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Hugo Rosák • Head of Film Industry Office, Karlovy Vary IFF

"We hope to look at the opportunities that change can bring to both producers and distributors"

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- Cineuropa sat down with Hugo Rosák, head of the Film Industry Office at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, to talk about the new initiatives and platforms planned for the upcoming edition

Hugo Rosák  • Head of Film Industry Office, Karlovy Vary IFF
(© Vaclav Jirasek)

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) traditionally organises a Work in Progress presentation, the Eurimages Lab Project, Pitch&Feedback and Docu Talents. However, this year, the festival has more novelties in store for the film professionals in attendance, reflecting the fluid landscape of the film industry and cinema in general. We talked to Hugo Rosák, the head of the Film Industry Office, to see how the festival is planning to reflect new challenges at this year's edition, which runs from 30 June to 8 July.

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Cineuropa: The KVIFF is going to introduce Artisans in Focus for the first time at the upcoming edition. What is the goal of this platform?
Hugo Rosák:
Artisans in Focus is a new platform that we have developed together with Variety. Many festivals bring new talent under the spotlight, and we thought of the many talented and committed people in the film industry who work endless hours to make films great, yet whose contributions are rarely celebrated. Our aim is to make editors, costume designers, production designers, directors of photography and many others shine. Ultimately, we are trying to find these people from the films that are in our programme or from the region we are representing. We will feature them and their works, and we will organise a special panel where our audience can become more aware of these professions. This is going to be an ongoing effort in the next few years, and so I am happy to say that apart from Future Frames (read the news), we now also have a platform that is more industry-driven and allows us to recognise people without whom no director or producer would ever succeed. This year, we have a truly impressive group of artisans, such as Monika Willi, Annelle Brodeur, Wojciech Staron and Ondrej Nekvasil.

The ever-changing distribution landscape and the presence of VoD, which is getting more important every year, will be the focus of this year’s panel discussions. What can film professionals expect?
As a festival, we naturally care about the silver screen, and so we attribute a great deal of importance to supporting the distribution of arthouse film for cinemas. But VoD is here, and that won’t change. Instead, it can help in the production of great films as well. We are trying to adopt a position that highlights the challenges distributors are facing in this changing climate, and at the same time, we hope to take a closer look at the opportunities that these changes can bring to both producers and distributors. This year, we’ll look at it from different angles – first by looking at the European policy impact, then by actually analysing where distributors currently stand and what they could do to improve their position. A lot is linked to the marketing. We also want to showcase some different examples of distribution 2.0 and introduce how start-up-style technology can help bring the right people to see niche films.

You will also be hosting a panel on script doctoring this year.
We’ll take a much broader stance here. We want to explain why script development matters, and this is what our panel on Tuesday afternoon will be about. It is becoming very clear that films that have already been treated carefully at the development stage become much more successful at festivals. The TorinoFilmLab (TFL) is a great example of this, and so is MIDPOINT, which we also host at Karlovy Vary. Award-winning script consultant Naomi Foner will give a lecture explaining where script doctoring can help. We will then have TFL filmmakers talking about their actual experience with script development. Apart from sharing experiences, we want to trigger discussions. So this year, you will have a chance to sit down with the tutors and alumni, and actively understand what they do in different areas of film development, audience engagement or story editing. The Czech Film Fund has started up the new Script Incubator within its development scheme, in the hope of making Czech films more solid before they enter the production stage. Our role is more regional, and so we will also have a little surprise to show how festivals can be of help in the future.

How will the KVIFF reflect the emerging medium of virtual reality?
The technology is out there and ready. It’s amazing to try and grasp what this could mean. Nevertheless, the content is not there, and we were not even sure how the cinematic artistic form could be properly represented until Alejandro González Iñárritu's installation at Cannes this year took everyone by storm. And the mass-market device technology is also not there yet, so who wants to produce at great costs with no immediate financial returns to be expected? So we are at the beginning of a conversation, which will probably become more rapid and more intense. FAMU is planning to open a new department for VR and gaming, and I don’t think KVIFF will be standing on the sidelines in the future. For now, we just want to start this conversation as well by looking at the current trends and the current situation, showcasing how content can be built and certainly informing people about what is possible. In the long term, however, we see far more relevance for VR and immersive cinema in documentary film.

What else is in store for film professionals at the 52nd edition of the KVIFF?
I am keeping a little surprise for the actual festival. Other than that, we will have more events where guests can mingle and meet, and we have also made a more thematic approach by giving each day its own theme, based on the value chain in filmmaking. Sunday is linked to production, Monday to sales and distribution, Tuesday to development, Wednesday to business and finance, Thursday to training, and Friday to innovation. We hope to keep this structure for the future, filling it up with this content throughout the year. I am also excited that we have some financial discussions and talks about branded content and the role of corporations in film production – that’s pretty new.

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