Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Karlovy >> 2026 >> Horizons
View other Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Films by strand: Afterhours , Crystal Globe Competition , Imagina , Out Of The Past - KVIFF 60/80 , Proxima Competition , Special Screenings , Tributes
A Woman’s Life and Paper Tiger
All Of A Sudden
(Soudain)
(Country: Japan, France, Belgium, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi; Writer: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Léa Le Dimna; Stars: Virginie Efira, Tao Okamoto, Kyōzō Nagatsuka, Kodai Kurosaki, Jean-Louis Garçon, Marie Bunel, Jean-Charles Clichet, Margot Maricot, Lazare Gousseau, Jérôme Chappatte, Evelyne Istria, Elisabeth Tamaris, Aurélia Petit, Heidi Becker-Babel)
The director of a nursing home in Paris has an encounter with a terminally ill Japanese playwright that transforms her life.
The Beloved
(El ser querido)
(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2026; Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen; Writer: Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Isabel Peña; Stars: Javier Bardem, Victoria Luengo, Raúl Arévalo, Marina Foïs, Mourad Ouani, Raúl Prieto, Melina Matthews, Núria Prims, Pablo Gómez-Pando, Malena Villa, Laura Birn, Chos, Pepa Gracia, Raquel Ferri, Conchi Albiñana Espejo)
A director and his estranged daughter, a struggling actress, make a movie together, forcing them to confront their troubled past
Ben’imana
(Country: Rwanda; Year: 2026; Director: Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo; Writer: Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo)
A female survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide finds her sability rocked when her teenage daughter becomes pregnant.
Bitter Christmas
(Country: Spain; Year: 2026; Director: Pedro Almodóvar; Writer: Pedro Almodóvar; Stars: Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Victoria Luengo, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit, Quim Gutiérrez, Rossy de Palma, Carmen Machi, Antonio Araque, Diogo Belizario, Nourdin Batán, Laura Ledesma, Tusti de las Heras, Gloria Muñoz)
Melodrama featuring parallel stories asks what right a filmmaker has to plunder reality of those close to them for their work.
Born In The Jungle
(Country: Latvia, Poland; Year: 2026; Director: Edmunds Jansons; Writer: Lote Eglite, Liga Gaisa)
In 1950s Venezuela, 9-year-old Elizabeth must venture into the jungle when her little brother Leo disappears. Her mission expands to saving a mystical creature and returning it to Tepui mountain.
Filipiñana and Hot Water
Cantona
(Year: 2026; Director: David Tryhorn, Ben Nicholas)
Documentary about the footballer.
Coward
(Country: Belgium, France, Netherlands; Year: 2026; Director: Lukas Dhont; Writer: Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens; Stars: Valentin Campagne, Emmanuel Macchia, Jonas Wertz)
Soldiers try to keep their hope alive on the frontline in the First World War.
Dao
(Country: France, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal; Year: 2026; Director: Alain Gomis; Writer: Alain Gomis; Stars: Katy Correa, Katy Correa, D’Johé Kouadio, Samir Guesmi, Mike Etienne, Nicolas Gomis, Fara Baco)
A wedding in Paris and a ceremony in Guinea-Bissau are intertwined in this consideration of family and heritage.
The Dreamed Adventure
(Country: Germany, France, Austria, Bulgaria; Director: Valeska Grisebach; Stars: Syuleyman Alilov Letifo, Yana Radeva, Velko Frandev)
n the border region between Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, a woman agrees to a deal to help an old acquaintance with dangerous consequences.
Elephants In The Fog
(Country: Nepal, Germany, Brazil, France, Norway; Director: Abinash Bikram Shah; Writer: Abinash Bikram Shah)
In a small Nepalese village nestled in the heart of a forest populated by wild elephants, Pirati is the matriarch of a community of transgender women. But when one of her "daughters" disappears, she must choose between love and responsibility to her community.
Papaya and Yellow Letters
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
(Country: Ireland, UK; Year: 2026; Director: Grant Gee; Writer: Mark O'Halloran; Stars: Anders Danielsen Lie, Bill Pullman, Laurie Metcalf, Isabelle Harriet)
When a jazz pianist loses his soulmate in a car crash, this is the story of what happens next.
Everytime
(Year: 2026; Director: Sandra Wollner; Writer: Sandra Wollner; Stars: Birgit Minichmayr, Tristán López, Lotte Keiling, Carla Hüttermann)
A tragedy brings a mother, daughter, and teenage boy together.
Fatherland
(Country: Italy, Poland, France, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Pawel Pawlikowski; Writer: Pawel Pawlikowski; Stars: Sandra Hüller, August Diehl, Anna Madeley)
Drama focusing on Thomas Mann's post-war life, his family's stand against Nazi rule and their journey into exile.
