Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s industry program, KVIFF Promises, has announced the selected projects for this year’s KVIFF Central Stage showcase and introduced the first edition of Book-To-Screen at KVIFF, a new initiative aimed at connecting publishers, authors and filmmakers around adaptation rights.
KVIFF Central Stage will present 11 upcoming films from Central and Eastern Europe, selected in partnership with eight national film institutes in the region. The lineup includes projects from established filmmakers Nicolas Steiner, Antonio Lukich, Olga Chajdas and Cristina Groșan, among others. The showcase is designed to support titles seeking co-production, financing, sales, distribution and festival premiere opportunities. The projects will be presented in an interactive industry session on July 6 on the Film Industry Main Stage.
This year’s film selection includes Flying Mountain by Swiss director Nicolas Steiner; the Ukrainian co-productions Screaming Girl by Antonio Lukich and Noah by writer-director Marysia Nikitiuk; Czech title The Stones Are Rolling to Prague by Tomáš Hodan, centered on preparations for the Rolling Stones’ major 1990 concert in Prague; Czech comedy A Few Branches Off by Tomáš Pavlíček; Romanian-Hungarian mob drama Lesdenzero by Cristina Groșan; Polish female road movie Tribe by Olga Chajdas; German project Trainrider by Sebastian Fritzsch; Goran Vojnović’s adaptation of his own book Yugoslavia, My Fatherland; Slovak coming-of-age drama Cowgirl by Michal Blaško; and Austrian boxing biography Hansi by Sebastian Brauneis.
Participating projects will also have access to post-production support through partners including UPP and Soundsquare. In addition, they are eligible for the €20,000 Eurimages Co-Production Development Award.
Book-To-Screen at KVIFF is being launched in collaboration with the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Moravian Library in Brno and Book World, with support from the PPF Foundation. Inspired by Berlinale’s adaptation-focused program, the initiative will showcase eight books with strong film potential by authors from Central and Eastern Europe, a region that KVIFF Industry Head Hugo Rosák says remains underrepresented in IP development and literary rights management.
Producers looking for new material for film and television adaptations will be able to discover the selected books during an interactive talk show on July 7, hosted by Niki Théron, Senior Manager International Projects and Film at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The literary selection includes Patrik Banga’s memoir True Way Out, Zuzana Říhová’s folk-horror Playing Wolf, Daniel Majling’s graphic novel The Zone, Iulian Ciocan’s dystopian satire Queen of Hearts, Ieva Dumberytė’s surreal novel Aspic Bistro, Aka Morchiladze’s historical drama Cupid at the Kremlin Wall, Adam Robiński’s children’s book The River Odyssey of Kora from Willow Meadow, and Sophia Andrukhovych’s Amadoka.
The program will also include an IP-focused producers’ think-tank and networking session. Rosák said the long-term goal is to build a Central-Eastern European market for intellectual property that strengthens collaboration between the film and publishing industries and makes adaptation rights handling more transparent in the region.
The 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will take place from July 3-11, 2026.
