Karlovy Vary’s industry strand KVIFF Promises, has unveiled the films selected for this year’s upcoming KVIFF Central Stage showcase as well as eight books selected for its first edition of Book-To-Screen at KVIFF, its new initiative for books searching for film adaptation deals. 

The 11 upcoming titles selected for KVIFF Central Stage, which is launched in partnership with eight national film institutes across the region, include films from established filmmakers such as Nicolas Steiner, Antonio Lukich, Olga Chajdas and Cristina Groșan. 

The films are seeking co-production, financing, sales, distribution and festival premiere opportunities and will be showcased during an interactive talk on the Film Industry Main Stage on July 6. Participating projects will have access to exclusive post-production advantages through partnership with studios such as UPP and Soundsquare and are eligible for the €20,000 Eurimages Co-Production Development Award. 

Titles this year include: Flying Mountain from Swiss director Steiner; Ukrainian co-productions Screaming Girl from director Lukich and Noah from writer-director Marysia Nikitiuk; Czech film The Stones Are Rolling to Prague from Tomáš Hodan, about the preparations for the Rolling Stones’ big concert in Prague in 1990; Czech comedy A Few Branches Off by Tomáš Pavlíček; Romanian-Hungarian director Groșan’s upcoming mob drama Lesdenzero; Polish helmer Olga Chajdas’s upcoming female road movie Tribe; German artist Sebastian Fritzsch’s Trainrider; Slovenian writer-director Goran Vojnović’s adaptation of his own book Yugoslavia, My Fatherland; Slovak helmer’s Michal Blaško’s coming-of-age drama Cowgirl; and Austrian director Sebastian Brauneis’ boxing biography Hansi. 

Book-To-Screen at KVIFF is a new collaboration with the Frankfurt Book Fair, Moravian Library in Brno and Book World, supported by the PPF Foundation. Inspired by the successful Berlinale program, the showcase will spotlight eight books with strong screen potential, written by authors from Central and Eastern Europe, a region that KVIFF Industry Head Hugo Rosák says is still underrepresented when it comes to IP development and the systematic handling of literary rights. 

Producers seeking new material for film and television adaptations will have the opportunity to discover these literary works during an interactive talk show hosted by Niki Théron, Senior Manager International Projects and Film at the Frankfurt Book Fair, on July 7. 

This year’s book selection include: True Way Out, Patrik Banga’s memoir about growing up in a Roma community in Prague’s Žižkov neighborhood in the 1990s, which won the Magneisa Litera award for Best Debut in 2023; Playing Wolf, a folk-horror from writer and literary scholar Zuzana Říhová; Daniel Majling’s graphic novel The Zone; Moldovan author Iulian Ciocan’s dystopian satire Queen of Hearts; Ieva Dumberytė’s Lithuanian-set surreal novel Aspic Bistro; historical drama Cupid at the Kremlin Wall from historian Aka Morchiladze; Polish title The River Odyssey of Kora from Willow Meadow, ah children’s book by Adam Robiński; and Sophia Andrukhovych’s Amadoka, which starts in the war in the Donbas. 

The showcase will be complemented by an IP-focused producers’ think-tank and networking session. 

“Our long-term ambition with Book-to-Screen at KVIFF is to become a true Central-Eastern European IP market that helps develop dialogue between the film and publishing industries and create a more transparent environment for adaptation rights in the region,” said Rosák in a statement. 

The 60^th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival takes place July 3-11, 2026. 

Asia Argento will be awarded a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Locarno Film Festival, which runs from August 5-15. 

Argento will receive the award on the festival’s Piazza Grande stage on August 13. She will also present her latest title, Jorge Thielen Armand’s La Muerte No Tiene Dueño (Death Has No Master), which debuted in Directors Fortnight at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. 

Giona A. Nazzaro, Locarno’s Artistic Director, described Argento as “an artist who has always managed to reimagine what it means to make films, constantly challenging herself and taking personal risks.” 

“Driven by a radical creative calling, through which she has probed the limits and explored the possibilities of cinema, both as an actress and as a director, Asia Argento embodies a vitality, generosity, and restlessness that stands as among the most vivid representations of all that cinema still has to offer,” Nazzaro added. 

As a performer, Argento has worked with directors such as Abel Ferrara (New Rose Hotel, 1998 and Go Go Tales, 2007), Gus Van Sant (Last Days, 2005), George A. Romero (Land of the Dead, 2005), Sofia Coppola (Marie Antoinette, 2006), and Olivier Assayas (Boarding Gate, 2007). She also starred in many films by her father, Dario Argento, including Trauma (1993) and The Stendhal Syndrome (1996).

Argento has directed her own features, starting with her debut Scarlet Diva in 2000 and most recently Misunderstood (2014). 

In Death Has No Master, Argento plays an immigrant heiress to a colonial cacao plantation in Venezuela. She ventures to the country to claim her inheritance, but she’s forced to confront the land’s current occupants as well as its dark, violent legacy.

The Locarno Film Festival will celebrate the Italian actress, filmmaker, and musician Asia Argento with its Life Achievement Award during its 79th edition this August.

Argento will receive the award in Piazza Grande on the evening of Aug. 13 and also present Jorge Thielen Armand’s La Muerte No Tiene Dueño (Death Has No Master), which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes this year and which stars her.
 
“Since making her onscreen debut as a child in Lamberto Bava’s cult sequel Demons 2 (1986) and starring in Palombella rossa (1989) by Nanni Moretti, Asia Argento, one of the most distinctive European performers of her generation, has built a singular body of work that encompasses passionately beloved genre films, auteur cinema, and intimate self-portraiture,” Locarno said. “Argento emerged as one of the most daring presences in cinema, winning two David di Donatello awards for best actress for Perdiamoci di vista (1994) by Carlo Verdone and Traveling Companion (1996) by Peter Del Monte. With her father, Dario Argento, she starred in a slew of dazzling films – starting with Trauma (1993) – that would reshape the legendary Italian auteur’s canon, most famously with The Stendhal Syndrome (1996).”
 
As a performer, she has collaborated with such big-name directors as Patrice Chéreau (Queen Margot, 1994), Abel Ferrara (New Rose Hotel, 1998 and Go Go Tales, 2007), Gus Van Sant (Last Days, 2005), George A. Romero (Land of the Dead, 2005), Sofia Coppola (Marie Antoinette, 2006), Olivier Assayas (Boarding Gate, 2007), Catherine Breillat (The Last Mistress, 2007), Bertrand Bonello (On War, 2008), and Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel (Vera, 2022). 

Locarno lauded Argento for “moving with ease between Italian productions and international ensembles and bringing a powerfully distinctive cinephile sensibility to each collaboration.” She has also starred in such blockbusters as xXx (2002), directed by Rob Cohen, and cult thrillers like The Red Siren (2002), directed by Olivier Megaton. 

“Parallel to her career as an actress, Argento has directed a remarkable string of her own films, from her memorable feature debut Scarlet Diva (2000) to The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) and the daring Misunderstood (2014), tracing a restless creative path in search of new forms of expression and self-exploration,” Locarno highlighted.
 
Giona A. Nazzaro, Locarno’s artistic director, called her “an artist who has always managed to reimagine what it means to make films, constantly challenging herself and taking personal risks.” He said: “Driven by a radical creative calling, through which she has probed the limits and explored the possibilities of cinema, both as an actress and as a director, Asia Argento embodies a vitality, generosity, and restlessness that stands as among the most vivid representations of all that cinema still has to offer.” 
  
The 79th Locarno Film Festival will run Aug. 5-15. Darren Aronofsky will receive Locarno’s Honorary Leopard this year.