The Karlovy Vary Film Festival Is Supersizing Its Main Arrival Area: “Red Carpet for Everybody!”

The 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) is gearing up to celebrate the venerable Czech fest’s past and, at the same time, guide it into its future.

One design change symbolizing this connection between what has come before and what lies ahead is the redesign of an iconic KVIFF space. “For this and future editions, the Karlovy Vary festival is redesigning the area around the entrance to the Hotel Thermal’s Grand Hall with a new architectural design that will allow audiences to more intensely experience and share in the festival atmosphere during the festival’s opening and closing ceremonies, as well as at festival screenings,” organizers explain. “Guest arrivals with live commentary will bring the festival action closer to visitors and add interesting behind-the-scenes observations.”

At the heart of the update is an extension of the red carpet.

Petr Lintimer, the member of the KVIFF leadership troika who serves as the fest’s head of production, tells THR: “We are going to have the largest and biggest red carpet [in our history], and it will be cooler. You can walk the red carpet like in Cannes or in Venice. It will be about three times bigger than it has been in the last 20 years.”

The goal is simple: more carpet for more people – and more fun. “Red carpet for everybody!” Lintimer explains. That includes stars and celebrities, filmmakers, other creatives and guests, film fans and others in attendance.

The KVIFF team has been working on the reconfiguration for almost 10 months. “We have visualizations, and we [are now on] the 35th visualization of the place,” the expert shares. “We have been thinking about it since the last festival. We wanted to make it bigger, make it better and make it different.”

So, regular KVIFF attendees can look forward to extra oomph at Karlovy Vary during the festival. And Lintimer knows better than most people how much the spa town dresses up for the big annual extravaganza. “Outside the film festival, the city looks totally different, and so do the Hotel Thermal and other key buildings,” he tells THR. “We help turn the city and its atmosphere into a big city. It’s totally different from any other time of the year.”

The production and infrastructure guru, who also deals with the likes of security, transportation, cinemas and other buildings, as well as sponsors, lauds the big team effort that goes into KVIFF every year. “We are really strongly connected and [aligned] – Kryštof, Karel and I,” Lintimer says. “We all have our own focus, and we also have our shared, common focus.”

Beyond staff members, there are legions of volunteers who make the Karlovy Vary magic happen. “I want to highlight all the people around us,” he notes. “For most of them, it’s a two-week job, and they have to take vacations from their regular jobs to work for us. They are lawyers, medical doctors, directors of hotel complexes and other things. It’s not about money for them. It’s about the feeling that you are part of this big thing in the Czech Republic – our festival.”

Concludes Lintimer: “Every year, around 1,500 people work for the festival – as hostesses and security guys, projectionists, drivers and transport coordinators. They really love the festival, and they love to be with us to share in the atmosphere of the festival.”