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Ivan Barnev discusses acting and his role in ‘The Father’, winner of the Grand Prix Crystal Globe Prize of US$ 25,000 at Karlovy Vary Ff.

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Winners include Bulgarian-Greek comedy ‘The Father’ and Jan-Ole Gerster’s ‘Lara’.

Bulgarian-Greek comedy The Father won the Grand Prix - Crystal Globe at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 28 – July 6), which closed yesterday with its annual awards ceremony.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, The Father was selected by grand jury comprising Annemarie Jacir, Štěpán Hulík, Sergei Loznitsa, Angeliki Papoulia and Charles Tesson. The Crystal Globe comes with $25,000 prize money.

The film tells the story of a middle-aged man (Ivan Barnev) attempting to stop his widowed...

In the middle of the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary stands a massive Brutalist building, the Hotel Thermal, which has housed the Karlovy Vary Int’l Film Festival since the late ’70s.

It is here in the Thermal, on one of Europe’s biggest screens, where I have seen movies that rival those debuting at Cannes six weeks earlier — discoveries such as German director Jan-Ole Gerster’s demanding-mother drama “Lara,” winner of two prizes, and Hong Khaou’s “Monsoon,” a subtle, soulful rumination on the many facets of identity, starring “Crazy Rich Asians” heartthrob Henry Golding as a Vietnamese refugee raised abroad, struggling to reconnect with his mother country.

Karlovy Vary is the first major stop after Cannes where the great French festival’s most essential films (such as Palme d’Or winner “Parasite”) can be seen by non-industry audiences, many of them curious young cinephiles — open-minded twentysomethings from...

The 2019 installment of the sprawling Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 28 – July 6), held for more than 50 years at the sunny resort hub of the Czech Republic, boasted 12,521 accredited attendees, including 395 filmmakers, 1158 global industry professionals, and 605 journalists. They watched a selection of 177 films at 497 screenings.

Karlovy Vary, run by president Jiří Bartoška and artistic director Karel Och, runs three competitive categories. “The Father,” from Bulgaria and Greece, took home the Grand Prix, and “Lara,” from Germany, won three awards. The full list of winners is below.

Official Selection – Competition

Jury: Štěpán Hulík (Czech Republic), Annemarie Jacir (State of Palestine),Sergei Loznitsa (Ukraine), Angeliki Papoulia (Greece), Charles Tesson (France)

Grand Prix – Crystal Globe

Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s “The Father”

Special Jury Prize

Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)

Best Director Award

Tim Mielants for “Patrick” (Belgium)

Best Actress Award

Corinna Harfouch, star of Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)

Best Actor Award

Milan Ondrík,...

The 2019 installment of the sprawling Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 28 – July 6), held for more than 50 years at the sunny resort hub of the Czech Republic, boasted 12,521 accredited attendees, including 395 filmmakers, 1158 global industry professionals, and 605 journalists. They watched a selection of 177 films at 497 screenings.

Karlovy Vary, run by president Jiří Bartoška and artistic director Karel Och, runs three competitive categories. “The Father,” from Bulgaria and Greece, took home the Grand Prix, and “Lara,” from Germany, won three awards. The full list of winners is below.

Official Selection – Competition

Jury: Štěpán Hulík (Czech Republic), Annemarie Jacir (State of Palestine),Sergei Loznitsa (Ukraine), Angeliki Papoulia (Greece), Charles Tesson (France)

Grand Prix – Crystal Globe

Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s “The Father”

Special Jury Prize

Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)

Best Director Award

Tim Mielants for “Patrick” (Belgium)

Best Actress Award

Corinna Harfouch, star of Jan-Ole Gerster’s “Lara” (Germany)

Best Actor Award

Milan Ondrík,...

The Bulgarian duo's new film received the Crystal Globe, while the other big winner of this edition was Lara by German filmmaker Jan Ole Gerster, taking home two awards. “The film is entitled The Father, but it is in fact dedicated to the mother.” With these words, Bulgarian directorial duo Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov clarified what lies behind their latest film, the winner of the Crystal Globe for Best Film at the 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. A sort of road movie dealing with loss, religion and family relations (and quince jam), The Father won over the jury comprising Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson, actress Angeliki Papoulia, directors Sergei Loznitsa and Annemarie Jacir, and screenwriter Štěpán Hulík. This feat marks the biggest achievement in the duo’s career since they world-premiered their first feature, The Lesson, at San Sebastián, where they won the New Directors Award. The other.

