Artistic director at the Karlovy Vary Festival and member of FIPRESCI, Karel Och is really excited about forming part of the New Directors Jury at the Festival this year. He thinks that the latest generation of filmmakers are particular conditioned by the current socio- olitical context and that many young directors are making bold radical films.

As for emerging film industries, he is especially impressed with the new batch of Polish and Serbian filmmakers, as well as the new generation of directors from Brazil and Southeast Asia, although in the case of the latter, this is nothing new. He would however especially stress thecurrent renaissance in Greek cinema where directors in recent years have found new ways to express their concerns, despite, or perhaps because of the crisis, although this may be a special case as he doesn’t think that economic problems inevitably stimulate creativity.

With regard to the San Sebastian Festival itself, he is impressed by the balance it achieves between glamour, market concerns, major productions and innovative work.