01/07/2005

With the 40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival opening its doors to the industry guests and the public on July 1, the focus turns inevitably to the filmmakers.
More than 220 films will be screened in 14 theatres during the festival. Of them, 41 fall under the “Forum of Independents”, a section which has entered its 12th year in Karlovy Vary and remains among the most popular ones, with both the public and the industry experts, most of the times with sold-out screenings.

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The 2005 edition of the section offers a mixture of older and recent productions with more than half of them directorial debuts. While a good percentage of the films are US/Canada made, talents from all over Europe have their films screened here. Most importantly a number of Europeans are invited to talk about the “hazard of being independent” in Europe, in other words low-budget film-making – Aron Gauder from Hungary, Frenchman David Lanzmann or Lucile Hadzihalilovic to name but a few.
“We’re looking for something that’s different, different from the TV, from the mainstream – different is the keyword” explains Hana Cielova, co-director of the Forum together with Stefan Uhrik.
“Sometimes, ‘independents’ call themselves independent because they don’t live in Hollywood – but they would like to go there! For us this is not ‘independent’…” adds Uhrik.

For the second year running, the “Forum of Independents” will present its own award – the “Independent Camera –Czech Television award for the best film”. Films made in the last two calendar years are eligible to contest for the prize and the Jury is almost all-European: Michael Malek is a dramaturge at the Czech Television; Peter Nagel is the director of the International Film Festival in Bratislava, Slovakia, while American Milos Stehlik’s name is proof to his Czech ancestry.