The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival recently unveiled a sharpened Central-European co-production focus for its rebranded KVIFF Central Stage showcase. On Monday, the fest unveiled the 14 projects from eight different countries of Central Europe that will be featured at its 59th edition next month.
The movie projects seeking co-production and financing opportunities, sales, distribution or festival premieres come from “established filmmakers with extensive festival pedigrees,” including Iran’s Nader Saeivar (The Witness), who will be presenting a project that he wrote and directed, with Cannes Palme d’Or 2025 winner Jafar Panahi (It Was Just an Accident) editing it, an adaptation of Austrian author and playwright Thomas Bernhard’s novel The Lime Works by Austria’s Andreas Horvath (Lillian), and Hungary’s László Csuja (Gentle).
“The selected projects, which are currently in various stages of development, production or post-production, will be showcased through interactive conversations about the filmmakers’ career paths and co-production possibilities across the participating countries,” KVIFF organizers said. “The participating projects will also gain access to exclusive post-production advantages through a generous partnership with industry-leading studios UPP and Soundsquare, while also being eligible for the €20,000 ($23,000) Eurimages Co-Production Development Award.”
Meanwhile, the recently established showcase KVIFF Talents, focused on seeking out and supporting talented Czech and Slovak filmmakers and innovative audiovisual genres, will be joined by a guest project from Hungarian filmmaker István Kovács. He will pitch the feature-length version of his Student Academy Award-winning short film A Siege (Ostrom) in Karlovy Vary.
The new KVIFF Central Stage event, taking place on Tuesday, July 8, was created by the KVIFF Film Industry Office in cooperation with selected national film institutes of eight Central European countries, namely Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.
“We introduced this new format to address a notable gap in the Central European film landscape,” said Hugo Rosák, the head of the KVIFF Industry Office. “While emerging filmmakers often receive substantial support, mid-career filmmakers typically have fewer opportunities for visibility and financing, despite their equally compelling projects.”
Here is a look at the 14 fiction film projects that will be presented at KVIFF Central Stage.
‘The Lime Works’
Courtesy of KVIFF
The Lime Works (Austria) Attending – Director, Scriptwriter, Producer: Andreas Horvath “An adaptation of the eponymous novel by controversial Austrian ‘Nestbeschmutzer’ (denigrator of his own country) Thomas Bernhard” that is both surrealist and nightmarish.
Masaryk: The Coup (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovak Republic) Director: Julius Ševčík Scriptwriter: Julius Ševčík, Petr Kolečko Producer: Vanessa Biermannová, Rudolf Biermann “A standalone sequel to the immensely successful A Prominent Patient by Julius Ševčík, which premiered at Berlinale and won 12 Czech Lion Awards.”
Around the Fire (Czech Republic, Netherlands, Slovak Republic) Director, Scriptwriter: Michal Hogenauer Producer: Marek Novák Hogenauer, “familiar to KVIFF audiences from the East of the West competitions, will present his new project in development.”
First Dates (Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Poland) Director, Scriptwriter: Šimon Holý Producer: Marek Novák Holý, “familiar to KVIFF audiences from the East Meets West or Proxima competitions, will present his new project in development.”
Hijamat (Germany, Turkey) Director, Scriptwriter: Nader Saeivar Producer: Said Nur Akkus, Tatiana Tsyganova, Emre Oskay “The German-funded (with Turkish co-production) Hijamat is a new film by renowned Iranian director Nader Saeivar, who won the audience award at Venice for The Witness (2024) and best screenplay at Cannes for 3 Faces, whose long-term collaborator Jafar Panahi (winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes) is editing this project. The film is now in production and seeking production and distribution partners.”
Some Good News (Hungary, Romania) Director: László Csuja Scriptwriter: Éva Zabezsinszkij, László Csuja Producer: Anna Szijártó “Csuja, whose feature debut Blossom Valley won the Jury Prize at KVIFF and whose sophomore feature Gentle premiered in Sundance’s World Cinema Competition, will present his new project in development.”
