey Uchitel)
Distant Tremors (Belgium/France, dir. Manuel Poutte)
Dr. Aleman (Germany, dir. Tom Schreiber)
The Early Bird Catches the Worm [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] (Italy, dir. Francesco Patierno)
The Guitar (USA, dir. Amy Redford)
The Investigator (Hungary/Sweden/Ireland, dir. Attila Gigor)
The Karamazovs [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Czech Republic, dir. Petr Zelenka)
Night Owls (Czech Republic, dir. Michaela Pavlatova)
The Photograph (Indonesia/France/Netherlands/Switzerland/ Sweden, dir. Nan T. Achnas)
Pretextos (Spain, dir. Silvia Munt)
The Shaft (China, dir. Zhang Chi)
Terribly Happy (Denmark, dir. Henrik Ruben Genz)
True Enough (France, dir. Sam Karmann)