Karlovy Vary Focuses on Next Generation of European Filmmakers With Future Frames Program
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Karlovy Vary's Future Frames program will screen short films by ten European film school students and recent graduates on July 6-7, with Allwyn joining as a new main partner alongside European Film Promotion and Creative Europe's MEDIA Programme.
- Christos Nikou — director of "Apples" and "Fingernails" — has been tapped to mentor the selected cohort.
- Lithuanian filmmaker Arnas Balčiūnas is included with his B.A. graduation film "Past the Hill of Napoleon's Hat," while his MA thesis film "Class Photo" already competed in this year's Cannes Critics' Week.
- Several directors are advancing features alongside their shorts: Sweden's André Vaara is developing "Beautiful Misfits" with a Wild Card production award from the Swedish Film Institute, Finland's Helmi Donner is developing "The Needs of Others" through the Kehittämö Talent Development Lab (which provides a grant), and Slovenia's David Champaigne is expanding "Self-Sown" into a feature at the Scenarnica Workshop.
- Czech director Marie Lukáčová, a co-founder of the feminist group Fourth Wave that opened debate on sexism at Czech universities, brings eco-feminist fairy tale "Orla," developed through the KVIFF Talents scheme.
- Personal narrative drives much of the slate: Dutch director Ollie Launspach uses home videos and diary entries to trace gender transition's impact on his girlfriend, French director Teilo Quillard — son of a French trapeze artist and an English aerialist — draws on his circus upbringing for "Zampano," and Croatian Jozo Schmuch frames war as part of personal and collective history.
Why it matters: Future Frames is built as a launchpad rather than a one-off screening: every named director already has a feature or follow-up short in active development, with two attached to formal institute backing — Sweden's Wild Card award and Finland's Kehittämö grant. With Allwyn's new commercial partnership layered onto existing Creative Europe support, the program's expanding financial scaffolding deepens the European festival-to-feature pipeline for directors who often go on to major competition berths.
