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The Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the main film event in the Czech Republic and now in its 39th year, gets under way on Friday. It is one of the few international film festivals in its category that is open to the general public, explains Laura McGuiness of the official festival newspaper.

Fourteen years after the fall of communism Czech audiences are enjoying a wave of retro. Films, TV series and pop music shows dating back to the communist 80s have found new favour. Can Czechs possibly be nostalgic for a time when they queued up to buy such basic things as bananas and toilet paper and were afraid to speak their minds in public? Sociologists who have been called upon to explain this unexpected phenomenon say that it is perfectly natural, something they call retro-optimism.

The 38th Karlovy Vary International film festival concluded with a grand flourish over the weekend, an awards ceremony that saw the handing out of the grand prize, the prestigious Crystal Globe for Best Picture, as well as awards for Best Director, Actress, and more...

The 38th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival closed with an awards ceremony on Saturday night at which the Italian film Facing Window took the main Crystal Globe award for best film. The American actor Morgan Freeman was given an award for services to world cinema.

Film buffs at the 38th International Karlovy Vary Film Festival have just one more day to enjoy all that the festival has to offer - great movies and a glimpse of the stars, before the festival ends on Saturday night with an award ceremony for the best films. Dita Asiedu has covered the festival this past week and sends this report:

Dita Asiedu's report from the Karlovy Vary Film Festival today deals with a rather sad topic, as she is looking at a movie from Irish film director Aisling Walsh on an issue that has only recently been taken up by film makers - the harsh educational methods used by the church in Ireland that are believed to have carried on until 1984. Song for a Raggy Boy gives us the shocking realities of what went on in church reform schools in the 1930's. Aisling Walsh presented her movie on Wednesday:

In today's report from the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Dita Asiedu tells about "Fear and Trembling" - a French film about culture shock in Japan and "The Technical Writer", a film about agrophobia.

The arrival of American actor Morgan Freeman at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival has made all of today's front pages, and cinemagoers who have failed to make it to the West Bohemian spa resort for the annual film festival can take comfort from reading up on all the latest news and gossip about the films and VIPS in the cultural pages.

The 38th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which opened last weekend, is hosting film stars, film directors and cinema-goers from around the world. Among the VIPs present are: British film director Steven Frears, American actor Morgan Freeman and Canadian actress Deborah Kary Unger. On Monday visitors to the festival could take their pick from 63 screenings, among them the Norwegian film Buddy directed by Morten Tyldum, and the American film The Cooler directed by Wyan Kramer, both serious contestants for the Crystal Globe award. The organizers report record attendance. Over 40,000 tickets have been sold in the first three days of the festival, alone.

The fourth day of the 38th Karlovy Vary film festival is well underway offering screenings of several hundred films selected from around the world, many of them in world premiere for the first time. Founded after the Second World War, the Festival has become the most significant film event in East and Central Europe, attracting notable celebrities and thousands of film fans. It takes place in Karlovy Vary, which is a former Austro-Hungarian spa town in western Bohemia.