Democracy Work in Progress (Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany) Director, Scriptwriter: Mihály Schwechtje Producer: Genovéva Petrovits “Schwechtje continues his successful legacy of exploring societal issues through personal dramas with his new project.”
Starska (Poland) Director, Scriptwriter: Piotr Adamski Producer: Anna Gawlita, Marta Szymanowska “Visual artist and filmmaker Piotr Adamski will present his new project, inspired by his late mother and the highs and lows of her bipolar disorder.”
Voracious (Poland) Director, Scriptwriter: Jagoda Szelc (based on novel by Malgorzata Lebda) Producer: Joanna Szymańska ”Szelc, whose first two films premiered at Berlinale and Rotterdam respectively, will showcase her new drama, based on the eponymous novel by successful Polish writer Malgorzata Lebda.”
Láska (Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Croatia) Director: Marko Škop Scriptwriter: Zuzana Liová, Marko Škop Producer: Marko Škop, Ján Meliš, Alice Zárubová Tabery, Marina Andree Škop “Slovak director Marko Škop, whose previous films have been awarded at KVIFF and Toronto, will present his new feature currently in post-production.”
Purgatory (Slovenia, Austria) Director: Žiga Virc Scriptwriter: Iza Strehar Producer: Žiga Virc, Iza Strehar “Virc (Houston! We Have a Problem!) brings his latest project.”
The Happiest Day (Slovenia, Norway, Italy) Director, Scriptwriter: Sonja Prosenc Producer: Rok Sečen “Prosenc (Family Therapy) presents The Happiest Day, now in pre-production.”
Vacuum (Ukraine) Director, Scriptwriter: Yelizaveta Smith Producer: Eugene Rachkovsky “Last but not least, Ukraine will be represented by Vacuum by Berlinale alumna Yelizaveta Smith, whose Militantropos (co-directed with Alina Gorlova and Simon Mozgovyi) just premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.”
Making-of(Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic) Director, Scriptwriter: Ivan Tymchenko Producer: Svitlana Soloviova, Alžběta Janáčková “Ukraine’s Tymchenko presents his new project.”
After more than a decade-long hiatus from the big screen, Shane Meadows is making a return to cinema with a new film, Chork.
Penned by Adolescence writer Jack Thorne and set along the east coast of England, Chork follows 15-year-old Kit and 11-year-old Ani as they leave their foster home and trek across the coastline in hopes of a brighter future. With the police in pursuit and a national search underway, Kit must use all her determination and wits to protect Ani and fulfil their mission.
Cast by Meadows’ frequent collaborator, Shaheen Baig (Adolescence, Hot Milk), the two have secured the film’s lead cast with open casting calls taking place earlier in the year throughout the U.K.
“To be returning to film after 17 years, writing alongside ‘megadude’ Jack Thorne again, and working with so many gifted collaborators, has been an absolute privilege,” said Meadows. “Our story follows two beyond bright, funny as heck and mischievously ingenious young people on a ‘runaway’ road trip the length of this glorious isle.”
“Safe to say,” he continued, “I’m beyond excited about what we’ve captured on their journey. I’m also hugely grateful to our partners at BBC Film, BFI, Screen Yorkshire, Hoopsa Films and Altitude for their undying trust and support throughout.”
Meadows gained critical acclaim with features TwentyFourSeven, Dead Man’s Shoes, A Room for Romeo Brass and Somers Town. His television credits include This Is England, which premiered in Toronto in 2006, The Virtues starring Stephen Graham and The Gallows Pole.
Chork is produced by Ben Pugh and Cathy King for 42, Lauren Dark and Amy Jackson for Unified, Meadows’ Big Arty and Thorne’s One Shoe Films, both of whom will also executive produce.
The film is financed by BBC Film, BFI (awarding National Lottery funding), Screen Yorkshire (via the Yorkshire Content Fund) and Hoopsa Films.
