With its vibrant location and challenging film programme, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has become one of Europe’s top film events. Every year, they roll the red carpet out at the Hotel Thermal, signaling the official opening of the ten-day star-studded event.
The cinema halls throw their doors open and the endless screenings of top-rated films begin. The streets of this lovely European Spa town fill with internationally acclaimed stars and world-renowned directors and thousands of avid film lovers. The festival began in 1946, shortly after the end of the Second World War. For the small, newly liberated country of Czechoslovakia, launching a major film festival proved a formidable task. Still, its popularity grew in those early years, and it was considered one of the most prestigious cinema competitions in Europe.
After the founding of the Moscow Cinema Festival, however, the best of the experimental and innovative films transferred their previews to the Russian capital. Karlovy Vary was left with films from the socialist countries. Fast forward to 1989, and the Velvet Revolution! Organizers set to work, rebuilding the festival’s reputation. Today the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is an “A” category festival, one of the most prestigious and important cinema events in Central Europe, and is no small potatoes when compared with the Cannes, Venice and Berlin Film Festivals.
Moreover, Karlovy Vary boasts the best audience of any festival in the world, featuring a young and enthusiastic crowd; many are film students or members of film clubs.
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