Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2025
-
Karlovy Vary 2025: Promising Young Men and Women
“There are so many promising debut features, then all those filmmakers go on to be jury members.” A new acquaintance was lamenting the dearth of directors under 40 with distinct styles and durable careers; I laughed, but it was a fair synopsis of a grim landscape. Per Wallace Stevens, the imagination may always be at the end of an era, but at this particular moment imagination and reality seem truly as one. Still, I’m in my unlikely second act as an (aspirational) optimist seeking reasons to be cheerful, and film festivals can help keep me in that headspace—at least we […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jul 16, 2025 -
“I Had Never Filmed Near the Front Before”: Dmytro Hreshko on Karlovy Vary-Premiering Ukrainian War Documentary Divia
At a time when observation remains the dominant approach among contemporary Ukrainian documentarians and it feels as though every subject suited to a distanced gaze has already been explored, in Divia Dmytro Hreshko approaches nature during wartime with radical, dialogue-free minimalism. Originally from Uzhhorod, a city on the Slovakian border, Hreshko has celebrated Ukraine’s landscape in previous documentaries such as Snow Leopards of the Carpathians (2019) or Mountains and Heaven in Between (2022). With his signature admiration for picturesque scenery—captured through drone and sustained by extra-long shots with deep focus—Divia is a harmonious continuation of his career as both director […]
by Sonya Vseliubska on Jul 7, 2025