Executive producers are Eva Yates and Kristin Irving for BBC Film, Louise Ortega for the BFI, Caroline Cooper Charles for Screen Yorkshire, Sonny Gill and Tim Macready for Hoopsa Films, and Ali Jazayeri and Keith Kehoe for Three Picture Capital alongside Laura Jackson and Joshua Horsfield. The film was developed with BBC Film.
Altitude will release Chork in U.K. and Irish cinemas in 2026 and will manage international sales.
Yates, director of BBC Film, added: “The films of Shane Meadows are at the heart of contemporary British independent cinema and we are hugely excited to support his return, with a cast of exceptional new actors, his brilliant writing collaborator Jack Thorne, and an anarchic story of love, redemption and the untapped and profound potential of youth.”
Five film projects have been selected for this year’s Female Filmmakers Support Program, picked by the Uniqa See Future Foundation, in cooperation with the Sarajevo Film Festival and Slano Film Days.
Launched in 2024, the initiative “supports and empowers women filmmakers from the six Southeast European countries where Uniqa Insurance Group operates, namely Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, and Bulgaria.” Its goal is to “strengthen the presence and visibility of women in the regional film industry, offering financial support, mentorship, and opportunities for professional development.”
The projects were selected for their “strong artistic vision, originality, and commitment to telling compelling stories,” organizers said. LThey will receive tailored financial and professional support, helping them move forward in production and post-production.”
Said Mirsad Purivatra, director of Slano Film Days: “By backing their creative journeys, we’re helping shape a more inclusive and dynamic future for cinema in our region.”
Jovan Marjanović, director of the Sarajevo Film Festival, added: “We are able to act strategically and address – and hopefully correct – some of the systemic imbalances in film funding. In particular, this initiative will provide dedicated support to films and projects predominantly created by women authors. Sarajevo Film Festival has always stood for gender equality in cinema, and we are proud to contribute to that goal through such a concrete and meaningful project.”
Here is a look at the five selected film projects.
The Possessed (feature) Director: Ena Sendijarević (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Production: SCCA/pro.ba (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Studio Ruba (the Netherlands)
Air in a Bottle (feature) Director: Aida Begić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Production: This and That Productions (Serbia)
Embryo (feature) Director: Maša Šarović (Montenegro) Production: KINO d.o.o. (Montenegro)
The Last Nomads (documentary) Director: Biljana Tutorov (Serbia) Production: WAKE UP FILMS (Serbia)
Confessions of a Female Gamer (documentary) Director: Dolya Gavanski Production: Agitprop (Bulgaria), Thea Films (Bulgaria)
Universal’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon will have no trouble staying No. 1 in its second weekend with an estimated $35.7 million despite the entry of the zombie sequel 28 Years Later and the animated Elio — which is headed for the lowest opening in the history of Pixar amid a crowded marketplace for family fare.
Danny Boyle’s zombie sequel, from Sony, topped Friday’s chart with $14 million, including $5.8 million in Thursday previews, but will be overtaken by How to Train Your Dragon, from the Universal-owned DreamWorks Animation, sometime on Saturday.
A few weeks ago, 28 Years Later was tracking to open to $35 million, with more bullish pundits thinking it could come in north of $40 million. Instead, it’s headed for a solid $30 million to $31 million domestic start. Similar to the family space, some are speculating that the horror marketplace may be over-saturated, led by the box office hit Final Destination: Bloodlines.
28 Years Later will still mark the biggest opening of Boyle’s career and reunites the filmmaker with writer Alex Garland 25 years after 28 Days hit the big screen and became a cult classic. Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams and Ralph Fiennes star in what’s the first installment in a planned trilogy.
Reviewers have widely embraced the R-rated title, but actual moviegoers are somewhat less enthusiastic; its current audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 67 percent, compared to a 90 percent critics’ score. At the same time, it’s garnering decent exit scores from leading exit-polling service PostTrak. And it earned a B CinemaScore, which is like an A grade when it comes to horror fare.
