The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s Eastern Promises industry strand has unveiled the winners of its project showcase, which opened on July 6 and ended this evening.
This year’s edition featured 40 film projects that were screened across the festival’s Works in Development – Feature Launch & Focus Queer and KVIFF Talents programs alongside the newly launched Pop Up Series Incubator pitching session and KVIFF Central Stage, a new showcase focused on established directors and Central European co-productions, organised and curated in cooperation with selected national film institutes from the region.
In the Works in Progress sidebar, the MIDPOINT & KVIFF Development Award was handed to History of Illness (Croatia), directed and written by David Gašo and produced by Marta Eva Mećava. The award comes with a 10,000 EUR cash prize for further development, jointly sponsored by MIDPOINT, Barrandov Studio, and KVIFF.
Discussing the pic, the jury, Martin Horyna, Danijel Hočevar, and Egle Vertelyte, said: “A film narrative is typically driven by characters, yet it can also take the form of a spatial and temporal fluid—shaped by its own color, form, and tone. We have chosen to highlight a charming film project in which human unease plunges into an absurd labyrinth where anxiety peers out from the corners of humor.”
Scroll down for the full list of winners. Karlovy Vary ends on Sunday.
Works in Development – Feature Launch & Focus Queer MIDPOINT & KVIFF Development Award Jury: Martin Horyna, story consultant and festival curator Danijel Hočevar, producer at Vertigo, producer, mentor at MIDPOINT Feature Launch Egle Vertelyte, screenwriter and director This year, KVIFF showcased nine projects that have gone through development and mentoring within the MIDPOINT – Feature Launch programme and five projects from the MIDPOINT – Focus Queer programme, designed to foster diversity in storytelling and provide crucial support to filmmakers in the realm of queer narratives. The jury has decided to award the 10,000 EUR cash prize for further development, jointly sponsored by MIDPOINT, Barrandov Studio and KVIFF, to History of Illness (Croatia), directed and written by David Gašo and produced by Marta Eva Mećava. Jury statement: “A film narrative is typically driven by characters, yet it can also take the form of a spatial and temporal fluid—shaped by its own color, form, and tone. We have chosen to highlight a charming film project in which human unease plunges into an absurd labyrinth where anxiety peers out from the corners of humor.” Connecting Cottbus Award Connecting Cottbus representatives Marjorie Bendeck and Katharina Stumm have decided to give the award to the film RadioAmateur (Poland), directed and written by Tomasz Habowski and produced by Marta Szarzyńska . The project will be granted the opportunity to pitch at Connecting Cottbus, the East-West co-production market, during the Film Festival Cottbus. Statement: “We were really taken with this haunting and unsentimental story of a dinosaur and his broken tools of communication, and we were happy to find out there may still be someone at the other end of the line for him.” Rotterdam Lab Award Rotterdam Lab representative Facundo Lema has chosen Ondřej Lukeš, producer of the film Restless (Czech Republic) as the winner. The winner will participate in the Rotterdam Lab professional training programme for producers, which takes place during the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Statement: “Considering the right and accurate timing, their career and the potential of their projects in development, as well as the potential for internationalisation of their work, but also the conception of production, ambitions and growth, we invite Ondřej Lukeš to attend Rotterdam Lab 2026.” Marché du Film Producers Network Award Cannes Marché du Film Producers Network representative Yago Mateo has chosen Michelle Brøndum Hauerbach, producer of Soyboy (United Kingdom) and Genovéva Petrovits, producer of Democracy: Work In Progress (Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany) as the winners. The winners will participate in the Marché du Film and Producers Network during the next Cannes Film Festival. KVIFF Talents KVIFF Talents is the festival’s year-long programme created with the purpose of seeking out and supporting talented Czech and Slovak filmmakers and innovative audiovisual genres. It consists of two distinct sections – Feature Pool, dedicated to feature films, and Creative Pool, which supports other audiovisual genres from series through videoclips, gaming, etc. This year, from over 200 submitted projects, the KVIFF curators chose 6 – three feature film concepts and three series concepts. The selected creators and creative teams presented their projects to local and international film professionals during the Industry Days. They will also receive financial support for scriptwriting, mentoring, the opportunity to create a proof-of-concept video, consultations with experts, and for feature film authors also creative residency in Karlovy Vary this fall. The partners of the project are ČEZ Foundation and Oneplay, media partner is Forbes. The selected projects are: Feature Pool (120,000 CZK for further development): Nameless (Czech Republic), directed and animated by Daria Kascheeva and produced by Lukáš Kokeš Spirit Moose (Czech Republic, Slovakia), directed by Tomáš Klein, written by Barbora Námerová and produced by Tomáš Michálek Burnout (Czech Republic), written and directed by Greta Stocklassa and produced by Marek Novák Creative Pool (50,000 CZK for further development): Mould (Czech Republic), animated series directed and animated by Phillippe Kastner and produced by Tereza Havlová Lost Boys (Czech Republic) Anime series, written and directed by Dužan Duong and produced by Dužan Duong, Lukáš Kokeš and Tomáš Hrubý Remake (Czech Republic) musical retro dramedy series written and directed by Kateřina Letáková, produced by Daniel Bleha This year’s KVIFF Talents showcase also offered the presentation opportunity to one guest project from a Hungarian program that serves as the counterpart to KVIFF Talents: Cine-Collegium Budapest, an independent film funding initiative launched under the umbrella of the Budapest International Film Festival: A Siege (Hungary) directed by István Kovács, written by Kálmán Gasztonyi and produced by Patricia D’Intino. Pop Up Series Incubator A brand new series development program designed to support European producers and scriptwriters by boosting their projects through hands-on development, expert mentorship and financial support. Presented and organised by Tatino Films, co-financed by the European Union and supported and hosted by La Région Grand Est, the city of Reims, and KVIFF, the 8-month-long program came together in Karlovy Vary with a pitching session where the creative teams presented their series concepts to industry professionals and decision makers, followed by curated match-making sessions with professionals that look to finance or produce series. The 5 selected series projects showcased in Karlovy Vary were: Angelmaker (Romania) directed and written by Cristina Grosan, accompanied by screenwriters Leana Jalukse and Loïc Barrère and based on a true story of The Angel Makers of Nagyrév. Produced by Anda Ionescu. Erotic Lives Of The Superheroes (France) written and produced by Eric Dupont, accompanied by screenwriters Nadya Todorova and Ruddy-Williams Kabuiku. Based on La Vita Erotica Dei Superuomini, novel by Marco Mancassola The Night Of The Beguines (France) written by David Roux accompanied by screenwriter Yaelle Kayam, produced by Candice Zaccagnino and Olivier Aknin. Based on La Nuit des Béguines, novel by Aline Kiner The Three Burials Of Irma (Greece) directed and written by Elina Psykou, accompanied by Lemba de Miranda, produced by Fenia Cossovitsa. Based on Alfatride (O iatrodikastis), novel by Vassilis Vassilikos. Therapies (Lithuania) written by Birutė Kapustinskaitė (based on her own play) accompanied by Fabrizio Muscia and Ruxandra Ghitescu, produced by Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė.
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