Sure, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival audiences come to the Czech spa town for cinematic gems and the best of the past year. But let’s be honest: they also come for the trailers.
KVIFF‘s signature pre-show spots have become a festival institution in their own right — edgy, often outrageous short films starring previous festival guests who are put through some kind of ordeal, frequently involving the Crystal Globe statuette being deployed in, shall we say, creative ways. Past victims include Johnny Depp, Mel Gibson, Javier Bardem, Helen Mirren, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, Milos Forman, Danny DeVito, Casey Affleck, Andy Garcia and John Malkovich — many of whom you can watch here.
Shot almost always in black-and-white, the trailers are the work of Ivan Zachariáš, a Czech commercial and film director who has taken home several Cannes Lions honors. Audiences have been known to debate which trailer might unspool before a given screening before they’ve even taken their seats.
THR caught up with Zachariáš to find out how he makes the magic happen, how he landed the gig, and why it’s harder than it looks.
When did you create your first KVIFF trailer, how did you get that job, and which star or director was it with? First, I shot a series of short trailers with Eddie Marsan in 2004. But it wasn’t part of the recent series yet. It started in 2008 when Jiří Bartoška and Kryštof Mucha asked me to try to come up with a new idea – to make the trailers a bit more consistent. I came up with a concept of short B&W films with actors and directors who’ve been awarded by the festival in the past – always featuring the award in some funny way. We managed to shoot four little films that year. We’ve been very lucky with getting Miloš Forman, Harvey Keitel and Danny DeVito – we shot all three within a few days in New York and Connecticut. Then we added one more day in Prague with [Czech filmmaker] Věra Chytilová.
