Abridged Karlovy Vary film festival officially canceled due to COVID-19

Prague, Nov 5 (CTK) - The Karlovy Vary international film festival, postponed due to the the COVID epidemic from July and rescheduled for November 18-21, will not take place due to the persisting anti-virus restrictions, the organizers have told CTK.

The November event was to bridge the period between the cancelled July festival and next year's full-fledged 55th Karlovy Vary festival scheduled for July 2-10, 2021.

"When we announced the extraordinary 54 1/2 Karlovy Vary international film festival, this met with many delighted reactions," festival president Jiří Bartoška said.

"People were looking forward to see new films in Karlovy Vary in an unusual time. We are sorry about being unable to stage the event, but health is the number one priority now and I am sure that everybody shares this view."

"I believe that we will overcome everything and will be able to meet in Karlovy Vary next July," Bartoška added, addressing the event's fans.

The November non-competition festival was set to present 25 films, each of them two times. The screenings were to be held in the Thermal hotel, Cas cinema and the cinema room of Grandhotel Pupp.

The Karlovy Vary festival is annually held during the first week of July. This year's originally planned 55th event was cancelled in the spring due to the epidemic.

As a partial compensation, the organizers staged the Tady Vary (This is Vary) series of film screenings in 96 cinemas across the Czech Republic during the festival week, which offered 16 films and reached an attendance of 36,645.

Last year's 54th Karlovy Vary international film festival offered 497 screenings attended by 139,271 spectators. Out of the 177 presented works, 156 were narrative feature films and 29 were documentaries.