Lithuania at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival: From World Premieres to New Projects

This year, two Lithuanian films – Vytautas Katkus’ The Visitor and Gabrielė Urbonaitė’s Renovation – have been selected for the competition programs at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where both will premiere worldwide. Additionally, the TV series project Therapies, adapted from Birutė Kapustinskaitė’s play of the same name, will be presented in the industry section, with other Lithuanian films featured in special festival programs.

The 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – the leading film event in Central and Eastern Europe – opened on Friday in the Czech Republic and will run from July 4 to 12. As one of the oldest A-list festivals, it holds a prominent place alongside renowned events such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice, and San Sebastián.

Competition Program Selections

In early June, Lithuania’s film community received exciting news: two Lithuanian films were invited to the competition sections of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Among them is The Visitor, director Vytautas Katkus’ debut feature, which was selected for the festival’s main competition. It will compete alongside ten other films from around the world.

The Visitor is set to have its world premiere in the festival’s grand hall, which accommodates more than 1,100 viewers. The film will reach Lithuanian cinemas in September.

The story follows 30-year-old Danielius, a new father who leaves his family in Norway for a short visit to Lithuania to sell his parents’ apartment. But as he finds everything around him changed, Danielius tries to reconnect with his hometown, childhood friends, and the apartment where he grew up. Rather than rushing back, he chooses to embrace solitude and the emotions that emerge during his stay.

The film is produced by Marija Razgutė and Brigita Beniušytė (M-Films), with co-producers Elisa Pirir (Stær Films, Norway), Anna-Maria Kantarius (Garagefilm International, Sweden), and Cathrine Persson (Arctic Film Norway Invest, Norway). Katkus not only co-wrote the screenplay with Marija Kavtaradze but also took on the role of cinematographer. The cast features Darius Šilėnas, Vismantė Ruzgaitė, and Arvydas Dapšys.

Before his feature debut, Katkus gained international recognition for his short films. Community Gardens was selected for Cannes Critics’ Week in 2019, Places premiered in Venice’s Horizons section in 2020, and Cherries became the first Lithuanian short to compete in Cannes’ main short film competition in 2022. In 2024, he received the national Silver Crane award as Best Cinematographer for Toxic, directed by Saulė Bliuvaitė.

Director Gabrielė Urbonaitė is also making her feature debut at Karlovy Vary with Renovation, which will premiere in the festival’s Proxima competition section. The film is set for a release in Lithuania early next year.

Renovation is a co-production between Lithuania, Latvia, and Belgium. It is produced by Uljana Kim (Studio Uljana Kim) in Lithuania, with co-producers Alise Rogule (Mima Films) and Kristian Van der Heyden (Harald House). The screenplay was written by Urbonaitė herself, and the film was shot by The Visitor director Katkus. The cast features Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė, Šarūnas Zenkevičius, Aistė Diržiūtė-Rimkė, and well-known Ukrainian actor Roman Lutskyi.

At the center of Renovation is 29-year-old Ilona, who has just moved into what seems like the perfect apartment with her boyfriend. But when building renovations begin and she forms and unexpected friendship with a Ukrainian construction worker named Oleg, her carefully imagined vision of life at thirty starts to crack – much like the crumbling plaster around her.

Urbonaitė earned a Silver Crane award at just 20 years old, receiving the honor in 2013 for her short film The Swimmer. In 2023, she was nominated again, this time as a Best Editor for her work on Austėja Urbaitė’s Remember to Blink.

New Project Featured in the Industry Program

As part of the Karlovy Vary industry event KVIFF Eastern Promises, the series project Therapies will be presented, based on the play by Birutė Kapustinskaitė and produced by Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė (Just a moment).

Developed by Kapustinskaitė, the seven-part series follows a sharp-witted professor who checks into a remote hospital expecting peace and privacy during her chemotherapy treatment. Instead, she finds herself in a six-bed cancer ward full of loud, impossible-to-ignore women, one of whom is her former college nemesis. While beating cancer is the end goal, the first challenge is surviving each other.

The presentation of Therapies marks the final phase of the Pop Up Series Incubator, a newly launched initiative, supporting five international creative teams in adapting European IP’s into fully developed series concepts. The results will be showcased to potential co-producers, sales agents, broadcasters, and streaming platform representatives.

More Familiar Names at the Festival

The Horizons program at the Karlovy Vary will include Two Prosecutors, a film by Sergei Loznitsa that premiered in the main competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May.

A co-production between France, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Romania, and Lithuania (Studio Uljana Kim), the film also features contributions from several other Lithuanian creatives, including actors Vytautas Kaniušonis, Nerijus Gadliauskas, Valentin Novopolskij, and others.

Two Prosecutors is based on a novella by scientist and political prisoner Georgy Demidov. According to the director, Demidov, who spent 14 years in Soviet labor camps, documented the Stalinist repressive system through his personal experience. The film tells the story of one man’s helplessness in the face of a merciless and chilling totalitarian regime.

Meanwhile, the short film section Pragueshorts at KVIFF will showcase Hoofs on Skates, the stop-motion animated film by director Ignas Meilūnas (producers: Justė Beniušytė and Ignas Meilūnas, Kadrų skyrius).

Having toured more than 150 international festivals and earned 30 awards, Hoofs on Skates is a heartwarming story about tolerance, defying stereotypes, and unconditional friendship. Set in an enchanting winter wonderland, the whimsical journey of two friends turns into a meaningful challenge – how to deal with the otherness, without letting fear rule them.

On the cover – a still from The Visitor.