Skip to main content

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival · 2026

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2026

Horizons

Programme

48 films · 17 reviews

Jump to a film

All Of A Sudden (Soudain)

Review preview for All Of A Sudden

Hamaguchi’s most pointed provocation is not that the nursing home becomes excessive in its care, but that ordinary neglect has trained us to see basic tenderness as excess.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
The director of a nursing home in Paris has an encounter with a terminally ill Japanese playwright that transforms her life.

(Country: Japan, France, Belgium, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi; Writer: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Léa Le Dimna; Stars: Virginie Efira, Tao Okamoto, Kyōzō Nagatsuka, Kodai Kurosaki, Jean-Louis Garçon, Marie Bunel, Jean-Charles Clichet, Margot Maricot, Lazare Gousseau, Jérôme Chappatte, Evelyne Istria, Elisabeth Tamaris, Aurélia Petit, Heidi Becker-Babel)

Full review

The Beloved (El ser querido)

A director and his estranged daughter, a struggling actress, make a movie together, forcing them to confront their troubled past

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2026; Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen; Writer: Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Isabel Peña; Stars: Javier Bardem, Victoria Luengo, Raúl Arévalo, Marina Foïs, Mourad Ouani, Raúl Prieto, Melina Matthews, Núria Prims, Pablo Gómez-Pando, Malena Villa, Laura Birn, Chos, Pepa Gracia, Raquel Ferri, Conchi Albiñana Espejo)

Ben'imana

A female survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide finds her stability rocked when her teenage daughter becomes pregnant.

(Country: Rwanda; Year: 2026; Director: Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo; Writer: Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo)

Bitter Christmas

Melodrama featuring parallel stories asks what right a filmmaker has to plunder reality of those close to them for their work.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2026; Director: Pedro Almodóvar; Writer: Pedro Almodóvar; Stars: Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Victoria Luengo, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit, Quim Gutiérrez, Rossy de Palma, Carmen Machi, Antonio Araque, Diogo Belizario, Nourdin Batán, Laura Ledesma, Tusti de las Heras, Gloria Muñoz)

Born In The Jungle

In 1950s Venezuela, 9-year-old Elizabeth must venture into the jungle when her little brother Leo disappears. Her mission expands to saving a mystical creature and returning it to Tepui mountain.

(Country: Latvia, Poland; Year: 2026; Director: Edmunds Jansons; Writer: Lote Eglite, Liga Gaisa)

Cantona

Documentary about the footballer.

(Year: 2026; Director: David Tryhorn, Ben Nicholas)

Coward

Soldiers try to keep their hope alive on the frontline in the First World War.

(Country: Belgium, France, Netherlands; Year: 2026; Director: Lukas Dhont; Writer: Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens; Stars: Valentin Campagne, Emmanuel Macchia, Jonas Wertz)

Dao

A wedding in Paris and a ceremony in Guinea-Bissau are intertwined in this consideration of family and heritage.

(Country: France, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal; Year: 2026; Director: Alain Gomis; Writer: Alain Gomis; Stars: Katy Correa, Katy Correa, D'Johé Kouadio, Samir Guesmi, Mike Etienne, Nicolas Gomis, Fara Baco)

The Dreamed Adventure

n the border region between Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, a woman agrees to a deal to help an old acquaintance with dangerous consequences.

(Country: Germany, France, Austria, Bulgaria; Director: Valeska Grisebach; Stars: Syuleyman Alilov Letifo, Yana Radeva, Velko Frandev)

Elephants In The Fog

In a small Nepalese village nestled in the heart of a forest populated by wild elephants, Pirati is the matriarch of a community of transgender women. But when one of her "daughters" disappears, she must choose between love and responsibility to her community.

(Country: Nepal, Germany, Brazil, France, Norway; Director: Abinash Bikram Shah; Writer: Abinash Bikram Shah)

Everybody Digs Bill Evans

When a jazz pianist loses his soulmate in a car crash, this is the story of what happens next.

