In addition to previously announced films playing in the Crystal Globe and Proxima sections at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, organizers released the full program for this year’s KVIFF on Friday. Films playing at this year’s KVIFF include highlights from this year’s Cannes, Sundance, and Berlin film festivals.
The full program comes in addition to previously-announced special screenings, which include a newly-restored print of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which will be personally introduced by actor Michael Douglas, an extensive tribute to Hollywood icon John Garfield, a cinematic cut of the Czech video game Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and the world premieres of several new Czech films.
Award-winning additions round out a diverse and ambitious program
Organizers of the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival have confirmed that over 130 feature films will be screened across the festival’s official sections this year. These include returning categories like Horizons, Out of the Past, Imagina, and the newly rebranded Afterhours section, formerly known as Midnight Screenings. The complete schedule is now available on the festival’s website.
A notable highlight is the world premiere of Absolute 100, a Serbian miniseries directed by Srdan Golubović and three of his former students. The series marks a return of long-form narrative to the Special Screenings section, a first in four years. Described as a politically-charged thriller, the story follows a young sport shooting champion who takes matters into her own hands after her family is threatened.
The festival’s Imagina section, known for spotlighting formally adventurous and experimental works, will present more than twenty feature-length and short films, including six world premieres. Meanwhile, the Out of the Past section will feature newly restored prints from celebrated directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Ang Lee, and John Cassavetes.
Afterhours, the new name for KVIFF’s late-night programming block, will include genre films like restored classics and recent horror and action releases. The 11th edition of Future Frames: Generation NEXT of European Cinema will also spotlight emerging talent with ten new short films by young European directors.
10 picks from this year’s KVIFF
With a packed lineup covering everything from restored classics to genre experiments, the 2025 edition of KVIFF offers something for every kind of cinephile. Here are 10 standout titles from this year’s newly-announced program, which includes winners and standout films from Cannes and Berlin:
It Was Just an Accident
This Palme d’Or-winning Iranian thriller from Jafar Panahi (pictured at top) features a former political prisoner who impulsively abducts the man he believes tortured him. As others join the journey to identify the captor, the film explores themes of justice, revenge, and the legacy of systemic violence. With grotesque flourishes and moral tension, the film stands as one of the season’s most powerful political statements.
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo
Set in a Chilean mining town during the early 1980s AIDS crisis, Diego Céspedes’s debut feature centers on 11-year-old Lidia, who lives among a tight-knit community of trans women. This Cannes Un Certain Regard winner examines prejudice and fear through the eyes of a courageous child in a town rife with superstition and homophobia, delivering a tender and politically resonant coming-of-age story.
Sirât
Oliver Laxe’s latest work is a hallucinatory and high-decibel journey into the Moroccan desert. As a father searches for his missing daughter at illegal raves, Sirât transforms into a spiritual thriller and audiovisual assault. The Cannes selection dazzled with its hypnotic editing and trance-like energy, testing the endurance of its audience while capturing the chaos of modern alienation.
Sound of Falling
A sweeping multi-generational drama that spans a century in eastern Germany, this visually striking film was one of the most discussed screenings at this year’s Cannes film fest. Blending horror aesthetics with emotional realism, Sound of Falling chronicles the scars of patriarchal systems and the ripple effects of trauma across four generations of women.
Two Prosecutors
Sergei Loznitsa adapts a novel by Gulag survivor Georgy Demidov into a taut historical drama set during Stalin’s purges. As a young prosecutor begins to question the regime he serves, the film’s claustrophobic mise-en-scène and haunting silences evoke Kafkaesque dread. A main competition title at Cannes, it underscores the cyclical nature of state repression.
Dreams
Winner of the Berlinale’s top prize, Dag Johan Haugerud’s introspective drama follows 17-year-old Johanna as she navigates first love, generational misunderstandings, and emotional vulnerability. With a diary at the center of the narrative and finely tuned performances, Dreams continues Haugerud’s exploration of everyday emotional intricacies in Scandinavian life.
2000 Metres to Andriivka
Following his Oscar-winning 20 Days in Mariupol, Ukrainian war correspondent-turned-filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov returns with another harrowing documentary. This time, the focus is a brutal battle over a small village in eastern Ukraine. The film’s immersive camera work and unflinching realism earned it the Directing Award for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance.
Barry Lyndon
Stanley Kubrick’s epic is screening in a new restoration for its 50th anniversary, giving audiences the opportunity to experience the 1975 masterpiece as it was meant to be seen. Noted for its meticulous period detail and candlelit cinematography, Barry Lyndon is a tragic tale of ambition and vanity that has since been reclaimed as one of Kubrick’s most accomplished works.
Shoah
Claude Lanzmann’s nine-hour documentary is a monument of historical testimony. Screening at KVIFF to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the film remains a haunting and unflinching portrayal of the Holocaust, relying solely on interviews and landscapes. Its absence of archival footage emphasizes memory and voice over spectacle.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Tobe Hooper’s raw and relentless 1974 horror film returns in a restored version for KVIFF’s Afterhours section. Still disturbing five decades on, the film’s gritty style and the iconic Leatherface character redefined the genre. Its inclusion this year adds cult gravitas to a program that straddles classic cinema and modern innovation.
