KVIFF Eastern Promises, the festival's Industry section and film market, has the rewarding mission of bridging the gap between talented filmmakers and their potential co-production partners, festivals and audiences.

In addition to the established Works in Development – Feature Launch & Focus Queer, and a third edition of KVIFF Talents, this year's Eastern Promises introduced a new Pop Up Series Incubator small-screen pitching session. A key program innovation, the KVIFF Central Stage is a brand-new showcase focused on established directors and Central European co-productions, organised and curated in cooperation with selected national film institutes from the region.

A total of 40 film and series projects were showcased this year, and the winners are:

Eurimages Co-production Development Award

The jury has decided to award the 20.000 EUR cash prize for further development, sponsored by the Eurimages fund, to Battalion Records (Romania), directed and written by Ștefan Bîtu-Tudoran and produced by Diana Caravia.

Eurimages Special Co-production Development Award

An additional prize was donated by Eurimages to support a particularly promising Ukrainian project. The jury has decided to award a special 20.000 EUR cash prize for further development to In Vacuo (Ukraine), directed and written by Yelizaveta Smith and produced by Eugene Rachkovsky.

Works in Development – Feature Launch & Focus Queer

MIDPOINT & KVIFF Development Award

This year, KVIFF showcased nine projects that have gone through development and mentoring within the MIDPOINT – Feature Launch program and five projects from the MIDPOINT – Focus Queer programme, designed to foster diversity in storytelling and provide crucial support to filmmakers in the realm of queer narratives.

The jury has decided to award the 10.000 EUR cash prize for further development, jointly sponsored by MIDPOINT, Barrandov Studio and KVIFF, to History of Illness (Croatia), directed and written by David Gašo and produced by Marta Eva Mećava.

Marché du Film Producers Network Award

Cannes Marché du Film Producers Network representative Yago Mateo has chosen Michelle Brøndum Hauerbach, producer of Soyboy (United Kingdom) and Genovéva Petrovits, producer of Democracy: Work In Progress (Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany) as the winners.

The winners will participate in the Marché du Film and Producers Network during the next Cannes Film Festival.

KVIFF Talents

KVIFF Talents is the festival's year-long programme created with the purpose of seeking out and supporting talented Czech and Slovak filmmakers and innovative audiovisual genres. It consists of two distinct sections – Feature Pool, dedicated to feature films, and Creative Pool, which supports other audiovisual genres from series through videoclips, gaming, etc.

This year, from over 200 submitted projects, the KVIFF curators chose 6 – three feature film concepts and three series concepts. The selected creators and creative teams presented their projects to local and international film professionals during the Industry Days. They will also receive financial support for scriptwriting, mentoring, the opportunity to create a proof-of-concept video, consultations with experts, and for feature film authors also creative residency in Karlovy Vary this fall. The partners of the project are ČEZ Foundation and Oneplay, media partner is Forbes.

The selected projects are:

Feature Pool (120.000 CZK for further development):

Nameless (Czech Republic), directed and animated by Daria Kascheeva and produced

by Lukáš Kokeš

Spirit Moose (Czech Republic, Slovakia), directed by Tomáš Klein, written by Barbora

Námerová and produced by Tomáš Michálek

Burnout (Czech Republic), written and directed by Greta Stocklassa and produced by

Marek Novák

Creative Pool (50.000 CZK for further development):

Mould (Czech Republic), animated series directed and animated by Phillippe Kastner

and produced by Tereza Havlová

Lost Boys (Czech Republic) Anime series, written and directed by Dužan Duong and

produced by Dužan Duong, Lukáš Kokeš and Tomáš Hrubý

Remake (Czech Republic) musical retro dramedy series written and directed by

Kateřina Letáková, produced by Daniel Bleha

This year’s KVIFF Talents showcase also offered the presentation opportunity to one guest project from a Hungarian program that serves as the counterpart to KVIFF Talents: Cine-Collegium Budapest, an independent film funding initiative launched under the umbrella of the Budapest International Film Festival: A Siege (Hungary) directed by István Kovács, written by Kálmán Gasztonyi and produced

by Patricia D'Intino.

Pop Up Series Incubator

A brand new series development program designed to support European producers and scriptwriters by boosting their projects through hands-on development, expert mentorship and financial support. Presented and organised by Tatino Films, co-financed by the European Union and supported and hosted by La Région Grand Est, the city of Reims, and KVIFF, the 8-month-long program came together in Karlovy Vary with a pitching session where the creative teams presented their series concepts to industry professionals and decision makers, followed by curated match-making sessions with professionals that look to finance or produce series.



The 5 selected series projects showcased in Karlovy Vary were:

Angelmaker (Romania) directed and written by Cristina Grosan, accompanied by screenwriters Leana Jalukse and Loïc Barrère and based on a true story of The Angel Makers of Nagyrév. Produced by Anda Ionescu.

Erotic Lives of the Superheroes (France) written and produced by Eric Dupont, accompanied by screenwriters Nadya Todorova and Ruddy-Williams Kabuiku. Based on La Vita Erotica Dei Superuomini, novel by Marco Mancassola

The Night of the Beguines (France) written by David Roux accompanied by screenwriter Yaelle Kayam, produced by Candice Zaccagnino and Olivier Aknin. Based on La Nuit des Béguines, novel by Aline Kiner

The Three Burials Of Irma (Greece) directed and written by Elina Psykou, accompanied by Lemba de Miranda, produced by Fenia Cossovitsa. Based on Alfatride (O iatrodikastis), novel by Vassilis Vassilikos.

Therapies (Lithuania) written by Birutė Kapustinskaitė (based on her own play) accompanied by Fabrizio Muscia and Ruxandra Ghitescu, produced by Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė.