UPDATE (26 June 2025): The festival has announced the addition of a 12th film in competition, Bidad, an independent Iranian production by director Soheil Beiraghi, and the story of a young singer who refuses to accept the fact that women in Iran are not allowed to perform in public. As per the festival's press release, "It was necessary to withhold the announcement of the film’s inclusion in the festival’s programme until he and the members of his crew could safely travel out of Iran." The festival has also announced the addition of two new Special Screenings (read news).

-

The 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF, 4-12 July) – the largest film gathering in the Czech Republic – has unveiled its competition selections in addition to the previously revealed John Garfield retrospective (see the news). Karel Och, KVIFF's artistic director, praised the selected filmmakers for “fearlessly protect[ing] the right to challenge expectations, disrupt stereotypes, and win over hearts and minds”, noting that despite budget constraints, they “push the boundaries while keeping in mind the necessary connection between a film and its audience”. He added that KVIFF “has always addressed political issues through powerful individual stories” and revealed that one Iranian film will be announced closer to the festival for safety reasons.

The Crystal Globe Competition features Hungary’s Bence Fliegauf (Berlinale Grand Jury Prize winner for Just the Wind [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Bence Fliegauf
scheda film], Locarno Filmmakers of the Present Golden Leopard winner for Milky Way), who explores mythic vengeance in the haunting Jimmy Jaguar [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film], and France’s Nathan Ambrosioni (Paper Flags [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film], Toni [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film]), who returns with Out of Love [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Nathan Ambrosioni
scheda film], a subdued yet affecting portrait of reluctant motherhood. Catalonian director Pere Vilà Barceló (La Lapidation de Saint Étienne [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film]) delivers When a River Becomes the Sea [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Pere Vilà Barceló
scheda film], a three-hour meditation on trauma and recovery, and Lithuania’s Vytautas Katkus offers The Visitor [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Vytautas Katkus
intervista: Vytautas Katkus
scheda film], a study in loneliness and dislocation that received the Cannes Critics' Week Next Step Award and prizes at Les Arcs and the TFL Meeting Event during its project phase. Nina Knag’s Don’t Call Me Mama [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Nina Knag
scheda film] is a provocative Norwegian drama of desire and morality; João Rosas’ The Luminous Life [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] is a Lisbon-set ode to youthful inertia and unfulfilled promises; Dmytro Hreshko’s Divia [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Dmytro Hreshko
scheda film] captures war-torn Ukrainian landscapes, and Gözde Kural’s Cinema Jazireh [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Gözde Kural
scheda film] offers a harrowing tale of survival under Taliban rule. Regional talents are represented by Miro Remo (At Full Throttle [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Miro Remo
scheda film]), whose Better Go Mad in the Wild [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Miro Remo
scheda film] follows reclusive Slovak twins in a reflection on non-conformity, and Ondřej Provazník, whose Broken Voices [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Ondřej Provazník
scheda film] examines abuse and power within a girls’ choir. Rounding off the competition is the US title Rebuilding, directed by Max Walker-Silverman, and starring Josh O’Connor, Meghann Fahy and Kali Reis, already seen in Sundance's Premieres section.

The Proxima Competition continues to spotlight bold formal and thematic innovation. Among the selected titles are the Eastern European entries How Come It’s All Green Out Here? [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film], a subtle meditation on familial estrangement in post-Yugoslavia by Nikola Ležaić (selected at Locarno and a winner at Sarajevo with Tilva Ros [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film]) and The Other Side of Summer [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Vojtěch Strakatý
scheda film], a lyrical coming-of-age tale by Vojtěch Strakatý (whose first feature, After Party [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Vojtěch Strakatý
scheda film], screened last year in Venice's Orizzonti Extra). Alexandros Voulgaris (Winona [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film]) presents They Come Out of Margo [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film], a haunting, genre-blurring portrait of artistic isolation and emotional reckoning; Paula Ďurinová (Lapilli [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Paula Ďurinová
scheda film]) examines burnout in Berlin in Action Item [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Paula Ďurinová
scheda film]; Steffen Goldkamp's Rain Fell on the Nothing New [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] follows a young man's attempts to restart his life after having served his time in juvenile detention; and Gabrielė Urbonaitė's Renovation [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Gabrielė Urbonaitė
scheda film] is a portrayal of Baltic millennials, who on the one hand are exposed to Western Europe's constant pressure to perform, and on the other still carry the traumas of previous generations brought up in the Soviet Union. Belgium's Manoël Dupont delivers Before / After [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Manoël Dupont
scheda film], a tender, humorous take on hair transplants and queer intimacy, and Daniel Vidal Toche presents The Anatomy of the Horses [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film], a genre-defying historical allegory from the Peruvian Andes. Rounding off the selection, Maria Rigel’s Thus Spoke the Wind [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Maria Rigel
scheda film] offers a cryptic, Tarkovskian vision of childhood and maternal return, while Federico Atehortúa Arteaga’s Forensics blends personal and political memory in post-conflict Colombia, and Brazil’s Davi Pretto employs AI to explore class and identity in the dystopian Future Future.

