Karlovy Vary Film Festival confirms August date, announces TV platform

Prague, May 11 (CTK) - This year's 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will be held in the West Bohemian spa town from August 20 to 28, said organizers who confirmed the postponed date at a press conference today.

In March the event was postponed from it's usual date in early July over the continuing Covid-19 epidemic.

Festival artistic director Karel Och told reporters today that the organizers would present the main competition program and the premieres from the competition sections, including the opening film, on June 29.

The festival program management is now selecting a film for this year's event and has included in the program films from the beginning of this year that did not reach an audience at all or only in a limited distribution due to lockdown, Och said.

Karlovy Vary Regional Governor Petr Kulhanek said today that the festival would receive the same financial support from the region as before, CZK 8 billion. "I expect the town to provide the same share," he added.

Karlovy Vary Mayor Andrea Pfeffer Ferklova said in March that its support would be halved to 4 million due to the anti-coronavirus measures and decline in the municipal budget.

The festival used to have an annual budget of CZK 130 million. The previous festival in 2019 received a state subsidy of CZK 30 million plus 8 million from the region and the town of Karlovy Vary each.

The town gave 2.5 million and the region 1.5 million to the festival last year when the international film event was not held in Karlovy Vary due to the epidemic and a shorter non-competition film event "54 1/2 International Film Festival Karlovy Vary" planned there last November had to be scrapped, too, amid the surging second wave of Covid-19.

However, the festival organizers prepared the Tady Vary event presenting 16 films, originally selected for the international festival's program, which were screened in 96 cinemas across the Czech Republic last July.

The festival announced in April that it had gained a new strategic investor, the Rockaway Capital group.

"Thanks to the entry of the investor from the Rockaway Capital group, new possibilities have opened to us of how to further develop the festival. One of the activities is the gradual building of the KVIFF TV platform enabling the festival to broadcast art programs all year long. We also plan to considerably extend the platform KVIFF distribution in the future," festival president Jiri Bartoska said.

The organizers also want to use the potential of the popular film event and hold its accompanying programme throughout the year. Bartoska indicated possible cooperation with the Czech Philharmonic (CF) orchestra, among others.