(Country: Ireland, UK; Year: 2026; Director: Grant Gee; Writer: Mark O'Halloran; Stars: Anders Danielsen Lie, Bill Pullman, Laurie Metcalf, Isabelle Harriet)

Everytime

A tragedy brings a mother, daughter, and teenage boy together.

(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Sandra Wollner; Writer: Sandra Wollner; Stars: Birgit Minichmayr, Tristán López, Lotte Keiling, Carla Hüttermann)

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.

(Country: Poland, Germany, Italy, France; Year: 2026; Director: Pawel Pawlikowski; Writer: Pawel Pawlikowski; Stars: Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler, August Diehl, Anna Madeley, Devid Striesow, David Menkin, Joachim Meyerhoff, Enno Trebs, Theo Trebs, Waldemar Kobus, Daniel Wagner, Fritzi Haberlandt, Milan Peschel, Joanna Kulig, Christophe Falconnet)

Full review

Filipiñana

Review preview for Filipiñana

Sociopolitics spritzes delicately, like the water from the club's sprinklers, over the whole affair.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Tee girl Isabel feels strangely drawn to Dr. Palanca, the president of the country club where she works. However, after piecing together a violent picture of what lies beneath the club’s pristine surface, she realizes that what began as an innocent infatuation is actually rooted in a sinister shared history.

(Country: Philippines, Singapore, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands; Year: 2026; Director: Rafael Manuel; Writer: Rafael Manuel; Stars: Jorrybell Agoto, Carmen Castellanos, Teroy Guzman, Carlos Siguion-Reyna, Isabel Sicat, Nour Houshmand)

Full review

Fjord

Review preview for Fjord

Mungiu’s eye moves between the juggernaut and the barely visible.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
Mihai and Lisbet Gheorghiu, a devout Romanian Norwegian couple, move from Romania to Norway with their children to be closer to Lisbet’s family. But tension mounts when one of the children arrives at school with bruises.

(Country: Romania, France, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden; Year: 2026; Director: Cristian Mungiu; Writer: Cristian Mungiu; Stars: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Giulia Nahmany, Ingvild Lien, Turid Vatne, Alin Panc, Emilie Hetland, Sofie Vartdal)

Full review

Gentle Monster

Review preview for Gentle Monster

Seydoux takes us into the maelstrom with Lucy, determined and doubtful, angry and grief-stricken, fearful and belligerent all at the same time.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A woman struggles with her feelings after discovering her husband's grim secret.

(Country: France, Finland, Germany, Austria; Year: 2026; Director: Marie Kreutzer; Writer: Marie Kreutzer; Stars: Léa Seydoux, Catherine Deneuve, Jella Haase, Laurence Rupp, Sylvester Groth, Katharina Lorenz, Regina Fritsch, Raphael Nicholas, Anton Rubtsov, Nils Strunk)

Full review

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.

(Country: France, Italy; Year: 2026; Director: Marine Atlan; Writer: Marine Atlan, Anne Brouillet; Stars: Antonia Buresi, Julie Sokolowski)

Full review

The History Of Concrete

After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, filmmaker John Wilson tries to use the same formula to sell a documentary about concrete.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: John Wilson)

Hold Onto Me (Κράτα Με)

Eleven-year-old Iris learns her estranged father, Aris, is back in town for his own father’s funeral. Determined to know him, Iris tracks him down to a dilapidated shipyard, where he’s been keeping to himself. What begins as a stubborn attempt to reconnect slowly unfolds into a fragile bond.

(Country: Cyprus, France, Denmark, US, Greece; Year: 2026; Director: Myrsini Aristidou; Writer: Myrsini Aristidou; Stars: Hristos Passalis, Maria Petrova, Jenny Sallo, Aulona Lupa, Achilleas Grammatikopoulos, Giorgos Kyriacou)

The Holy Boy (La Valle Dei Sorrisi)

Review preview for The Holy Boy

Likely to put a smile on the faces of horror fans who favour the dissection of ideas over dismemberment.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
In Italy's happiest town, a haunted teacher discovers dark secret behind weekly gatherings where locals seek healing from a teenage boy's embrace. His quest to save the youth reveals the sinister nature of a community hiding behind joy.

