The 2018 edition of the Czech Republic’s most prominent film festival is fast approaching, and the first special guest has just been announced.
Director Richard Linklater will be joining the festivities at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this summer as part of a tribute dedicated to the Austin Film Society, a non-profit initiative supporting local filmmaking that Linklater founded in 1985.
The Austin Film Society has awarded millions of dollars in grants to Texas-based filmmakers over the years, and helped start the careers of directors like David Lowery, who brought A Ghost Story to Karlovy Vary last year, and David and Nathan Zellner, who brought Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter to the festival in 2014.
“A tribute to AFS represents an exciting chapter in KVIFF´s long-lasting focus on American independent film production,” Karlovy Vary International Film Festival artistic director Karel Och stated in a press release.
“Richard Linklater and his colleagues have been a huge inspiration to film communities around the world and we´re delighted to embrace the incredible achievement of the organization with a selection of outstanding films from Texas filmmakers that have been supported by AFS.”
Linklater himself is perhaps best-known for the nostalgic 1993 classic Dazed and Confused and the Oscar-nominated Boyhood, along with the ‘Before Trilogy’ starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight).
But I’ll always have a special spot in my heart for his fly-on-the-wall debut Slacker and a pair of dreamlike, rotoscope-animated features, Waking Life and the Philip K. Dick adaptation A Scanner Darkly.
Linklater’s last film was Last Flag Flying, a pseudo-sequel to the 1973 Hal Ashby-Jack Nicholson classic The Last Detail that starred Bryan Cranston in the role originated by Nicholson alongside Steve Carrell and Laurence Fishburne. It has yet to receive a local Czech release in cinemas or home video.
His next is Where’d You Go, Bernadette, a comedy-drama from the novel by Marla Semple (Mad About You, Arrested Development) starring Cate Blanchett and Kristen Wiig that has been completed and is slated for an October 2018 release in the US.
At a guess, Linklater could potentially bring Where’d You Go, Bernadette to Karlovy Vary for an international or local premiere.
The director is also currently filming an untitled film set in Houston during the Apollo moon landing of 1969, set to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the event next year. A coming-of-age story based on his own experiences, he’s reached out to Houston locals for home movies or other materials for possible inclusion in the film.
At the Karlovy Vary fest this summer, the special section Made in Texas: Tribute to Austin Film Society will present nine selections including Linklater’s Slacker, Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi, Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter, and Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess, among other features.
“I’m so proud that AFS is receiving this incredible honor from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival,” Linklater said of the tribute.
“KVIFF is fully committed to the discovery of new voices. It’s deeply humbling that they’ve chosen to tribute AFS by shining a light on the community of independent artists that we’ve worked so hard to nurture. With this series of films, KVIFF celebrates creativity and uniqueness of vision, which have been the only consistent themes in the many wonderful films that have come out of Texas over the past 40 years.”
The 53rd edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will be held in the Czech spa town from June 29 – July 7, 2018.
Lead photo: Linklater introducing Boyhood at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin in 2015 via Wikimedia / LBJ Library
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