Filipiñana
(Country: Philippines, Singapore, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands; Year: 2026; Director: Rafael Manuel; Writer: Rafael Manuel; Stars: Jorrybell Agoto, Carmen Castellanos, Teroy Guzman, Carlos Siguion-Reyna, Isabel Sicat, Nour Houshmand)
Tee girl Isabel feels strangely drawn to Dr. Palanca, the president of the country club where she works. However, after piecing together a violent picture of what lies beneath the club’s pristine surface, she realizes that what began as an innocent infatuation is actually rooted in a sinister shared history.
Fjord
(Country: Romania, France, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden; Year: 2026; Director: Cristian Mungiu; Writer: Cristian Mungiu; Stars: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Giulia Nahmany, Ingvild Lien, Turid Vatne, Alin Panc, Emilie Hetland, Sofie Vartdal)
Mihai and Lisbet Gheorghiu, a devout Romanian Norwegian couple, move from Romania to Norway with their children to be closer to Lisbet’s family. But tension mounts when one of the children arrives at school with bruises.
Rose and The Holy Boy
Gentle Monster
(Country: France, Finland, Germany, Austria; Director: Marie Kreutzer; Writer: Marie Kreutzer; Stars: Léa Seydoux, Catherine Deneuve, Jella Haase, Laurence Rupp, Sylvester Groth, Katharina Lorenz, Regina Fritsch, Raphael Nicholas, Anton Rubtsov, Nils Strunk)
A woman struggles with her feelings after discovering her husband's grim secret.
La Gradiva
(Country: France, Italy; Year: 2026; Director: Marine Atlan; Writer: Marine Atlan, Anne Brouillet; Stars: Antonia Buresi, Julie Sokolowski)
A group of French high-school students travel to Naples on a school trip to discover the ruins of Pompeii and the bodies petrified by Vesuvius. There, they are drawn into a dizzying descent.
The History Of Concrete
(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: John Wilson)
After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, filmmaker John Wilson tries to use the same formula to sell a documentary about concrete.
Hold Onto Me
(Κράτα Με)
(Country: Cyprus, France, Denmark, US, Greece; Year: 2026; Director: Myrsini Aristidou; Writer: Myrsini Aristidou; Stars: Hristos Passalis, Maria Petrova, Jenny Sallo, Aulona Lupa, Achilleas Grammatikopoulos, Giorgos Kyriacou)
Eleven-year-old Iris learns her estranged father, Aris, is back in town for his own father’s funeral. Determined to know him, Iris tracks him down to a dilapidated shipyard, where he’s been keeping to himself. What begins as a stubborn attempt to reconnect slowly unfolds into a fragile bond.
The Holy Boy
(La Valle Dei Sorrisi)
(Country: Italy, Slovenia; Year: 2025; Director: Paolo Strippoli; Writer: Jacopo Del Giudice, Paolo Strippoli, Milo Tissone; Stars: Michele Riondino, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Giulio Feltri, Roberto Citran, Paolo Pierobon)
In Italy's happiest town, a haunted teacher discovers dark secret behind weekly gatherings where locals seek healing from a teenage boy's embrace. His quest to save the youth reveals the sinister nature of a community hiding behind joy.
All Of A Sudden and Shame And Money
Hot Water
(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Ramzi Bashour; Writer: Ramzi Bashour; Stars: Lubna Azabal, Daniel Zolghadri, Tedd Taskey, Charlotte Hacke)
After he’s kicked out of his Indiana high school, an American kid and his Lebanese mom hit the road west.
How To Divorce During The War
(Country: Lithuania, Luxembourg, Ireland, Czech Republic; Year: 2026; Director: Andrius Blaževičius; Writer: Andrius Blaževičius; Stars: Marius Repšys, Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė, Amelija Adomaitytė, Gintare Parulyte, Indrė Patkauskaitė)
In Vilnius in 2022, Marija has a revelation that she wants to divorce her husband, Vytas, right before Russia invades Ukraine. Forced to confront their crumbling relationship, they navigate the process of divorce as it collides with the ongoing war.
Kim Novak’s Vertigo
(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Alexandre O Philippe)
Hitchcock star reflects on the film and her life.
Landmarks
(Nuestra Tierra)
(Country: Argentina, US, Mexico, France, Netherlands, Denmark; Year: 2025; Director: Lucrecia Martel; Writer: María Alché, Lucrecia Martel; Stars: Comunidad Chuschagasta, Javier Chocobar)
Armed men killed Indigenous leader Javier Chocobar during attempted eviction in Argentina, 2009. After years of protests, a court case opened in 2018. This is a story of community voices and trial footage amid colonial land struggles.