(Country: Italy, Slovenia; Year: 2025; Director: Paolo Strippoli; Writer: Jacopo Del Giudice, Paolo Strippoli, Milo Tissone; Stars: Michele Riondino, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Giulio Feltri, Roberto Citran, Paolo Pierobon)

Full review See: Paolo Strippoli on his coming-of-age horror The Holy Boy

Hot Water

Review preview for Hot Water

It’s not that the journey is unpleasant but the stakes are very low and the lack of tension leads it to feel overstretched as a result.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
After he’s kicked out of his Indiana high school, an American kid and his Lebanese mom hit the road west.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Ramzi Bashour; Writer: Ramzi Bashour; Stars: Lubna Azabal, Daniel Zolghadri, Tedd Taskey, Charlotte Hacke)

Full review

How To Divorce During The War

In Vilnius in 2022, Marija has a revelation that she wants to divorce her husband, Vytas, right before Russia invades Ukraine. Forced to confront their crumbling relationship, they navigate the process of divorce as it collides with the ongoing war.

(Country: Lithuania, Luxembourg, Ireland, Czech Republic; Year: 2026; Director: Andrius Blaževičius; Writer: Andrius Blaževičius; Stars: Marius Repšys, Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė, Amelija Adomaitytė, Gintare Parulyte, Indrė Patkauskaitė)

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.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Alexandre O Philippe; Stars: Kim Novak, Alexandre O Philippe)

Full review

Landmarks (Nuestra Tierra)

Armed men killed Indigenous leader Javier Chocobar during attempted eviction in Argentina, 2009. After years of protests, a court case opened in 2018. This is a story of community voices and trial footage amid colonial land struggles.

(Country: Argentina, US, Mexico, France, Netherlands, Denmark; Year: 2025; Director: Lucrecia Martel; Writer: María Alché, Lucrecia Martel; Stars: Comunidad Chuschagasta, Javier Chocobar)

The Last First: Winter K2

The race to grab the last great prize in mountaineering, K2 in winter, left five dead. It exposed deep fault lines in alpinism today: pressures from commercialization, toxic effects of social media, and long-brewing tensions between those who’ve been marginalized and those who’ve always basked in the sport’s glory.

(Country: US, United Kingdom; Year: 2026; Director: Amir Bar-Lev)

The Man I Love

Musical fantasy set against the backdrop of New York's AIDs epidemic in the 1980s.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Ira Sachs; Writer: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias; Stars: Rami Malek, Rebecca Hall)

A Man Of His Time (Notre Salut)

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.

(Country: Belgium, France; Year: 2026; Director: Emmanuel Marre; Writer: Emmanuel Marre; Stars: Swann Arlaud, Sandrine Blancke, Mathieu Perotto)

Full review

The Match

Film about the “hand of God” World Cup quarter final between England and Argentina.

(Year: 2026; Director: Juan Cabral, Santiago Franco)

Memory

Vladlena Sandu studies her traumatic memories of the war in Chechnya.

(Country: France, Netherlands; Year: 2025; Director: Vladlena Sandu)

The Only Living Pickpocket In New York

When a theft goes awry, a veteran pickpocket is sent on a mission through New York to reclaim the stolen goods.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Noah Segan; Writer: Noah Segan; Stars: John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Tatiana Maslany, Victoria Moroles, Will Price, Steve Buscemi)

Papaya

Review preview for Papaya

Told entirely without dialogue but with an upbeat, summery score from Talita Del Collado, it has an eco-conscious vibe.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Papaya, a tiny seed in the Amazon rainforest who is passionate about flying, must keep moving to avoid taking root. But when she discovers the power of her roots, it triggers a revolution that transforms her world and fulfils her dreams in an unexpected way.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2025; Director: Priscilla Kellen; Writer: Priscilla Kellen; Stars: Tulipa Ruiz, Aretha Garcia, Maria Vitória Garcia)

Full review

Paper Tiger

Review preview for Paper Tiger

The issue is that if you strip out the elevated craft and A-list performances, what is left is the sort of bread-and-butter plot arc Cagney & Lacey used to rely on back in the day.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Two brothers pursue the American Dream but get entangled in a dangerous Russian mafia scheme.