Bulgarian drama Father, directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, took the Crystal Globe for Grand Prix at the closing Saturday of the 54th edition of the Karlovy Vary film festival.

An intimate family drama about a grieving father who has lost his wife of many years, the Bulgarian-Greek co-production contained elements of dark farce.

A special jury prize went to the producer and director of German director Jan-Ole Gerster's Lara about a mother attending her son's piano recital — something that has surprising unpredictable results. Corinna Harfouch, who played the title role, picked up best actress.

Best director ...

The 2019 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has come to an end and that means the competition jury has awards to hand out. This year’s five-member jury surprised by honoring Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s dramedy “The Father” with the festival’s top prize, the Crystal Globe. Jonás Trueba’s “The August Virgin,” which was honored with a Special Jury Mention, and Hong Khaou’s “Monsoon” were thought to be in contention by the critics attending the fest.

Continue reading ‘The Father’ & ‘Lara’ Take Top Competition Prizes At Karlovy Vary Film Festival at The Playlist.

The 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has wrapped today and set its winners with Bulgarian road-trip comedy The Father taking home the top prize Grand Prix Crystal Globe, which comes with cash prize of $25,000. Scroll down for a full list of winners.

The Czech festival’s special jury prize went to German drama Lara, while best director went to Tim Mielants for Belgian feature Patrick. Milan Ondrík won best actor for his role in Czech film Let There Be Light and Corinna Harfouch won the best actress accolade for the aforementioned Lara.

This year’s competition jury comprised Štěpán Hulík, Annemarie Jacir, Sergei Loznitsa, Angeliki Papoulia and Charles Tesson. As previously revealed, there were career Crystal Globes for Julianne Moore and Patricia Clarkson.

Full List Of Winners:

Grand Prix – Crystal Globe (25 000 Usd)

The financial award is shared equally by the director and producer of the award-winning film.

The Father / Bashtata

Directed by: Kristina Grozeva,...

Family angst and off-the-wall humor dominated the 54th Karlovy Vary film fest prize race, with Bulgarian-Greek road comedy “The Father” scoring the Crystal Globe Saturday eve in a gala closing ceremony at the Hotel Thermal.

The story of a long-suffering photographer trying to manage his father’s increasingly unhinged behavior in the wake of his wife’s death, the film is the fourth team project by writer-directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov.

The jury also honored German psychological family drama “Lara” by Jan-Ole Gerster, which follows a protective mother’s frustrations as her aloof son faces an upcoming piano recital. Lead actress Corinna Harfouch took the actress prize for her tortured turn in the film.

Tim Mielants won the director prize for “Patrick,” his study of hammer obsession by a socially challenged maintenance man for a Belgian nudist camp, while Milan Ondrik won the actor prize for Slovak-Czech family drama “Let There Be Light,...

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, the sunny proverb goes. But what if life gives you inedibly sour quinces instead? The father-son odd-couple road trip comedy gets an appealingly deadpan, Bulgarian makeover in Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s third feature, a film that takes the bittersweet fruits of its funny, sad, silly situations, and eventually, after many a comical false start, makes jam.

Not all filmmakers can say they’ve carved out a distinctive niche for themselves after just three features, but the Bulgarian writing-producing-directing duo are among the few who can. So while “The Father” occupies a lighter, gentler register than jet-black fables “The Lesson” and “Glory,” it shows the same affinity for screw-tightening stories of fundamentally decent people caught in an escalating series of thankless dilemmas, through no malicious intent of their own. In the Grozeva/Valchanov Cinematic Universe, no good deed goes unpunished, but this...

Writer-director duo Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov are two of Bulgaria’s most acclaimed filmmakers, earning critical plaudits with their award-winning features “The Lesson” (2014) and “Glory” (2016). Part of their Newspaper Clippings Trilogy, the films were inspired by sensationalist media stories depicting the absurdity of life in post-communist Bulgaria.

Grozeva and Valchanov took a break from the trilogy to shoot their latest feature, “The Father,” which has its world premiere Tuesday in competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Inspired by a mysterious, real-life event, the film follows a bereaved husband and son who discover that the deceased has been persistently calling a neighbor’s phone since her passing. When Vassil (Ivan Savov) decides to visit a famous medium to unravel the supernatural mystery, his estranged son Pavel (Ivan Barnev) is forced to tag along to keep him out of trouble — a tragicomic road trip that could ultimately bring the distant duo closer together.