The Last First: Winter K2
(Country: US, United Kingdom; Year: 2026; Director: Amir Bar-Lev)
The race to grab the last great prize in mountaineering, K2 in winter, left five dead. It exposed deep fault lines in alpinism today: pressures from commercialization, toxic effects of social media, and long-brewing tensions between those who’ve been marginalized and those who’ve always basked in the sport’s glory.
Gentle Monster and Fjord
The Man I Love
(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Ira Sachs; Writer: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias; Stars: Rami Malek, Rebecca Hall)
Musical fantasy set against the backdrop of New York's AIDs epidemic in the 1980s.
A Man Of His Time
(Notre Salut)
(Country: Belgium, France; Director: Emmanuel Marre; Writer: Emmanuel Marre; Stars: Swann Arlaud, Sandrine Blancke, Mathieu Perotto)
Historical drama set against a backdrop of Vichy France as a man strives to help France's renewal.
The Match
(Year: 2026; Director: Juan Cabral, Santiago Franco)
Film about the “hand of God” World Cup quarter final between England and Argentina.
Memory
(Country: France, Netherlands; Year: 2025; Director: Vladlena Sandu)
Vladlena Sandu studies her traumatic memories of the war in Chechnya.
The Only Living Pickpocket In New York
(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Noah Segan; Writer: Noah Segan; Stars: John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Tatiana Maslany, Victoria Moroles, Will Price, Steve Buscemi)
When a theft goes awry, a veteran pickpocket is sent on a mission through New York to reclaim the stolen goods.
The History Of Concrete and The Only Living Pickpocket In New York
Papaya
(Country: Brazil; Year: 2025; Director: Priscilla Kellen; Writer: Priscilla Kellen; Stars: Tulipa Ruiz, Aretha Garcia, Maria Vitória Garcia)
Papaya, a tiny seed in the Amazon rainforest who is passionate about flying, must keep moving to avoid taking root. But when she discovers the power of her roots, it triggers a revolution that transforms her world and fulfils her dreams in an unexpected way.
Paper Tiger
(Country: US, Italy, Brazil; Year: 2026; Director: James Gray; Writer: James Gray; Stars: Adam Driver, Miles Teller, Scarlett Johansson, Joel Marsh Garland, Raphael Corkhill, Meredith Holzman, Cindy Katz, Patrick Murney, Jeff Adler, Rosslyn Luke, Dimiter D Marinov, Yelena Solovey, Yavor Vesselinov)
Two brothers pursue the American Dream but get entangled in a dangerous Russian mafia scheme.
La Perra
(Country: Chile, Brazil; Year: 2026; Director: Dominga Sotomayor; Writer: Inés Bortagaray; Stars: Manuela Oyarzún, Selton Mello, Paula Luchsinger, Giannina Fruttero, Paula Dinamarca, David Gaete)
On a remote southern Chilean island, Silvia, a solitary middle-aged woman with a painful past, rescues an abandoned puppy and names him for the daughter she never had. As their bond deepens, Silvia pours all of herself into trying to set right a destiny she long believed beyond repair.
Queen At Sea
(Country: UK, US; Year: 2026; Director: Lance Hammer; Stars: Juliette Binoche, Tom Courtenay, Steven Cree, Florence Hunt, Anna Calder-Marshall, Michelle Jeram, Elizabeth Rushbrook, Noah Hunt Basden)
As advanced dementia erodes an older woman’s ability to communicate her inner life, her husband and daughter struggle to act in her best interests, navigating love and the fragile boundaries between care, protection and autonomy.
Rehearsals For A Revolution
(Country: 2026; Director: Pegah Ahangarani)
Through five portraits of relatives and mentors, five expressions of resistance, Pegah Ahangarani sketches her life story.
Hold Onto Me and How To Divorce During The War
Rose
(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Markus Schleinzer; Writer: Markus Schleinzer, Alexander Brom; Stars: Sandra Hüller, Caro Braun, Marisa Growaldt (voice), Godehard Giese, Maria Dragus, Augustino Renken, Robert Gwisdek, Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Rainer Egger, Maurice Leonhard, Bastian Trost)
A woman disguises herself as a man in 17th Century Germany.
A Sad And Beautiful World
(Country: Lebanon, US, Germany,Saudi Arabia, Qatar; Year: 2025; Director: Cyril Aris; Writer: Cyril Aris, Bane Fakih; Stars: Mounia Akl, Hasan Akil, Julia Kassar)
Beirut-set drama traces the reunion of two former schoolmates whose romance began during the war-torn 1980s and is rekindled a decade later.
Shame And Money
(Country: Kosovo, Germany, Slovenia, Macedonia, Albania; Year: 2026; Director: Visar Morina; Writer: Visar Morina, Doruntina Basha; Stars: Astrit Kabashi, Flonja Kodheli, Alban Ukaj, Besnik Krapi, Tristan Halilaj, Refet Abazi, Kumrije Hoxha, Fiona Gllavica)
After losing their livelihood in a village, a Kosovar family is forced to move to the capital in pursuit of a place in a hypercapitalist society.
