Latest news with #HugoRosák
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Karlovy Vary Eastern Promises Winners Include ‘Battalion Records,' ‘In Vacuo'
The Eastern Promises industry section and film market of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) handed out its awards Tuesday evening. 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. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'A Second Life' Review: Agathe Rousselle, Star of Palme d'Or Winner 'Titane,' Carries a Compellingly Off-the-Cuff Paris Movie TikTok Suspends Toronto Film Fest, Junos Sponsorships Ahead of Canadian Operations Closure 'Jimmy Jaguar' Review: An Atypical Hungarian Horror Flick That's More Provocative Than Frightening '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 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) Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Karlovy Vary Industry Head Hugo Rosak Talks Big Year of Change: ‘We Are in Transition as an Industry'
It's a year of great change for the Industry Days program of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. This year, the program will run for longer — between July 6-9, adding an extra day — and have a sharper focus on Central Europe, including an update to its Eastern Promises platform. Another key change includes the broadening of the program's scope to include the small screen, with a series of activities dedicated to series development. 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.' More from Variety Peter Sarsgaard Calls for Unity in a Divided America at Karlovy Vary Film Festival Opening: 'There Is No Going It Alone' Karlovy Vary Player 'The Anatomy of the Horses,' Questioning Revolution in Peru, Acquired by Loco Films (EXCLUSIVE) 'Promise, I'll Be Fine' Boarded by Cappu Films Ahead of Karlovy Vary Premiere (EXCLUSIVE) 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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