This year’s Special Screenings section captures a wide stylistic range from Paul Andrew Williams’ Dragonfly [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film], an intimate British drama starring Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough, world-premiered at Tribeca, and Laurent Slama’s near-documentary A Second Life [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film], set during Paris’s Olympic fever and also world-premiered at Tribeca, to Duchoň [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] (see the industry report), Peter Bebjak’s vibrant biopic of the Slovakian pop icon. Meanwhile, the recent Cannes entry Caravan [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Zuzana Kirchnerová
scheda film] by Zuzana Kirchnerová follows a single mother’s spontaneous road trip towards selfhood, while the section also includes the Czech-Vietnamese dramedy Summer School, 2001 [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Dužan Duong
scheda film] by Dužan Duong and the documentary The Czech Film Project [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film].

Here is the full competition line-up:

Crystal Globe Competition

Out of Love [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Nathan Ambrosioni
scheda film] – Nathan Ambrosioni (France)
Bidad - Soheil Beiraghi (Iran)
Jimmy Jaguar [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] – Bence Fliegauf (Hungary)
Divia [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Dmytro Hreshko
scheda film] – Dmytro Hreshko (Poland/Ukraine/Netherlands/USA)
The Visitor [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Vytautas Katkus
intervista: Vytautas Katkus
scheda film] – Vytautas Katkus (Lithuania/Norway/Sweden)
Don’t Call Me Mama [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Nina Knag
scheda film] – Nina Knag (Norway)
Cinema Jazireh [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Gözde Kural
scheda film] – Gözde Kural (Turkey/Iran/Bulgaria/Romania)
Broken Voices [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Ondřej Provazník
scheda film] – Ondřej Provazník (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
Better Go Mad in the Wild [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Miro Remo
scheda film] – Miro Remo (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
The Luminous Life [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] – João Rosas (Portugal/France)
When a River Becomes the Sea [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Pere Vilà Barceló
scheda film] – Pere Vilà Barceló (Spain)
Rebuilding – Max Walker-Silverman (USA)

Proxima Competition

TrepaNation [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] – Ammar al-Beik (Syria/Germany/France)
Forensics – Federico Atehortúa Arteaga (Colombia)
Before / After [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Manoël Dupont
scheda film] – Manoël Dupont (Belgium)
Action Item [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Paula Ďurinová
scheda film] – Paula Ďurinová (Slovak Republic/Czech Republic/Germany)
Rain Fell on the Nothing New [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] – Steffen Goldkamp (Germany)
Sand City – Mahde Hasan (Bangladesh)
How Come It’s All Green Out Here? [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] – Nikola Ležaić (Serbia/Croatia/Bulgaria)
Future Future – Davi Pretto (Brazil)
Thus Spoke the Wind [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Maria Rigel
scheda film] – Maria Rigel (Armenia)
The Other Side of Summer [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Vojtěch Strakatý
scheda film] – Vojtěch Strakatý (Czech Republic/Croatia)
Renovation [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Gabrielė Urbonaitė
scheda film] – Gabrielė Urbonaitė (Lithuania/Latvia/Belgium)
The Anatomy of the Horses [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] – Daniel Vidal Toche (Spain/Peru/Colombia/France)
They Come Out of Margo [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] – Alexandros Voulgaris (Greece)

Special Screenings

Duchoň [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] – Peter Bebjak (Slovakia/Czech Republic)
Tehran, Another View – Ali Behrad (Iran/UK)
All That’s Left of You [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Cherien Dabis
scheda film] – Cherien Dabis (Germany/Cyprus/Palestine/Jordan/Greece/Qatar/Saudi Arabia)
Summer School, 2001 [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Dužan Duong
scheda film] – Dužan Duong (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
Absolute 100 [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda series] - Srdan Golubović, Stefan Ivančić, Katarina Mutić, Nikola Stojanović (Serbia) (series)
Promise, I’ll Be Fine [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] – Katarína Gramatová (Slovakia/Czech Republic)
Caravan [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Zuzana Kirchnerová
scheda film] – Zuzana Kirchnerová (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Italy)
The Czech Film Project [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] – Marek Novák, Mikuláš Novotný (Czech Republic)
A Second Life [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] – Laurent Slama (France)
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Cinematic Cut - Daniel Vávra, Petr Pekař (Czech Republic)
Dragonfly [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] – Paul Andrew Williams (UK)