Karlovy Vary Eastern Promises Winners Include ‘Battalion Records,' ‘In Vacuo'
KVIFF Eastern Promises describes its mission as 'bridging the gap between talented filmmakers and their potential co-production partners, festivals and audiences.' This year, 40 film and series projects competed for awards.
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'Every country in Central Europe has something unique to showcase, but even experienced filmmakers often struggle to close financing,' said Hugo Rosák, the head of the KVIFF Film Industry Office. 'The support structures here are still relatively fragile. Our hope is that by curating projects in close collaboration with national film institutes, we can offer producers and investors a selection they can trust, and ultimately help unlock co-financing with greater confidence. At the same time, we want to spark more awareness and collaboration between producers in the region. There's a lot of potential for working together, and this format helps make those connections visible.'
The 59th edition of KVIFF runs through Saturday, July 12. Check out the Eastern Promises winners 2025 below.
Eurimages Co-Production Development Awards
The winner gets a 20,000 euros ($23,445) cash prize for further development, sponsored by the Eurimages fund.
Battalion Records (Romania), directed and written by Ștefan Bîtu-Tudoran and produced by Diana Caravia. Jury statement: 'We are pleased to award the Co-Production Development Award to a bold debut that confronts the decay of culture. Because sometimes, to make people listen, you must turn things upside down – and this absurdist heist comedy does so with rebellious energy.'
Eurimages Special Co-Production Development Award An additional 20,000 euros ($23,445) prize was donated by Eurimages to support a 'particularly promising' Ukrainian project.
In Vacuo (Ukraine), directed and written by Yelizaveta Smith and produced by Eugene Rachkovsky. Jury statement: 'We are proud to award this Ukrainian feature debut set in Odessa. The film explores the universal impact of loss and how absence shapes both identities and communities, highlighting the importance of remembering before it's too late.'
Midpoint & KVIFF Development Award The winner gets a 10,000 euros ($11,722) cash prize for further development, jointly sponsored by Midpoint, Barrandov Studio and KVIFF.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.'
'History of Illness' Connecting Cottbus Award The winner is granted the opportunity to pitch at Connecting Cottbus, the East-West co-production market, during the Film Festival Cottbus. RadioAmateur (Poland), directed and written by Tomasz Habowski and produced by Marta Szarzyńska . 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.'
'RadioAmateur' Rotterdam Lab Award The winner gets to participate in the Rotterdam Lab professional training programme for producers, which takes place during the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Ondřej Lukeš, producer of the film Restless (Czech Republic). 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 The winners get to participate in the Marché du Film and Producers Network during the next Cannes Film Festival. Michelle Brøndum Hauerbach, producer of Soyboy (United Kingdom) and Genovéva Petrovits, producer of Democracy: Work In Progress (Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany)
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