Japanese New Wave among highlights of 42nd Karlovy Vary Film Festival

It's over two months until the start of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, during which the pretty west Bohemian town is transformed for a week and a half, becoming the most exciting and glamorous place in the Czech Republic. But the countdown to this year's 42nd Karlovy Vary has already begun, with organisers presenting key elements of the programme to the media on Tuesday morning. At the launch, artistic director Eva Zaoralova told me a little about this year's special sections.

Eva Zaoralova

"We are expecting the Japanese Nouvelle Vague - it's a retrospective of seven films. There will be another section, New Hollywood, which will present the first or second films by Scorcese, Spielberg, Bogdanovich and George Lucas - it will be very interesting for our Czech audiences, because it's a selection of films which were not shown in the Czech Republic."

It's over two months now to the beginning of the festival. How close is the programme to completion? Or is it all ready?

"It's ready, but we will of course be in Cannes and I hope to have some new films from Cannes. So maybe I can say it's 80 percent closed, but we are now still open to other films."

Every year the festival seems to be bigger, with more people getting accredited and so on - do you think Karlovy Vary can keep growing, or has it reached its maximum size?

Hotel Thermal

"No, the maximum size is now. Because it's very difficult to expect more people. We don't have so many cinemas - this is a problem. The main halls are in [Hotel] Thermal and some cinemas [in the town] of Karlovy Vary, but only two are real theatres. For example, [screening hall] Lazne III is a concert hall. So if we want to present maybe some 200, 230 films it's the maximum. The volume of the halls doesn't get bigger."

Perhaps you aren't the right person to ask but people will be wondering - who will be special guests this year, do you know?

"Oh, the names I know but it's not yet sure. So we will wait for the next press conference and there we will say some good names!"

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