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Festival coverage

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

3 July – 11 July 2026

This year's festival runs from July 3 to 11. Among the guests will be Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jesse Eisenberg. This page is currently a work in progress as we are inputting this year's films, so please check back later.

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Latest reviews

  • Lover, Not A Fighter
    Review preview for Lover, Not A Fighter

    Although Lover, Not A Fighter is a decidedly funny film, it tackles a multitude of gut-wrenching themes.

    Boldizsar Forro · 4 out of 5
    The troubled young adult Andrej tries to get things back on track in his life. But love always turns things upside down.
  • Fatherland
    Review preview for Fatherland

    The way Zischler and Hüller play their relationship is so wonderfully real and subtle and appropriately opaque for all us non-Mann family members, that it at times brought tears to my eyes.

    Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
    Drama focusing on Thomas Mann's post-war life, as he and his daughter embark on a road-trip across Germany.
  • Kim Novak's Vertigo
    Review preview for Kim Novak's Vertigo

    She clicks with Philippe, and there’s a wonderful openness about the film as she finds joy in being able to talk about everything with no fear anymore.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    The actor and painter reflects on Vertigo and her life.
  • Queen At Sea
    Review preview for Queen At Sea

    Lance Hammer’s drama confronts its subject unsentimentally head on with no holds barred.

    Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
    As advanced dementia erodes an older woman’s ability to communicate her inner life, her husband and daughter struggle to act in her best interests, navigating love and the fragile boundaries between care, protection and autonomy.
  • A Man Of His Time
    Review preview for A Man Of His Time

    There exists no safe ground when you are part of a regime that uses fear and threats as casual tools.

    Anne-Katrin Titze · 3 out of 5
    Historical drama set against a backdrop of Vichy France as a man strives to help France's renewal.
  • Nightborn
    Review preview for Nightborn

    Writer/director Hanna Bergholm walks the line with skill.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    In Finnish forest, Saga and her husband Jon embark on a new chapter as parents. But Saga's joy is overshadowed by a chilling suspicion about their newborn, unbeknownst to Jon, causing a rift as she alone grapples with the disturbing truth.
  • Fruit Gathering
    Review preview for Fruit Gathering

    Men are infrequently seen in Fruit Gathering, which is more interested in women’s status and struggle.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Two women in a textile factory dream of intimacy and escape.
  • La Gradiva
    Review preview for La Gradiva

    Pompeii becomes a place where fantasy is tested against historical violence, and where looking too closely can break the story one came to preserve.

    Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
    A group of French high-school students travel to Naples on a school trip to discover the ruins of Pompeii and the bodies petrified by Vesuvius. There, they are drawn into a dizzying descent.
  • Rain Catcher
    Review preview for Rain Catcher

    A stylish and twisty psychological thriller that easily goes the distance in terms of plot, even if the scripting is uneven in places

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    A photographer takes snapshots of strangers, sharing them online as 'Rain Catcher' but he is unsettled when he spots a mysterious woman who is photographing him.
  • Black Money For White Nights
    Review preview for Black Money For White Nights

    The directors with their fifth feature take a humane view of the plight of their subjects but spare us any over-sentimentality

    Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
    After years of saving money from the small bribes they collect, 60-year-old Marina and her husband Gosha from Bulgaria are preparing for their dream trip to St Petersburg to witness the White Nights. But when Russia invades Ukraine and the travel agency vanishes with all their savings, the couple’s dream collapses.

A–Z of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2026 reviews

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