(Country: US, Italy, Brazil; Year: 2026; Director: James Gray; Writer: James Gray; Stars: Adam Driver, Miles Teller, Scarlett Johansson, Joel Marsh Garland, Raphael Corkhill, Meredith Holzman, Cindy Katz, Patrick Murney, Jeff Adler, Rosslyn Luke, Dimiter D Marinov, Yelena Solovey, Yavor Vesselinov)

Full review See: James Gray, Miles Teller and Adam Driver in conversation on Paper Tiger

La Perra

On a remote southern Chilean island, Silvia, a solitary middle-aged woman with a painful past, rescues an abandoned puppy and names him for the daughter she never had. As their bond deepens, Silvia pours all of herself into trying to set right a destiny she long believed beyond repair.

(Country: Chile, Brazil; Year: 2026; Director: Dominga Sotomayor; Writer: Inés Bortagaray; Stars: Manuela Oyarzún, Selton Mello, Paula Luchsinger, Giannina Fruttero, Paula Dinamarca, David Gaete)

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.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2026; Director: Lance Hammer; Writer: Lance Hammer; Stars: Juliette Binoche, Tom Courtenay, Steven Cree, Florence Hunt, Anna Calder-Marshall, Michelle Jeram, Elizabeth Rushbrook, Noah Hunt Basden)

Full review See: Courtenay and Calder-Marshall on intimacy, trust and the value of friendship

Rehearsals For A Revolution

Through five portraits of relatives and mentors, five expressions of resistance, Pegah Ahangarani sketches her life story.

(Country: 2026; Director: Pegah Ahangarani)

Rose

Review preview for Rose

Apart from setting the tone and maintaining it, the strongest point of Schleinzer’s filmmaking is casting and directing the actors' interactions between one another and the environment.

Marko Stojiljkovic · 4 out of 5
A woman disguises herself as a man in 17th Century Germany.

(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Markus Schleinzer; Writer: Markus Schleinzer, Alexander Brom; Stars: Sandra Hüller, Caro Braun, Marisa Growaldt (voice), Godehard Giese, Maria Dragus, Augustino Renken, Robert Gwisdek, Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Rainer Egger, Maurice Leonhard, Bastian Trost)

Full review

A Sad And Beautiful World

Beirut-set drama traces the reunion of two former schoolmates whose romance began during the war-torn 1980s and is rekindled a decade later.

(Country: Lebanon, US, Germany,Saudi Arabia, Qatar; Year: 2025; Director: Cyril Aris; Writer: Cyril Aris, Bane Fakih; Stars: Mounia Akl, Hasan Akil, Julia Kassar)

Shame And Money

Review preview for Shame And Money

The title may seem a bit on the nose, but it certainly emphasises the themes, calling attention to them in both subtle and overt moments

Jeremy Mathews · 3.5 out of 5
After losing their livelihood in a village, a Kosovar family is forced to move to the capital in pursuit of a place in a hypercapitalist society.

(Country: Kosovo, Germany, Slovenia, Macedonia, Albania; Year: 2026; Director: Visar Morina; Writer: Visar Morina, Doruntina Basha; Stars: Astrit Kabashi, Flonja Kodheli, Alban Ukaj, Besnik Krapi, Tristan Halilaj, Refet Abazi, Kumrije Hoxha, Fiona Gllavica)

Full review

Silent Friend

Tales told from the perspective of a lonely old tree standing in the middle of a botanical garden.

(Country: Greece, France, Hungary; Year: 2025; Director: Ildikó Enyedi; Writer: Ildikó Enyedi, Tina Kaiser; Stars: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm, Léa Seydoux, Sylvester Groth, Yun Huang)

The Souffleur

A hotelier whose establishment is scheduled for redevelopment tries to cling to the past.

