Housing screening rooms, social spaces, administrative offices, and meeting hubs, the Hotel Thermal is more than the heart of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival — in many ways, this monument to Soviet brutalism is the festival. From morning until well past midnight, its concrete corridors teem with thousands of students and Oscar winners, international visitors and local flâneurs alike, generating the distinctive buzz that defines KVIFF.
That buzz reached its peak on Thursday, as a succession of events showcased both the breadth of the program and the geographic compactness that makes Karlovy Vary feel like the most intimate of the world’s major film festivals.
The building was already humming by the time Juliette Binoche took the stage for a 4:30 p.m. conversation before a standing-room-only crowd. On hand to receive the festival’s Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema and present her directorial debut, “In-I in Motion,” the French star was greeted with a hero’s welcome before settling into a career-spanning conversation.
“When you’re choosing an artistic path, you cannot be frightened,” she told a room packed with industry insiders. “You have to show something intimate as an actor, as an artist in general, because why else do it? You have to show something you’ve never shown before. Then the audience can relate to it and feel their own intimacy —something that belongs to them in a way. That’s when it becomes universal.”
Binoche reflected on a career that has traversed more borders than perhaps any performer of her generation, and on winning the Oscar for “The English Patient” — an experience she described as anything but a dream.
“You’re just trying to survive,” she said of Oscar night. “When you walk onto the stage, you’ve left the light and suddenly it’s all black. Then come the flashes, people taking pictures. It’s like you’re not quite a human being anymore. You’re in this overwhelming space. But really, you’re just in front of a camera playing a role, and that’s what it all comes down to: giving yourself, sharing what we go through as human beings. That’s what acting is — exposing parts of yourself you usually don’t expose to others.”
Looking ahead, Binoche said she hopes to work with Chinese auteur Bi Gan, whose “Resurrection” she championed as president of last year’s Cannes jury, and with “Incendies” writer Wajdi Mouawad.
But first, she has more immediate plans.
“I want to take a vacation,” she laughed. “That’s an artistic activity in itself — and one I’ve never really tried.”
As the audience spilled out, KVIFF artistic director Karel Och bounded up the Hotel Thermal staircase, bicycle slung over one shoulder. Live music and DJ sets drifted in from the outdoor stages, carrying attendees across the red carpet toward the 7:30 p.m. world premiere of “Fruit Gathering” in the Thermal’s main hall.
Set in contemporary Myanmar and unfolding across several seasons, “Fruit Gathering” traces the slow-burning queer longing between two young women who leave their rural homes to become family breadwinners in the city’s garment factories. While the naïve San Kyi (Nandar Myat Aung) makes little effort to conceal her feelings, the perpetually cash-strapped Theint (Nandar Myint Lwin) remains resolutely coy, recognizing that being the object of another’s affection may prove advantageous — at least in the short term.
Weaving together themes of class, gender, and sensual deprivation, the film marks a confident feature debut for director Aung Phyoe. It is a work of emotional restraint immersed in a landscape of lush excess, where stifled longing is mirrored by slug trails and overflowing waters. Its characters hold themselves tightly in check even as the natural world all but bursts at the seams.
Yet Aung occasionally struggles to contain the film’s competing impulses, especially as it moves away from its social realist foundation toward a more impressionistic mode. The increasingly elusive final act cycles through possible conclusions, muddying the film’s thematic architecture and making its 97 minutes feel considerably longer. Even so, these excesses feel less like shortcomings than evidence of a filmmaker reaching beyond conventional boundaries — and a debut that remains difficult to dismiss.
The world premiere audience certainly found reason to cheer, greeting the cast and crew with rousing applause as the credits rolled. The KVIFF jury loved it, too, with “Fruit Gathering” winning the festival’s top award two days later.
Outside the Thermal after the premiere on Thursday, darkness had settled over Karlovy Vary, but there was little pause: Ushers were already resetting the grand hall for the 10:30 p.m. screening of “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.”
In keeping with Karlovy Vary’s proudly non-hierarchical spirit, screenings operate on a first-come, first-served basis. That meant many of those camped outside the main hall for Thursday’s final screening held no accreditations whatsoever. Some, for that matter, didn’t even know what they were waiting to see.
“I just read the description and said, ‘Oh, this could be good,’” said 35-year-old Anton. “We wanted to see a movie that was later in the evening, and figured this one looked fun.”
Born in Slovakia and now based in Brno, Anton had already spent several days at one of Karlovy Vary’s many spa hotels, alternating morning massages and health treatments with auteur cinema by noon. A KVIFF regular alongside his wife, he returns to the festival every year for a dose of rest and relaxation. This time, he encouraged his twenty-something Prague friends Libor and Radek to join.
“Anton and his wife are here for the full length,” said Libor. “I just let them pick some movies that I might like, and that fit in the time slot. So it’s kind of a freestyle – you read the description but you don’t really learn much from that. You just go for it and hope for the best – it’s a film festival!”
By Thursday night’s 10:30 p.m. screening, Anton had already seen nearly 20 films, with Marie Kreutzer’s “Gentle Monster” emerging as a particular standout.
“Personally, I don’t like it when the director or writer tries to shape my opinion as a viewer,” Anton explained. “I like movies that are a bit disturbing, that present a perspective and then allow the audience to draw their own conclusions.”
“That isn’t the case most of the time, especially in bigger movies,” Libor added. “That’s why I prefer these kinds of ‘alternative’ films that allow creators more freedom. The mainstream market is really saturated these days — and you’ve seen it in the box office returns—so the movie scene needs a fresh start.”
Anton, Libor, and Radek are clearly cinephiles — they would not have been waiting outside the Thermal at 10:30 p.m. otherwise — but they are a far cry from the stereotypical festival obsessive. They stream and download films, catch local screenings when time allows, and maintain full lives beyond the industry bubble. Their annual pilgrimage to the Thermal offers an appealingly low-stakes route to high-level cinema, while their presence in Karlovy Vary speaks to the festival’s broader appeal.
Soon, the doors opened, and the three were ushered into a screening of “Teenage Sex and Death” that unfolded amid laughs and applause. When the credits rolled, Libor and Radek headed quickly to their car — tomorrow was a workday and Prague was still more than an hour away. Anton went to find his wife. Everyone else drifted out of the Thermal, or up toward one of the venue’s late-night bars. The night was still young, and the party was only getting started.
