Karlovy Vary Industry Head Hugo Rosak Talks Big Year of Change: ‘We Are in Transition as an Industry'
Speaking with Variety ahead of this year's edition, head of industry office Hugo Rosák says it is 'nice to step out of the routine' with the new initiatives. 'We are all part of a certain ecosystem, and within that ecosystem, we play a role. Whenever we realize the system is changing and we are in some context no longer helpful, I think it's important to look back and have a better understanding of how things can be improved so we can still be relevant.'
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The industry head says he is aware that 'not everything is pitch perfect' and the festival needs to treat it 'as a pilot year and hopefully some of those changes will prove to be working.'
Amongst the key changes this year is the end of the previous Works in Progress pitches, replaced by the Eastern European-focused Central Stage showcase, an initiative created by the festival's film industry office in cooperation with the national film institutes of Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. With this, pitches are scrapped in favor of interactive talks to hone in on the co-production landscape of the participating countries.
'Our experience over the past years has shown a stronger and stronger decline in how our audience attended some of the works in progress showcases,' says Rosák of the change. 'It reflected a post-COVID situation in the film industry, but also the fact that international sales are struggling to find projects, which means they travel less. Or sales agents are already in touch with a lot of the producers because they follow up on many of the projects at a much earlier stage.'
The head adds that it takes 'a lot of effort' to organize a works-in-progress showcase to make sure it is a 'relevant' event to the people in the room. 'We saw this started working less, and felt it was time to find a way to address the role the festival could play. This element of curating something for a whole wide region of Eastern Europe is something we have done very well 20 years ago, but now it was time to reflect on whether it was being helpful to anyone or making it harder to select good quality projects that would fit the curation.'
'At the end of the day, we also had this internal feeling of, ok, this is costing us a lot of energy and a lot of money,' he emphasizes. 'Maybe we need to find a way in which we can still be helpful and relevant to projects that are still looking to be financed and are in a more fragile state, which is how we developed KVIFF Central Stage.'
Following a trend in other key markets, the industry arm of Karlovy Vary is stepping into series and television through a partnership with Central European Media Enterprises. On top of a dedicated program of showcases, panels, workshops and talks around small-screen players on July 8 and 9, the festival will host the Pop Up Series Incubator, a new series development program designed to support European producers and scriptwriters. Organized by Tatino Films, the eight-month-long program culminates in a pitching session at the festival, followed by curated match-making sessions with financiers and producers.
'For us, it's a new path but at the same time a very logical one because filmmakers and creatives are now working across many different media types,' says Rosák of stepping into the series sphere. 'On the industry side, it may be less important focusing on the product than focusing on how people come together and exchange ideas. As an industry hub for Central Europe, it's only natural that we also focus on television formats and try to address some of the issues on the industry side across different value chains.'
How did this new format change the industry program's attendance so far? 'The number of sales [agents] has dropped,' answers the head. 'It's now more producer-driven, which is interesting. I'm not actually closely observing the guests this year as it's a year of change and I think it will slowly adapt. I think it's perfectly fine to leave it for a couple of years and see how this idea of a hub changes.
'This year there is also a big change on the audiovisual field in Czech Republic with the new audiovisual law, which also includes series and games,' he adds. 'We are in a transition as an industry overall, so I think responding to this transition open-mindedly and willing to accept different ways and not dwelling on tradition is the way to help us move better and faster towards being relevant.'
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