(Country: Austria, Argentina; Year: 2025; Director: Gastón Solnicki; Writer: Julia Niemann, Gastón Solnicki; Stars: Willem Dafoe, Lilly Lindner, Stephanie Argerich, Gastón Solnicki, Imona Mirrakhimova, Claus Philipp, Camille Clair)

The Station (Al Mahattah)

Layal runs a women-only petrol station in Yemen, a rare safe haven in a war-torn country. There, the rules are simple: no men, no weapons, no politics. When Layal’s younger brother faces enlistment, she reunites with her estranged sister to save the one life they still can.

(Country: Yemen, Jordan, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar; Year: 2026; Director: Sara Ishaq; Writer: Sara Ishaq; Stars: Manal Al-Mulaiki, Abeer Mohammed, Rashad Khaled, Saleh Al-marshahi, Fariha Hassan Amal Esmail, Shorooq Mohammed, Randa Mohammed, Fatima Muthanna)

Strange River (Estrany riu)

Sixteen-year-old Dídac and his family are spending the summer holidays on a cycling trip along the Danube. An unexpected encounter with another boy changes the course of the journey.

(Country: Spain, Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Jaume Claret Muxart; Writer: Jaume Claret Muxart, Meritxell Colell; Stars: Jan Monter, Nausicaa Bonnín, Francesco Wenz, Jordi Oriol, Bernat Solé, Roc Colell)

Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest

A Chinese wannabe artist drifts between Berlin’s overwhelming alternative scene and her traditional family in Beijing. With wit and insight, the film follows her search for identity and belonging in a globalised but polarised world.

(Country: Germany, Netherlands; Director: Viv Li; Writer: Viv Li)

The Unknown (L'inconnue)

Fantasy based on a graphic novel that sees a photographer wake up in the body of a stranger.

(Country: France, Italy; Year: 2026; Director: Arthur Harari; Writer: Arthur Harari, Vincent Poymiro, Lucas Harari, Justine Triet; Stars: Léa Seydoux, Niels Schneider, Victoire du Bois, Lilith Grasmug, Valérie Dréville, Shanti Masud, Alexandre Pallu)

Viva Carmen (Love Is a Gypsy Child: A Carmen Story)

Andalusia, Spain, 1840. After three years of wandering, Salva, who works as an assistant to a blind knife sharpener, returns to Seville, his hometown, where he meets Carmen, a gypsy woman with a captivating voice.

(Country: Finland, France, Spain; Year: 2026; Director: Sébastien Laudenbach; Writer: Santiago Otheguy, Sébastien Laudenbach; Stars: Camélia Jordana, Milo Machado-Graner, Soumaye Bocoum, Carl Malapa, Fehdi Bendjima)

A Woman's Life

Review preview for A Woman's Life

Director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet weaves an intricate life for Gabrielle without making it feel like a melodrama

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A dedicated surgeon whose private life is under strain because of the demands of her work finds things beginning to shift when a novelist comes to observe her work for a book.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2026; Director: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet; Writer: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet; Stars: Léa Drucker, Mélanie Thierry, Charles Berling, Laurent Capelluto, Marie-Christine Barrault)

Full review

Yellow Letters

Review preview for Yellow Letters

What the narrative wants to test is the cost of principled resistance when you have a child to protect

Edin Custo · 2.5 out of 5
Life is good for Derya and Aziz, a celebrated artist couple from Turkey, until an incident at their play’s premiere. Suddenly targeted by the state and struggling to balance their ideals with life’s necessities, their marriage is pushed to a breaking point.

(Country: France, Germany, Turkey; Year: 2026; Director: İlker Çatak; Writer: İlker Çatak, Ayda Meryem Çatak, Enis Köstepen; Stars: Özgü Namal, Tansu Biçer, Leyla Smyrna Cabas, Şiir Eloğlu, Eray Egilmez, Marco Kühn, Yusuf Akgün, Kerem Can, Aziz Çapkurt)

Full review

Yesterday The Eye Didn't Sleep

When someone sets fire to a car, a spark of trouble spreads through a tightly woven community.

(Country: Belgium, Lebanon, Palestinian Territory; Year: 2026; Director: Rakan Mayasi; Writer: Rakan Mayasi, Wahid Ajmi; Stars: Jawaher Mawlah, Reem Mawlah, Yasser Mawlah)