– The KVIFF Promises platform will present 38 projects across five industry programmes, with the new literary IP strand expanding the festival’s Central and Eastern European co-production focus
Cowgirl by Michal Blaško
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s (KVIFF) Industry Days (5-8 July) are strengthening their focus on Central and Eastern European collaboration with the latest edition of KVIFF Promises, the festival’s umbrella platform for projects in the making. This year, the programme will present 38 projects across five strands, including the return of KVIFF Central Stage and the launch of Book-to-Screen at KVIFF, a new showcase dedicated to literary IPs with strong adaptation potential.
The second edition of KVIFF Central Stage will feature 11 upcoming fiction films by established filmmakers from the region. Created by the KVIFF Film Industry Office in cooperation with national film institutes and promotional agencies across Central Europe, the initiative focuses on projects in late-stage development, production or post-production.
“This format addresses a notable gap in the Central European film landscape, where mid-career filmmakers typically have fewer opportunities for visibility and financing than emerging ones. Thanks to cooperation with film institutes across the region, including Swiss Films as a new partner this year, we present experienced filmmakers working on anticipated projects already resonating with audiences,” says Hugo Rosák, head of Industry Programs.
The selected projects underline the showcase’s role as a meeting point for filmmakers with festival credentials and projects seeking international partners. Nicolas Steiner will present The Flying Mountain, a metaphysical drama of grief, brotherhood and the limits of rational understanding, while Antonio Lukich brings Screaming Girl, an absurdist story of a Ukrainian refugee in Dublin whose acting ambitions are derailed by a spear magically attached to her body. Marysia Nikitiuk’s Noah turns a frontline initiation story into a hyper-naturalistic tragedy of survival and moral endurance. The line-up also includes Tomáš Hodan’s The Stones Are Rolling to Prague, revisiting the preparations for the Rolling Stones’ 1990 concert in the city, and Tomáš Pavlíček’s A Few Branches Off, a comedy rooted in Czech cottage culture. Cristina Groșan will present Lesdenzero, a class-conscious mob drama about precarious ambition and elite dependency, while Olga Chajdas brings Tribe, a darkly comic Balkan road movie about female rage, grief and improvised solidarity. Further projects include Sebastian Fritzsch’s visually driven Trainrider, Goran Vojnović’s adaptation Yugoslavia, My Fatherland, Michal Blaško’s coming-of-age drama Cowgirl and Sebastian Brauneis’s 1960s Vienna-set boxing biopic Hansi.
A major addition to this year’s Industry Days is Book-to-Screen at KVIFF, an initiative designed to create a dedicated Central and Eastern European market for adaptation rights, and to strengthen links between the film and publishing sectors. The inaugural selection brings together eight literary works chosen for their adaptation potential, ranging from memoir and folk horror to dystopian satire, graphic fiction, children’s literature and historical drama. Patrik Banga’s The True Way Out offers a raw coming-of-age memoir rooted in 1990s Prague and Roma experience, while Zuzana Říhová’s Playing Wolf brings Central European folklore into the terrain of psychological thriller and elevated horror. Daniel Majling’s graphic novel The Zone stands out as a visually distinctive blend of absurdist fiction, dark humour and genre storytelling, and Iulian Ciocan’s Queen of Hearts turns a mysterious urban crater into a satirical allegory of corruption and post-communist moral decay. Further titles include Ieva Dumbrytė’s Aspic Bistro, a grotesque magical realist satire set in an oppressive kitchen world, and Aka Morchiladze’s Cupid at the Kremlin Wall, a Stalin-era historical detective story built around a dangerous train journey to the Kremlin. Adam Robiński’s The River Odyssey of Kora from Willow Meadow offers family-orientated ecological storytelling through the journey of a young beaver, while Sophia Andrukhovych’s Amadoca combines an intimate story of amnesia and identity with the historical traumas of 20th-century Eastern Europe and the war in Donbas.
The new showcase will also include an IP-focused producers’ think-tank and networking session. “Our long-term ambition with Book-to-Screen at KVIFF is to become a true Central-Eastern European IP market that helps spark dialogue between the film and publishing industries, and create a more transparent environment for adaptation rights in the region,” notes Rosák.
The projects selected for KVIFF Central Stage are as follows:
Cowgirl – Michal Blaško (Slovakia/Czech Republic/Hungary)
Production: Jakub Viktorín, Tomáš Hrubý
Hansi – Sebastian Brauneis (Austria)
Production: Ulrich Gehmacher
Tribe – Olga Chajdas (Poland/Albania)
Production: Karolina Galuba
Trainrider – Sebastian Fritzsch (Germany)
Production: Corinna C Poetter, Daniel Ehrenberg
Lesdenzero – Cristina Groșan (Czech Republic/Switzerland/Hungary/Romania)
Production: Marek Novák
The Stones Are Rolling to Prague – Tomáš Hodan (Czech Republic/Slovakia)
Production: Jakub Kraus, Martin Palán, Tibor Búza
Screaming Girl – Antonio Lukich (Ukraine/Ireland)
Production: Volodymyr Yatsenko, Anna Yatsenko, Jessie Fisk, Annie Barclay
Noah – Marysia Nikitiuk (Ukraine/Croatia/Belgium)
Production: Igor Savychenko, Hrvoje Osvadić, Sébastien Delloye
A Few Branches Off – Tomáš Pavlíček (Czech Republic)
Production: Eva Váchová, Pavel Vácha
The Flying Mountain – Nicolas Steiner (Switzerland/Ireland/Austria)
Production: Katrin Renz, Stefan Jäger, Nicolas Steiner, David Collins, Eamon Hughes, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, Bady Minck
Yugoslavia, My Fatherland – Goran Vojnović (Slovenia/North Macedonia/Serbia)
Production: Boštjan Ikovic, Miloš Ivanović
The Book-to-Screen at KVIFF selected titles are as follows:
Amadoka – Sophia Andrukhovych (Ukraine)
Publisher: The Old Lion Publishing House
The True Way Out – Patrik Banga (Czech Republic)
Publisher: Host
Queen of Hearts – Iulian Ciocan (Moldova)
Publisher: Polirom
Aspic Bistro – Ieva Dumbrytė (Lithuania)
Publisher: Kitos knygos
The Zone – Daniel Majling (Slovakia)
Publisher: Brak
Cupid at the Kremlin Wall – Aka Morchiladze (Georgia)
Publisher: Sulakauri Publishing
Playing Wolf – Zuzana Říhová (Czech Republic)
Publisher: Argo
The River Odyssey of Kora from Willow Meadow – Adam Robiński (Poland)
Publisher: Widnokrąg
