Two Lithuanian films – The Visitor by Vytautas Katkus and Renovation by Gabrielė Urbanaitė – are set to have their world premieres at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. A number of other Lithuanian works will also be screened in special strands, according to the Lithuanian Film Centre.
Now in its 59th edition, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – the leading cinematic event in Central and Eastern Europe – began on Friday in the Czech Republic and will run until July 12. It is one of the oldest A-category festivals, ranking alongside Cannes, Berlin, Venice and San Sebastián in the pantheon of world cinema.
Lithuanian entries in competition
In a rare honour, two Lithuanian productions were selected for the festival’s competitive sections. The Visitor, the feature-length directorial debut of director Vytautas Katkus, will compete in the festival’s main competition, alongside ten other films from across the globe.
The film will receive its world premiere in the festival’s largest auditorium, which seats over 1,100 people. It is set for general release in Lithuanian cinemas this September.
At the heart of The Visitor is Danielius, a man in his thirties who has recently become a father. Leaving his family behind in Norway, he returns briefly to Lithuania to sell his parents' apartment. Realising how much has changed, he begins to reconnect with his hometown, childhood friends, and the home he grew up in. Instead of rushing back to his new life, Danielius chooses to explore solitude and the emotions it stirs.
The film is produced by Marija Razgutė and Brigita Beniušytė (M-Films), with co-producers from Norway and Sweden. Katkus also served as the cinematographer, with the screenplay co-written alongside director Marija Kavtaradzė. The cast includes Darius Šilėnas, Vismantė Ruzgaitė and Arvydas Dapšys.
Katkus has already garnered international acclaim for his short films. His 2019 debut, Community Gardens, was shown in the Critics’ Week at Cannes, and in 2020, Places featured in Venice’s Orizzonti section. In 2022, Cherries became the first Lithuanian short to enter Cannes’ main short film competition. This year, he received a Silver Crane award – Lithuania’s national film award – for cinematography on Toxc (dir. Saulė Bliuvaitė).
Director Gabrielė Urbanaitė will also celebrate a world premiere in the festival’s Proxima competition section with her feature debut, Renovation. The film is scheduled for release in Lithuania early next year.
Produced by Uljana Kim (Studio Uljana Kim), the film also involves Alise Rogule (Mima Films) and Kristian Van der Heyden (Harald House) as co-producers. Urbanaitė wrote the screenplay, with cinematography by Katkus. The cast includes Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė, Šarūnas Zenkevičius, Aistė Diržiūtė-Rimkė and prominent Ukrainian actor Roman Lutskyi.
Renovation tells the story of 29-year-old Ilona, who has just moved into what appears to be a dream flat with her boyfriend. But when renovations begin and she forms an unexpected bond with a Ukrainian construction worker, Oleg, her carefully planned aspirations for her thirties begin to unravel, like plaster falling from the walls.
Urbanaitė won her first Silver Crane award aged just 20, for the short film The Swimmer in 2013. In 2023, she was also nominated for best editing for the feature Remember to Blink (dir. Austėja Urbaitė).
New Lithuanian Series at Industry Event
As part of the KVIFF Eastern Promises industry platform, the Lithuanian series project Therapies will be unveiled. The seven-part drama, developed by playwright and screenwriter Birutė Kapustinskaitė and produced by Dagnė Vildžiūnaitė (Just a Moment), is based on Kapustinskaitė’s play of the same name.
Therapies follows a sardonic professor who checks into a remote oncology ward hoping for peace and privacy. Instead, she finds herself sharing a six-bed room with women she cannot ignore – including an old rival from her student days. Though they share the common struggle of surviving cancer, their first challenge is surviving each other.
The project’s presentation marks the conclusion of the Pop Up Series Incubator, a new European initiative aimed at developing intellectual property into serialised television content. This year’s cohort featured five teams from across Europe, each presenting to potential co-producers, sales agents, broadcasters and streaming platforms.
More Lithuanian contributions
In the Horizons section, audiences will have the chance to see Two Prosecutors, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa and previously screened in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The film is an international co-production involving France, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Romania and Lithuania, with Studio Uljana Kim among the co-producers. Several Lithuanian actors appear in the film, including Vytautas Kaniušonis, Nerijus Gadliauskas and Valentinas Novopolskis.
Two Prosecutors is based on a short story by Georgy Demidov, a Soviet-era political prisoner and scientist. Having spent 14 years in the Gulag, Demidov documented his experiences in fiction, providing a harrowing account of Stalinist repression. The film portrays an individual's helplessness in the face of an unforgiving totalitarian regime.
Also featured in the festival is Hoof on Skates, a stop-motion animation by director Ignas Meilūnas. Produced by Justė Beniušytė and Meilūnas (Kadrų Skyrius), the short has travelled to more than 150 international festivals and collected 30 awards.
The story explores themes of tolerance, breaking stereotypes, and unconditional friendship. Set in a magical winter world, the journey of two friends becomes a challenge that asks: how do we understand what frightens us at first glance?
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
