Karlovy Vary Unveils Central Stage Films, Launches Book-to-Screen

KVIFF Promises, part of the industry program of Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival, has unveiled the works-in-progress projects from Central Europe selected for the KVIFF Central Stage showcase, as well as the books selected for the first edition of Book-to-Screen at KVIFF, a showcase for books seeking film adaptation deals.

The 11 upcoming films selected for KVIFF Central Stage are directed by established filmmakers with extensive festival pedigrees, including Nicolas Steiner, Antonio Lukich, Olga Chajdas and Cristina Groșan.

These films in the making, seeking co-production, financing, sales, distribution and festival opportunities, will be showcased during an interactive talk show on the Film Industry Main Stage on July 6.

The festival also unveiled the eight literary works selected for Book-to-Screen at KVIFF, a new showcase that seeks to create a market for film adaptation rights to original IPs from Central and Eastern Europe and strengthen cooperation between the film and publishing industries. The books, selected by an international jury, will be presented to producers in a talk show moderated by Niki Théron of the Frankfurt Book Fair on July 7.

In total, this year’s KVIFF Promises will present 38 projects across five programs to producers, sales companies, distributors, festival programmers and other professionals seeking emerging films or works available for adaptation: 11 feature films in KVIFF Central Stage, nine treatments in Works in Development – Feature Launch and four in Works in Development – Focus Queer, six feature film or series projects in KVIFF Talents and eight original literary IPs in Book-to-Screen at KVIFF.

KVIFF Central Stage Introduces 11 Upcoming Films From the Central European Region
The aim of KVIFF Central Stage, created by the KVIFF Film Industry Office in cooperation with the national film institutes of eight Central European countries, is to showcase upcoming feature films of established filmmakers 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,” Hugo Rosák, the head of KVIFF Film Industry Programs, said.

Switzerland will be represented by the project “Flying Mountain,” written and directed by Nicolas Steiner, whose previous films, such as “Above and Below,” were screened at Berlinale, Rotterdam and KVIFF.

Ukraine will present two co-productions by filmmakers with extensive festival credentials: “Screaming Girl” by director Antonio Lukich, whose comedy-drama “Luxembourg, Luxembourg” premiered at Venice and whose previous film “My Thoughts Are Silent” was also shown at KVIFF, winner of the Special Jury Prize in the East of the West section in 2019, and “Noah” by director and screenwriter Marysia Nikitiuk.

The documentary “Traces,” which she co-directed, had its world premiere and won the Audience Award in the Panorama section of this year’s Berlinale. Her debut feature “When the Trees Fall” earned a nomination for best debut at the 2018 Berlinale and received the Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award for best Eastern European screenplay in 2016. Her films were also shown in Cannes or at Tallinn Black Nights.

The Czech Republic has two representatives in the selection. Tomáš Hodan (“Poslední závod,” “Prezident Blaník”) will showcase “The Stones Are Rolling to Prague,” which recalls an iconic moment of the Czech 1990s through the story of preparations for the Rolling Stones’ concert in Prague in 1990. Czech cultural phenomena—namely cottage culture—are also explored in the comedy “A Few Branches Off” by Tomáš Pavlíček.

Romanian-Hungarian director Cristina Groșan (“Ordinary Failures,” which was awarded at Venice) will present her upcoming mob drama “Lesdenzero.”

Polish director Olga Chajdas, known to Karlovy Vary audiences from “Imago” (which played in Proxima competition and won the FIPRESCI Prize in 2023), will present her female road movie “Tribe.”

German multidisciplinary artist Sebastian Fritzsch, whose debut “Endzeit” premiered at Berlinale, will present the visually and atmospherically rich upcoming film “Trainrider.”

Slovenian writer and director Goran Vojnović will present the upcoming film adaptation of his own book “Yugoslavia, My Fatherland.” The selection concludes with the Slovak coming-of-age drama “Cowgirl” by Michal Blaško (“Victim”) and Austrian director Sebastian Brauneis’s boxing biography “Hansi,” which captures 1960s Vienna.

Moving beyond traditional pitches, the projects will be showcased through interactive conversations about the filmmakers’ career paths and co-production possibilities across the participating countries. The most promising films in development, selected by an international jury, will be eligible for the €20,000 Eurimages Co-Production Development Award.

The participating projects will also gain access to post-production through a partnership with UPP and Soundsquare. Films that meet the criteria for the Czech Audiovisual Fund’s 35% digital production incentive will receive an additional 15% discount on audio-visual post-production services from both studios.

The KVIFF Central Stage showcase will take place at 2 p.m. on July 6, on the Industry Main Stage in Kaiserbad.

KVIFF Central Stage selected projects:
“The Flying Mountain” (Switzerland, Ireland, Austria)
Direction, Screenplay: Nicolas Steiner
Production: Katrin Renz, Stefan Jäger, Nicolas Steiner, David Collins, Eamon Hughes, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, Bady Minck

“Screaming Girl” (Ukraine, Ireland)
Direction: Antonio Lukich
Screenplay: Antonio Lukich, Ailbhe Keogan
Production: Volodymyr Yatsenko, Anna Yatsenko, Jessie Fisk, Annie Barclay

“Noah” (Ukraine, Croatia, Belgium)
Direction, Screenplay: Marysia Nikitiuk
Production: Igor Savychenko, Hrvoje Osvadić, Sébastien Delloye

“Lesdenzero” (Czech Republic, Switzerland, Hungary, Romania)
Direction: Cristina Groșan
Screenplay: Arne Kohlweyer, Cristina Groșan
Production: Marek Novák

