The 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) in the fest’s 80th year in existence unspools July 3-11.
The Czech festival‘s Crystal Globe and Proxima competitions, as well as other selections, are full of movies from various parts of the world. And that’s just how KVIFF artistic director Karel Och and his team like it.
In a conversation previewing the film lineup for KVIFF 2026, Och discussed how he approached the double anniversary edition, a number of firsts and how the global scope of the program ties in with the early, and already ambitious, early days of the festival.
Happy 80th anniversary and happy 60th edition, Karlovy Vary! Did you approach this year’s selection for the double anniversary any differently?
I would say the anniversaries did not change the usual approach towards the official selection. Maybe it did somehow subconsciously in a way. I personally spent long hours in the National Film Archive while preparing our Out of the Past program, going through all possible and existing documents of the festival since 1946, mainly internal documents, but also the festival dailies. I guess somehow I had to have that in mind, but that was more for the classics section.
