The 56th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) took place from July 1 – 9, 2022, ending on Saturday evening with a Closing Night ceremony at the Grand Hall of the spa town’s Hotel Thermal. Although canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, with a scaled-down physical event taking place in 2021, the Festival returned on a grand scale, bigger and better than ever.

“We had a physical event last year, but it was still a bit under the cloud of COVID,” said KVIFF Artistic Director Karel Och. “This time around, everyone is really in the mood, you can feel the atmosphere that makes Karlovy Vary so special. It’s going to be as close to [the last pre-pandemic festival] 2019 as possible.”

Iranian coming-of-age drama Summer With Hope won the top Grand Prix Award in the Crystal Globe Competition. Written and directed by Iranian Canadian Sadaf Foroughi, the social drama tells the story of a young swimming champion as he struggles to train for a risky ocean competition. 

“We live in a world full of violence and discrimination”, said director Sadaf Foroughi to the Jury and her colleagues. “I hope that our stories bring peace and tranquility”.

Czech filmmaker Beata Parkanova won the Best Director prize for World Premiere The Word, set against the backdrop of the events surrounding the Russian invasion of the Czech Republic in 1968. The film stars Martin Finger who won Best Actor for his portrayal of a respected small-town notary and family man, put under pressure to join the local branch of the Communist Party, against his wishes.

Speaking a short while after receiving the prestigious Award, Parkanova said, “I knew the outline of the story in the film from my own grandparents. As for its message, I’d like every viewer to experience the film on the basis of who they are, and in what phase of life they are. But I think there is a clear message in The Word, which is that if you have somebody in your life who holds you close, that’s pretty much the greatest thing you can have”.

Georgians Taki Mumladze and Mariam Khundadze shared Best Actress honors for their roles as restless young women in Ioseb “Soso” Bliadze’s female emancipation drama, A Room Of My Own. Both actresses were overwhelmed with emotion during their acceptance speeches.

The Special Jury Prize was awarded to the Spanish film You Have To Come And See It which follows two couples in their thirties as they discuss the essentials of life between Madrid and the neighboring countryside, whilst the Audience Award went to Czech rockumentary PSH Neverending Story about three legendary, Prague rapper heroes.

This year Karlovy Vary had a new competition section, Proxima, evolving from the former East of the West section, which focuses on emerging directors and fresh approaches. It was won by Czech filmmakers Adéla Komrzý and Tomáš Bojar for the documentary Art Talent Show, which explores entrance exams at different studios within Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts. The filmmakers pledged to send the $15,000 prize money to support urgent war victim needs in Ukraine.

The KVIFF President’s Award was presented to Czech actor Bolek Polivka. “I am touched and full of joy”, he declared during his acceptance speech. “I console myself with the idea expressed by Goethe: A handsome young man is a freak of nature. A handsome old man is a work of art”.

The President’s Award was also presented to Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro. “It’s strange to look at all the movies I’ve made”, said del Toro. “I don’t know how I got there – maybe it was luck, maybe talent, maybe perseverance. But my work is a by-product of many people’s trust in me, even at times when I didn’t believe in myself,” The actor also mentioned the support for Ukrainian filmmakers through the KVIFF Works in Progress platform, adding that he was happy to receive an award from a festival that is trying “to make sure that culture doesn’t become a casualty of war”.

The Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema went to Oscar-winning, Australian actor Geoffrey Rush, who said that the Crystal Globe was a mysterious crystal ball in which he could see his past. “In 1977, I saw Bolek Polívka and Boris Hybner – and the performances were simply breathtaking”, he said. “Bolek, you have been my man-muse. I’ve looked up to you, I’ve wanted to be like you,” the actor continued, as he paid tribute to the Czech artist.

US actor and director Liev Schreiber was the star guest of KVIFF and introduced the work of the non-profit organization BlueCheck Ukraine. “Our goal is to distribute funding as quickly as possible to the frontline in Ukraine,” he told journalists at the beginning of the press conference. “My celebrity status helps me to spread information about what is going on”. He stated that he certainly does not seek inspiration in the current situation. “Now is definitely not the time to tell stories, and I am too tall to play Zelensky,” Schreiber concluded.

KVIFF 2022 was attended by 10,592 accredited visitors with a total of 170 films being screened. These included 108 feature fiction films, 24 feature documentaries and 38 short films. 35 films received their world premiere, 6 their international premiere, and 4 their European premiere. 158 screenings were personally presented by delegations of filmmakers and 86 Press and Industry screenings were held.

As Krystof Mucha, the Executive Director of KVIFF commented,  “If other major A-list film festivals are 90% about film professionals, KVIFF is probably 10% about film professionals and 90% about cinephiles and ordinary film lovers, who are not directly related to the cinema industry.”