Karlovy Vary Festival Expands Industry Days With David Chase Session and New Book-to-Screen Program

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will hold its 60th edition from July 3 to 11 in the Czech Republic. Alongside film screenings, the event includes an Industry Days program focused on business meetings for film, television, and publishing professionals.

Hugo Rosák, head of the KVIFF Film Industry Office, said the 2026 program introduces new events and updates existing ones. The schedule features a session titled “The Sopranos and Beyond: David Chase on Storytelling, Television, and the Future of Creative Risk,” a discussion with Sharon Horgan and Andrij Parekh on streaming storytelling, and a spotlight on Jude Law’s production company Riff Raff Entertainment.

The festival will present its second KVIFF Central Stage showcase, selecting 11 directors whose projects are in development. It will also launch a Book-to-Screen program in partnership with the Frankfurter Buchmesse to connect independent producers with regional book titles and adaptation rights.

Rosák said the book initiative addresses difficulties independent producers face when seeking adaptation rights in Central and Eastern Europe. A think tank will run alongside the program to identify issues and produce recommendations or a white paper by next year.

Sessions will cover vertical microdramas and tools to raise production value for series and television. Rosák said these formats reflect rapid changes in the audiovisual industry and may help producers diversify revenue sources. The program will also address artificial intelligence through practical discussions on cost, usage, and studio applications rather than promotional presentations.

In collaboration with the U.S. embassies in Bratislava and Prague and Film Independent, Industry Days will host the U.S. Department of State’s Global Media Makers Residency. The program will select 15 independent producers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia for an intensive residency.