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This year’s Karlovy Vary film festival will begin with a tribute to the late director Miloš Forman in the form of a screening of Loves of a Blonde followed by a concert of music from his movies. Organisers have also revealed that the festival’s President’s Award will go to Czech acting great Jaromír Hanzlík. I spoke to Karlovy Vary’s artistic director Karel Och and began by asking about the relationship between the country’s biggest film event and Miloš Forman.

EP Industries and internet shopping site Mall.cz, connected with Czech businessman Daniel Křetinský, will be the general partner of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) for 2018. The news was reported by IHNED.cz on Monday. According to reports, the firms will provide 15 million crowns each in funding annually. Neither firm has commented.

Earlier this year, energy giant ČEZ announced it was withdrawing as the festival’s main sponsor. The annual budget for the festival is around 135 million crowns.

The ČEZ Group is no longer the general partner of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, organisers revealed on Friday.

According to reports, the energy giant backed out of further cooperation before the start of this year. ČEZ was the key partner for the last 16 years – since 2002.

The company cited economic results as the reason it could no longer serve in its previous capacity.

The annual KVIFF takes place between June 29 and July 7.

Little Crusader by Václav Kadrnka has become the first Czech competitor in a decade and a half to win the Crystal Globe for best film at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. A host of other prizes were also handed out during Saturday’s gala closing, at which actor Jeremy Renner provided Hollywood glamour and also picked up an award.

The main prize at the 52nd Karlovy Vary film festival, the Crystal Globe, went to Václav Kadrnka's medieval road movie Little Crusader, a Czech-Slovak-Italian coproduction. It is the first time in 15 years that the main prize has gone to a Czech film.The jury’s award went to Alen Drljević's feature film debut Men Don't Cry, reflecting on the legacy of war and the search for reconciliation. The award for best actress went jointly to Jowita Budnik and Eliane Umuhire for the drama Birds Are Singing in Kigali, revolving around the Rwandan genocide. Russian actor Alexander Yatsenko won best actor for his performance in the Russian film Arrythmia. The American romantic comedy Keep the Change won the best debut award, while the award for best feature-length documentary went to the Spanish film Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle. Hollywood star Jeremy Renner received the festival’s President’s Award and the outstanding Czech screenwriter and director Václav Vorlíček, 87, was honoured for his lifelong contribution to Czech cinematography.

The 52nd Karlovy Vary international film festival comes to an end on Saturday night with the traditional glitzy awards ceremony. Alongside the announcement of this year’s prize winners, Hollywood star Jeremy Renner and veteran Czech director Václav Vorlíček will be honoured at the close of the biggest film event in Central and Eastern Europe.

A major event for lovers of Czechoslovak cinema at this year’s Karlovy Vary film festival has been the world premiere of a digitally restored version of The Shop on Main Street. A portrait of the Aryanisation process in the wartime Slovak state, the 1965 masterpiece earned Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos the country’s first Oscar. On the delegation for the film was Mehelli Modi of Second Run DVD, who previously brought it out on Blu-ray. I asked him what made The Shop on Main Street a great movie.

The journalist Veronika Bednářová has been closely associated with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for many years. Her main job there is as editor-in-chief of the Festival Daily newspaper, but she also is well-known for moderating press conferences with some of the world’s biggest movie stars. When we sat down just before the 52nd edition got underway, I asked Bednářová when she had gone to Karlovy Vary for the first time.

The 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival kicked off with a glitzy opening ceremony at the weekend. Speaking on the red carpet, Hollywood star Uma Thurman reflected on some of her best loved work, while Casey Affleck highlighted the significance of such festivals. Ian Willoughby was at the ceremony and sent this report.

On Sunday visitors to the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival can view among others a screening of the French drama Corporate starring Lambert Wilson which offers a hard-hitting, ever-current testimony about relations between the individual and the system and the world premiere of The White World According to Daliborek, a Czech film competing in the Documentary Films section that brings a stylized portrait of an authentic Czech neo-Nazi who hates his life but doesn’t know how to change it. Uma Thurman, holder of the Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination, will attend a public screening of Kill Bill, a cult film made by Quentin Tarantino, at an outdoor cinema.