Film Spa

This film presents the history of one of the world’s oldest film festivals, the Karlovy Vary IFF, which is only now marking its 50th edition due to the upheavals of the previous century. We return to 1946, the year the festival was launched in Mariánské Lázně as a non-competitive event whose film screenings were also held in Karlovy Vary. When the festival moved permanently to Vary it incorporated a feature film competition. From 1957 to 1968 coverage of the festival (which was forced to alternate with the Moscow IFF beginning in 1959) was provided by the outstanding on-site broadcasts known as “Moments,” hosted by Miroslav Horníček. Czech TV archives provided further footage of the fluctuating fortunes of a festival that was finally resurrected in 1994 with the arrival of its current management who made it what it is today – one of the most respected film festivals in Europe. The film is interwoven with interviews with former colleagues, contemporaries and historians.

Eva Zaoralová (2012)