Silent Friend
(Country: Greece, France, Hungary; Year: 2025; Director: Ildikó Enyedi; Writer: Ildikó Enyedi, Tina Kaiser; Stars: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm, Léa Seydoux, Sylvester Groth, Yun Huang)
Tales told from the perspective of a lonely old tree standing in the middle of a botanical garden.
The Souffleur
(Country: Austria, Argentina; Year: 2025; Director: Gastón Solnicki; Writer: Julia Niemann, Gastón Solnicki; Stars: Willem Dafoe, Lilly Lindner, Stephanie Argerich, Gastón Solnicki, Imona Mirrakhimova, Claus Philipp, Camille Clair)
A hotelier whose establishment is scheduled for redevelopment tries to cling to the past.
Bitter Christmas and Coward
The Station
(Al Mahattah)
(Country: Yemen, Jordan, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar; Year: 2026; Director: Sara Ishaq; Writer: Sara Ishaq; Stars: Manal Al-Mulaiki, Abeer Mohammed, Rashad Khaled, Saleh Al-marshahi, Fariha Hassan Amal Esmail, Shorooq Mohammed, Randa Mohammed, Fatima Muthanna)
Layal runs a women-only petrol station in Yemen, a rare safe haven in a war-torn country. There, the rules are simple: no men, no weapons, no politics. When Layal’s younger brother faces enlistment, she reunites with her estranged sister to save the one life they still can.
Strange River
(Estrany riu)
(Country: Spain, Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Jaume Claret Muxart; Writer: Jaume Claret Muxart, Meritxell Colell; Stars: Jan Monter, Nausicaa Bonnín, Francesco Wenz, Jordi Oriol, Bernat Solé, Roc Colell)
Sixteen-year-old Dídac and his family are spending the summer holidays on a cycling trip along the Danube. An unexpected encounter with another boy changes the course of the journey.
Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest
(Country: Germany, Netherlands; Director: Viv Li; Writer: Viv Li)
A Chinese wannabe artist drifts between Berlin’s overwhelming alternative scene and her traditional family in Beijing. With wit and insight, the film follows her search for identity and belonging in a globalised but polarised world.
The Unknown
(L'inconnue)
(Country: France, Italy; Year: 2026; Director: Arthur Harari; Writer: Arthur Harari, Vincent Poymiro, Lucas Harari, Justine Triet; Stars: Léa Seydoux, Niels Schneider, Victoire du Bois, Lilith Grasmug, Valérie Dréville, Shanti Masud, Alexandre Pallu)
Fantasy based on a graphic novel that sees a photographer wake up in the body of a stranger.
Viva Carmen
(Love Is a Gypsy Child: A Carmen Story)
(Country: Finland, France, Spain; Year: 2026; Director: Sébastien Laudenbach; Writer: Santiago Otheguy, Sébastien Laudenbach; Stars: Camélia Jordana, Milo Machado-Graner, Soumaye Bocoum, Carl Malapa, Fehdi Bendjima)
Andalusia, Spain, 1840. After three years of wandering, Salva, who works as an assistant to a blind knife sharpener, returns to Seville, his hometown, where he meets Carmen, a gypsy woman with a captivating voice.
The Station and La Gradiva
A Woman’s Life
(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2026; Director: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet; Writer: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet; Stars: Léa Drucker, Mélanie Thierry, Charles Berling, Laurent Capelluto, Marie-Christine Barrault)
A dedicated surgeon whose private life is under strain because of the demands of her work finds things beginning to shift when a novelist comes to observe her work for a book.
Yellow Letters
(Country: France, Germany, Turkey; Year: 2026; Director: İlker Çatak; Writer: İlker Çatak, Ayda Meryem Çatak, Enis Köstepen; Stars: Özgü Namal, Tansu Biçer, Leyla Smyrna Cabas, Şiir Eloğlu, Eray Egilmez, Marco Kühn, Yusuf Akgün, Kerem Can, Aziz Çapkurt)
Life is good for Derya and Aziz, a celebrated artist couple from Turkey, until an incident at their play’s premiere. Suddenly targeted by the state and struggling to balance their ideals with life’s necessities, their marriage is pushed to a breaking point.
Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep
(Country: Belgium, Lebanon, Palestinian Territory; Year: 2026; Director: Rakan Mayasi; Writer: Rakan Mayasi, Wahid Ajmi; Stars: Jawaher Mawlah, Reem Mawlah, Yasser Mawlah)
When someone sets fire to a car, a spark of trouble spreads through a tightly woven community.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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