Fireworks on July 4 are nothing special in the U.S. But the Friday night fireworks over the Czech spa town Karlovy Vary brought an upbeat end to the opening night of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), which proved to be an emotional rollercoaster.
It included stars Peter Sarsgaard and Vicky Krieps, who were both honored during the opening ceremony, sharing political thoughts about a divided U.S. and world, laughs and rare behind-the-scenes insights thanks to the opening film, We’ve Got to Frame It! (A Conversation With Jiří Bartoška in July 2021), and words of thanks in heartfelt tributes to the long-time festival president and legendary Czech actor Bartoška, who died in May at the age of 78.
Big names in attendance for the opening night included members of the jury for the fest’s main Crystal Globe Competition, which includes Roma producer Nicolás Celis, Fremont director Babak Jalali, Czech actor, writer, and director Jiří Mádl (Waves), Berlin Film Festival selector and film critic Jessica Kiang, and Swedish actress Tuva Novotny.
The opening ceremony, as is tradition, included a stage show that was choreographed by Michal and Simon Cabani. It featured their trademark on-stage energy as dancers moved in and out of and around beams of light and at times reflected the light with mirrors or used color filters to change the light’s appearance. The music moved between the dramatic and energetic and included Hans Zimmer’s Interstellar theme.
Jiří Bartoška photo panels on the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2025 opening day
Courtesy of Georg Szalai
A little bit later, no festival staff eye stayed dry in the jam-packed Congress Hall of the Brutalist Thermal Hotel in Karlovy Vary when host Marek Eben, a popular Czech actor and TV presenter, lauded Bartoška and his legacy. “People say nobody is irreplaceable. But that isn’t true,” he said, according to the live translation provided.
At the same time, he left a lasting legacy, Eben argued. “I don’t remember him ever doubting the future of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival,” he said. “What Jiří Bartoška managed to create is a living organism. If all goes well, it will outlive us all. And Jiří would be delighted to see that.”
KVIFF executive director Kryštof Mucha and artistic director Karel Och, both clearly full of emotion, also expressed their thanks to their mentor on stage.
Then it was time for the latest addition to the always-popular fest trailers, created by Ivan Zachariáš, which was unveiled during the opening ceremony and also drew emotional reactions from the crowd. It stars Bolek Polívka, a long-time friend of Bartoška‘s, sitting in a bar and talking to someone across the table from him. “Another round wouldn’t hurt, would it?” he says and puts in a last order for two whiskeys. The camera then reveals that nobody is sitting across from him, but he is clearly talking to Bartoška, telling him that he is giving him one of his two festival awards and a photo of Bartoška with Polívka‘s nose sticking in from the side. “You can hang it up there somewhere,” Polívka‘s says.
After the screening of the opening film, directed by Jakub Jurásek, audience members could be heard discussing some of the insights shared by Bartoška and some of the behind-the-scenes insights and jokes presented in the movie. Earlier in the day, people were also seen taking photographs of some of the 30 large-scale outdoor panels placed across the spa town that feature 60 black-and-white photographs of Bartoška, including with celebrity attendees, “capturing, through the eyes of festival photographers, the most important festival moments as well as unique portraits of the remarkable personality who led the Karlovy Vary Festival for three decades.”
Before 11 p.m., it was time for La Roux’s Elly Jackson to take the stage for the traditional free opening concert, which attracted a large crowd of fans, festival goers, and opening night guests to the square outside the Thermal Hotel. Hits, such as “Tropical Chancer,” “Otherside,” “In for the Kill,” and the widely-known “Bulletproof,” along with songs from the fourth La Roux studio album coming out next year kept the crowd grooving under the stars. Not even an apparent leg injury during her on-stage dancing stopped Jackson.
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2025 opening ceremony
Courtesy of Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary
Just after 11:45 p.m., it was time for fireworks to illuminate the night sky, bringing the official portions of the opening night to an end.
Over the next week, through July 12, Karlovy Vary will present new arthouse releases and discoveries, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Cinematic Cut, which is a cinema version of the popular video game, offbeat gems, and key highlights from the film festival circuit of the past year at what has come to be considered Central Europe’s biggest cinema celebration of the summer.