Facing fierce competition from How to Train Your Dragon and fellow Disney release Lilo & Stitch, Elio took in $9 million on Friday for a projected third-place domestic opening in the $20 million to $22 million range. Elio — an original film about a young boy whose wish to travel to outer space and interact with aliens comes true — was expected to open to at least $30 million domestically.
But with interest stalling in recent days, Disney insiders lowered their projections to $20 million to $25 million as Pixar braced for the worst 3-day opening in its history behind Elemental ($29.6 million) in June 2023 and its very first film, 1995’s Toy Story ($29.1 million), not adjusted for inflation. Toy Story opened over Thanksgiving and amassed $39 million over the long five-day holiday weekend.
In 2023, Elemental‘s opening was called nothing short of a debacle, yet it turned into a sleeper hit on its way to earning nearly $500 million globally. Pixar and parent company Disney, are confident that Elio will have the same sort of staying power throughout the summer when kids are sprung from school. So far, Elio is graced with a better critics score on Rotten Tomatoes than Elemental, as well as glowing PostTrak exit results and an A CinemaScore, including an A+ from kids.
Pixar has been struggling to find its footing in a world where original animated stories don’t open to the heights they once did — think north of $70 million — in the post-pandemic world. And during the pandemic years, then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek decided to send three Pixar titles straight to Disney+ domestically, including Turning Red, Luca and the Oscar-winning Soul, a decision rivals said taught families to wait to watch a film at home. (All three were considered streaming hits.)
But Pixar and Disney reversed course and are once again committed to telling original theatrical stories, mixed in with known IP, such as last year’s blockbuster and record-shattering Inside Out 2, the top-grossing pic of 2024, the top ever title for Pixar and the top animated movie of all time with more than $1.69 billion in worldwide ticket sales, not adjusted for inflation. (As fate would have it, Inside Out 2 opened on the same June weekend a year ago.)
The live-action Lilo & Stitch remains a force to be reckoned with in its fifth weekend, and could earn as much as $9 million to $10 million domestically for a fourth-place finish. Also, now in its fifth weekend, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning continues to show staying power and is expected to round out the top five with $7 million.
A24’s specialty romantic drama Materialists continues to do well, and is expected come in sixth domestically with an estimated $5.5 million to $6 million.
Impact Collaborative, the New York-based network of non-profits, has headed west and opened a Los Angeles office at the Preserve in Hollywood.
As part of its expansion, it is launching Social Impact Entertainment Studio, with the aim of telling socially impactful stories and perhaps provide revenue streams for non-profit groups. The ambition is to help partially fill the void left by Participant Media, which shuttered last year after 20 years of socially conscious programming. Among the projects it has in the pipeline is a doc feature from filmmaker Ben Levin and producer Multihouse focusing on the U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey team as it prepares for a rematch with rival Canada in 2026 in Milan, Italy.
To help fullfill its ambitions, it is nearing completion on a physical soundstage in The Preserve LA, which will host a number of podcasts and is aiming for a fall ribbon cutting.
“L.A. is world-renowned for its creativity and the power of storytelling, but it is also a city that embodies resilience, diversity, and the spirit of community,” said Dr. Claire Wang, the organization’s inaugural executive director. “The Impact Collaborative is all about collaborative innovation by connecting nonprofit community-based organizations, business solutions, and storytelling. I can’t think of a better backdrop for charting a new frontier.”
Impact Collaborative has also added to the ranks of its advisory board by bringing in Brandy Curry, chief of staff of the Television Academy and producer for the Emmys.
“Brandy’s unique ability to craft narratives that inspire action is exactly what we need to bridge understanding and drive support for our initiatives. I’m thrilled to collaborate with someone who recognizes the power of authentic storytelling in advancing social impact,” said Traci Donnelly, founder and president of Impact Collaborative.
Jack Betts, the debonair character actor who starred in spaghetti Westerns, played Dracula for a fleeting moment on Broadway and appeared in such notable films as Spider-Man and Gods and Monsters, has died. He was 96.