“The Stones Are Rolling to Prague” (Czech Republic, Slovakia)
Direction, Screenplay: Tomáš Hodan
Production: Jakub Kraus, Martin Palán, Tibor Búza

“A Few Branches Off” (Czech Republic)
Direction, Screenplay: Tomáš Pavlíček
Production: Eva Váchová, Pavel Vácha

“Tribe” (Poland, Albania)
Direction, Screenplay: Olga Chajdas
Production: Karolina Galuba

“Trainrider” (Germany)
Direction: Sebastian Fritzsch
Screenplay: Jan Bredehöft, Sebastian Fritzsch
Production: Corinna C. Poetter, Daniel Ehrenberg

“Yugoslavia, My Fatherland” (Slovenia, North Macedonia, Serbia)
Direction: Goran Vojnović
Screenplay: Goran Vojnović, Aleksandar Popovski
Production: Boštjan Ikovic, Miloš Ivanović

“Cowgirl” (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary)
Direction: Michal Blaško
Screenplay: Jakub Medvecký
Production: Jakub Viktorín, Tomáš Hrubý

“Hansi” (Austria)
Direction: Sebastian Brauneis
Screenplay: Sebastian Brauneis, Helmut Emersberger
Production: Ulrich Gehmacher

Book-to-Screen at KVIFF: Establishing a Central-Eastern European Market for IP Adaptations
A new collaboration with the Frankfurt Book Fair, Moravian Library in Brno and Book World, supported by the PPF Foundation, brings literary adaptations into the KVIFF Industry Days program.

Inspired by a Berlinale program, Book-to-Screen at KVIFF will spotlight eight books with strong screen potential, written by authors from Central and Eastern Europe, a region that Rosák describes as still underrepresented when it comes to IP development and the systematic handling of literary rights.

Producers seeking new material for film and television adaptations will have the opportunity to discover these literary works during an interactive talk show hosted by Niki Théron, senior manager international projects and film at the Frankfurt Book Fair, on July 7 (10.30 a.m. Film Industry Main Stage).

“For this first edition, we were delighted to receive more than 70 submissions from 14 countries. Selecting just eight was a real challenge, but the final line-up now reflects the region’s diversity of countries, genres and themes, from historical epics and folk horror to children’s stories and bold contemporary voices. We look forward to spotlighting these stories at KVIFF and helping pave the way for new book-to-screen partnerships across Central and Eastern Europe,” Théron said.

“True Way Out,” journalist Patrik Banga’s memoir about growing up in a Roma community in Prague’s Žižkov neighbourhood in the 1990s, won the Magnesia Litera award for Best Debut in 2023.

“Playing Wolf” is “a village novel you want to read in the safety of the city.” This folk-horror thriller by writer and literary scholar Zuzana Říhová, former head of Czech Studies at Oxford, was published in France and the U.S. by Éditions du Seuil and Catapult, respectively.

In the graphic novel “The Zone” by Slovak author and playwright Daniel Majling, a mysteriously hostile space takes on the title role itself. Absurd characters, dark humor, striking visuals and cult status among Central European comics fans (the novel received the Czech Muriel Prize) all contribute to its adaptation potential.

“Queen of Hearts,” a dystopian satire by Moldovan author Iulian Ciocan, explores an ever-expanding, all-consuming crater in the middle of post-communist Chișinău.

“Aspic Bistro” by Ieva Dumbrytė, set in a surreal, almost Orwellian-controlled kitchen environment, won several awards in her native Lithuania, including the prize for the Most Creative Book of the Year.

The historical drama “Cupid at the Kremlin Wall” takes place during a tragic train journey across Georgia, at the height of the Stalinist terror in the 1930s. Historian Aka Morchiladze, its author, is an accomplished writer who has over 30 novels published in 15 countries. He has written several screenplays, and his previous book “Journey to Karabakh” was adapted into a film.

The selection also includes a strong representative of children’s literature, the Polish title “The River Odyssey of Kora From Willow Meadow” by Adam Robiński. The story of a young beaver named Kora offers strong potential for visually and emotionally compelling family film with ecological relevance.

The war in the Donbas serves as the starting point in “Amadoka,” a novel that combines an intimate human story with the vast historical trauma of Eastern Europe in a deeply cinematic way. Writer Sophia Andrukhovych won the International Hermann Hesse Prize 2024 for it. Her debut novel “Felix Austria” already won the BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year award and was adapted into a film titled “Devoted.”

The showcase will be complemented by 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 develop dialogue between the film and publishing industries and create a more transparent environment for adaptation rights in the region,” Rosák said
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Book-to-Screen at KVIFF projects:
“Playing Wolf” (Czech Republic)
Author: Zuzana Říhová
Genre: folk horror, psychological thriller
Publisher: Argo

“The True Way Out” (Czech Republic)
Author: Patrik Banga
Genre: coming-of-age, autobiography
Publisher: Host

“Cupid at the Kremlin Wall” (Georgia)
Author: Aka Morchiladze
Genre: historical drama, detective novel
Publisher: Sulakauri Publishing

“Aspic Bistro” (Lithuania)
Author: Ieva Dumbrytė
Genre: magic-realism satire
Publisher: Kitos knygos

“Queen of Hearts” (Moldova)
Author: Iulian Ciocan
Genre: dystopian novel
Publisher: Polirom

“The River Odyssey of Kora From Willow Meadow” (Poland)
Author: Adam Robiński
Genre: children’s literature
Publisher: Widnokrąg

“The Zone” (Slovakia)
Author: Daniel Majling
Genre: graphic novel
Publisher: Brak

“Amadoka” (Ukraine)
Author: Sophia Andrukhovych
Genre: historical/war novel
Publisher: The Old Lion Publishing House