Among pop-up bars, bandstands and opulent, 19th century spa buildings painted in sherbet pastels, the Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival (KVIFF) takes place each year in July, at the halfway mark between Cannes and Venice. For those weirdos among us who make a chunk of our living running the gauntlet of summer festivals, the Czech event is a fixture, and for me, personally, as my longest continually attended festival, it is something of a home away from home. I had the pleasure of sitting on the Crystal Globe competition jury last year, and look forward to returning this time in no small part because the festival will celebrate its 60th edition (and it’s 80-year legacy as it was founded in 1946), with a program that was designed, as artistic director Karel Och says, “in a spirit of humility. We look back at the festival’s history and want to honor the work of our predecessors.”
Despite its youthful energy — the festival actively promotes student attendance, with a camp site nearby and the constant thrum of live music outdoors — this sense of stability and continuity is central to the KVIFF experience. Och himself, who took the reins in 2010, is only the fest’s third artistic director. And when the fest’s beloved Jiří Bartoška passed away in May of last year, it was announced that, even posthumously, he will remain KVIFF president, a position he had held since 1994. Prior to the Bartoška era, there were some rocky periods under communism, but even then, organizers fought for artistic independence despite state censorship. Och recounts how, “in 1970, just two years after Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia, Ken Loach’s ‘Kes’ won the festival.”
