This year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has only just concluded, but organizers are already looking forward to next year’s edition. Festival President Jiří Bartoška shared some key details about the 2024 KVIFF with media ahead of the closing ceremony on Saturday night.

Among other details, Bartoška revealed that two of the honored guests at this year’s festival, Robin Wright and Ewan McGregor, have expressed interest in shooting the trailer for the next edition of the festival. Johnny Depp, who visited the festival in 2021 but was not awarded, starred in the trailer for the 2023 Karlovy Vary film fest.

“Wright apparently said that she will now shoot a film in London, and if we send a mini-crew, she is ready to film our trailer as well,” Bartoška told reporters. “McGregor wrote his own script [for the trailer],” he added.

Over the past 15 years, KVIFF trailers shot by Ivan Zachariáš and Martin Krejčí have played before each of the films screened at the festival, and star past honorees. This year’s trailer starring Johnny Depp broke the mold a bit as it was filmed in color as opposed to the traditional black-and-white, and Depp didn’t officially receive an award at the festival.

While the 2024 festival is a year away, Bartoška also revealed the first film that will be screening. Following a trend of presenting a restored Czech classic (this year’s festival screened Evald Schorm’s Courage for Every Day), next year will featured a presentation of The Accused (Obžalovaný), in a new digitally-restored print.

The Accused was directed by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, and won a Crystal Globe at the 1964 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The directors went on to win an Academy Award for Czechoslovakia for their next film, 1965’s The Shop on Main Street (Obchod na korze).

Bartoška, who has been running the Karlovy Vary festival over the past three decades, had good things to say about this year’s festival, even though health troubles nearly forced him to stay home during it.

“From today’s point of view, I believe the festival was excellent,” he noted on Saturday. “It will be evaluated in the weeks to come how it turned out economically, and so on. But tonight we will end the festival with a good conscience and I feel that we are very satisfied.”

The 2024 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will take place in the Czech spa town from Friday June 28 through Saturday July 6.

Source