Karlovy Vary International Film Festival celebrates 60th anniversary

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) will mark its 60th edition from 3 to 11 July 2026, six decades after gaining FIAPF A‑category status in 1956, which places it alongside Cannes, Berlin and Venice.

From 1959 to 1993 the festival alternated yearly with Moscow. In the early 1990s its status was threatened, but a 1994 reorganisation led by actor Jiří Bartoška and Eva Zaoralová restored it. Bartoška, who first attended in 1969, recalled that he became president after a last‑minute offer: “I was the twentieth person they approached”. Under his leadership the event grew from a small pioneering crew to a joint‑stock company employing over a thousand staff during the festival.

Legal reforms in the mid‑1990s required the festival’s foundation to become a private corporation, with Bartoška as the sole shareholder. He remained president until his death in 2025, making the 2026 edition the first without his presence, while the festival prepares to celebrate its historic milestone.