Betts died Thursday in his sleep at home in Los Osos, California, his nephew, Dean Sullivan, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Betts was great friends with Everybody Loves Raymond actress Doris Roberts, with whom he shared a home and escorted her to events throughout Hollywood from the late 1980s until her death in April 2016.
A member of The Actors Studio, Betts portrayed Llanview Hospital doctor Ivan Kipling on ABC’s One Life to Live from 1979-85, and his soap opera résumé also included stints on General Hospital, The Edge of Night, The Doctors, Another World, All My Children, Search for Tomorrow, Guiding Light, Loving and Generations.
Betts bluffed his way into starring as the avenging title character in Franco Giraldi’s Sugar Colt (1966), where he was billed as Hunt Powers for the first time. The film kicked off a run of about 15 spaghetti Westerns for him through 1973 but left him without the fame enjoyed by another American star of similar Italian fare.
“In the hotel next to mine was Clint Eastwood,” he recalled in a 2021 interview. “He’d go up to his mountain and do his Western and I’d go up to my mountain and do my Western. But while his films had distribution all over the world, my films were distributed [everywhere] except Canada and America.”
In Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002), Betts’ character, Henry Balkan, tells Willem Dafoe’s Norman Osborn that he’s through at Oscorp Technologies — “You’re out, Norman” — but the Green Goblin will soon turn him and his fellow board members into skeletons during an attack on Times Square.
Jack Betts with Doris Roberts at the Hollywood Film Awards in Beverly Hills in 2015.
Mark Davis/Getty Images
Jack Fillmore Betts — he said he was related to the 13th U.S. president, Millard Fillmore — was born on April 11, 1929, in Jersey City, New Jersey. When he was 10, he moved with his family to Miami and was inspired to become an actor after seeing Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights (1939).
After graduating from Miami Senior High School, he studied at the University of Miami, where he studied theater and acted in the Moss Hart play Light Up the Sky in Cuba. He then moved to New York and made it to Broadway in 1953 in Richard III, starring José Ferrer.
Betts had a job in a lamp factory when a friend asked him to do a scene with her for her audition for The Actors Studio, and that led to Lee Strasberg giving him a three-year scholarship to study there. He later earned a place at the famed studio, with Elia Kazan putting him in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
He made his big-screen debut in The Bloody Brood (1959), starring Peter Falk, then joined Anthony George, Sebastian Cabot and Doug McClure in 1961 to play detective Chris Devlin on the second and last season of CBS’ Checkmate, created by Eric Ambler.
Betts appeared four times on CBS’ Perry Mason from 1961-66 before he met Giraldi about starring in Sugar Colt. He told the director that he could ride a horse and had just won a shooting contest — of course, he had never been on a horse or handled a gun — but he spent the next three weeks learning those skills at John Wayne’s ranch before reporting for duty at Cinecittà in Rome.
Betts also was working for actress-turned-publicist Helen Ferguson at the time, and she gave him the stage name Hunt Powers.
Betts returned to Broadway for Kazan in a 1959-60 production of Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth before landing on the 1977-80 revival of Dracula. He portrayed Dr. Seward, and as Raul Julia’s standby, he got to step in as the count — but only once — a highlight of his career.
Keeping with that theme, he played Boris Karloff in Bill Condon’s Gods and Monsters (1998), starring Ian McKellen.
Betts also showed up in such films as The Assassination of Trotsky (1972), Falling Down (1993), Batman Forever (1995), Batman & Robin (1997), 8MM (1999) and Office Space (1999) and on TV series including Gunsmoke, The F.B.I., It Takes a Thief, Kojak, Remington Steele, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, My Name Is Earl, The Mentalist and Monk.
Betts first met Roberts at The Actors Studio in 1954, and he accepted her offer to move from New York into a downstairs apartment in her Hollywood Hills home in 1988. “We were best friends to the very end, we had wonderful times together,” he said.
Roberts also directed a play Betts wrote, Screen Test: Take One, about a soap opera that originated on a film set.
In addition to his nephew, survivors include his nieces, Lynne and Gail, and his sister, Joan, who turns 100 in November.
