Inspiring days at the 51st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival FUTURE FRAMES 2016 impresses audiences and filmmakers alike

The second edition of FUTURE FRAMES at the 51 Karlovy Vary International Festival 2016 has successfully wrapped. All soldout screenings of the FUTURE FRAMES films were followed by very lively Q&A’s with the fantastic KVIFF audience. Highlights of the busy programme for the young filmmakers were a masterclass by Oscar nominated director Felix van Groeningen and a very informative lecture by Katriel Schory, Executive Director of the Israel Film Fund. The EFP initiative – a close and very fruitful cooperation with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – is supported by the Creative Europe – Media Programme of the European Union and the respective EFP member organisations.

In his masterclass Felix van Groeningen contributed invaluable input on the various aspects of filmmaking, sharing very openly his rich experience and urging the young filmmakers to start as quickly as possible with their first feature film projects in order to keep up the energy. As the mentor of the emerging filmmakers, he took great interest in their work, went to all the screenings and was impressed by the quality and craftsmanship of the films. Together, they also attended the Czech premiere of Felix van Groeningen’s latest film “Belgica” which screened at KVIFF’s “Horizons” section and had additional time to share impressions afterwards. The inspiring day was rounded off by a press event at the FUTURE FRAMES’ partner NESPRESSO Lounge for all participants, who afterwards rocked the “Belgica” Party together with Felix van Groeningen until the early hours .

In order to provide even more insight into the international film business and the festival circuit, the emerging directors met with various festival representatives and enjoyed a lecture by Katriel Schory – one of the most respected figures in the international film industry – who spoke in a very lively and inspirational way about the important and complex relationship between director and producer and how to select the right team for each film project.

Christian De Schutter, General Manager of Flanders Image, the EFP member who suggested Felix van Groeningen for the role of mentor, is especially happy with this year’s edition of FUTURE FRAMES: “By promoting exceptional European directing talents at the start of their professional career, FUTURE FRAMES is a great addition to the EFP portfolio. Flanders Image is very happy to have presented a film school graduate from Belgium in both editions of FUTURE FRAMES so far, and we are also impressed at how the programme has evolved in its second year by including even more professional input for the young filmmakers, thanks, in particular, to Felix van Groeningen and Katriel Schory. The screenings of the films were an excellent example of how eager and openminded KVIFF audiences are at discovering emerging filmmaking voices from across Europe. It's an experience that is inspiring for both the festival audience (among them, many film students) and the selected filmmakers, many of whom felt that their work has really been taken seriously for the first time outside of their respective film schools.”

Looking back on the second edition of FUTURE FRAMES, Anna Purkrabkova, Program Coordinator at KVIFF, states: “The second edition of Future Frames brought another ten exceptionally talented young filmmakers to Karlovy Vary. They had a chance to share experiences not only with the established professionals, but also with each other and to explore what it means to be an European filmmaker at the beginning of one’s career. We are pleased to see the growing interest of the media and film industry professionals in the Future Frames programme and we are looking forward to hosting the next edition of this outstanding project.”

For the participants of FUTURE FRAMES, Maria Luz Olivares Capelle, who studied under Michael Haneke at the Vienna Film Academy and presented her multiple awardwinning graduate film “Forest of Echoes”, sums up the experience: ”Future Frames meant three days of very enriching and enjoyable conversations with very different young directors going through a very similar phase of development with their films. The exchange with Felix van Groeningen and Katriel Schory was also very interesting. Both of them have so much experience and talked to us very honestly and openly about the easy and the not so easy parts of filmmaking. Karlovy Vary is a beautiful city, and the film festival was a great context in which to present our films.”

Partners of FUTURE FRAMES 2016 are the Sundance Channel and Nespresso.

Interviews with this year's FUTURE FRAME participants or reviews of the films will be published at EFP's media partners' websites: Variety, Cineuropa Shorts, Film New Europe, Fred Film Radio, NISI MASA and daazo SHORTFILMS!