#Karlovy Vary Film Festival Unveils 2023 Lineup

The 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival has unveiled its competition line-up for its 57th edition, set to run in the bucolic Czech spa town from June 30 to July 8.

Among this year’s competition highlights are Fremont, from Iranian-born, London-based director Babak Jalali, a dramedy based around Donya, a former Afghan translator for U.S. troops who now works in a fortune cookie factory in Fremont, USA. Empty Nets, from Iranian filmmaker Behrooz Karamizade, a love story set in a small fishing village in contemporary Iran, is also in the running for the festival’s Crystal Globe honor for best competition film.

Outside the competition, Karlovy Vary this year has put a focus on independent Iranian cinema, with a selection of recent works by directors working outside the Tehran regime.

Other 2023 competition highlights include Red Rooms, a Canadian darknet thriller from director Pascal Plante, Itsaso Arana’s Spanish drama The Girls Are Alright (Las chicas están bien) and the Scandinavian satire The Hypnosis from director Ernst De Geer, about a power couple trying to launch a women’s reproductive health app.

Eastern European cinema is always well represented in Karlovy Vary, and this year’s Crystal Globe line-up includes A Sensitive Person from Tomáš Klein, a dark Czech-Slovak drama about an itinerant actor and his family as they navigate a grim and sometimes crazy journey back home; the Matěj Chlupáček’s We Have Never Been Modern, a detective drama set in the Tatra mountains; and two Bulgarian features: Tinatin Kajrishvili’s satirical parable Citizen Saint, and Stephan Komandarev’s drama Blaga’s Lessons, a recently widowed retired teacher who falls prey to telephone scammers.

Karlovy Vary’s Proxima sidebar this year includes such highlights as Albert Hospodářský’s environmental sci-fi drama Brutal Heat, Camila Rodríguez Triana’s Latin American drama The Song of the Auricanturi, which explores family relationships in the wake of the trauma of war, and Saurav Rai’s Indian feature Guras which follows a nine-year-old girl searching for her missing dog while her family struggles for survival during the cardamom harvest.

Special screenings will include Robert Hloz’s sci-fi drama Restore Point set in a world where humanity has achieved the ability to cheat death; Jean-Gabriel Périot’s Facing Darkness, an account of the four-year siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1996; and Snake Gas, David Jařab’s Czech/Slovak drama, inspired by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, about a man’s search for his missing brother.

Oscar-nominated actor Patricia Clarkson (Pieces of April, Far from Heaven) and Irish actor Barry Ward (The End of the F***ing World) will sit on the 2023 Karlovy Vary jury, judging this year’s Crystal Globe winners, alongside Tunisian film producer Dora Bouchoucha (Buried Secrets, Foreign Body), Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu (Family Film, Winter Flies) and Sundance festival programmer John Nein.

Dutch film critic and writer Dana Linssen will head up the jury for the festival’s Proxima sidebar, alongside Memoria producer Meng Xie, Czech director Šimon Šafránek (King Skate), Lithuanian film producer Marija Razgutė (Slow), and author and Eastern European cinema expert Barbara Wurm.