Romanian project Battalion Records and Ukrainian feature In Vacuo were among the winners at Eastern Promises, the industry section of the 2025 K
Romanian project Battalion Records and Ukrainian feature In Vacuo were among the winners at Eastern Promises, the industry section of the 2025 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF).
Stefan Bitu-Tudoran’s Battalion Records received the €20,000 ($23,438) Eurimages co-production development award. The film, produced by Diana Caravia for Romania’s microFILM, is an absurdist satire about a group of adolescent artists who stage a cultural revolution by hijacking Romania’s oldest music studio.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
A jury of Goteborg Film Festival head of industry Josef Kullengard, Netherlands Film Fund head of international department Ilse Ronteltap and producer Zuzana Mistrikova described it as “a bold debut that confronts the decay of culture.”
The jury awarded a Eurimages special co-production development award worth €20,000 to Yelizaveta Smith’s In Vacuo, produced by Eugene Rachkovsky for Tabors. The film sees a adolescent archaeologist return to her hometown to sell her missing father’s apartment, only for the past and present to change her plans.
“The film explores the universal impact of loss and how absence shapes both identities and communities, highlighting the importance of remembering before it’s too late,” noted the jury.
The €10,000 ($11,719) Midpoint & KVIFF development award went to David Gaso’s History of Illness, a Croatian comedy about human unease set within a hospital.
Michelle Brondum Hauerbach, producer of UK feature Soyboy, received a Marche du Film Producers Network award, allowing her to participate in next year’s Marche. Written and directed by Raphael von Blumenthal and produced by Brondum’s London-based Jante Films, Soyboy follows a teacher forced to choose between becoming the man the world expects him to be, or facing the consequences of accepting himself.
A further Marche award went to Genoveva Petrovits for Hungary-Czech Republic-Germany title Democracy: Work In Progress.
The inaugural Pop Up Series Incubator programme presented five series during the KVIFF Industry Days, including Cristina Grosan’s Angelmaker from Romania, based on the true story of The Angel Makers of Nagyrev, a group of suspected poisoners in early 20th century Hungary.
Forty film and series projects were showcased at this year’s Eastern Promises. “The support structures here are still relatively fragile,” said Hugo Rosak, head of the KVIFF Film Industry Office. “Our hope is that by curating projects in close collaboration with national film institutes, we can offer producers and investors a selection they can trust, and ultimately help unlock co-financing with greater confidence.”
KVIFF runs until Saturday, July 12.
KVIFF 2025 Eastern Promises industry winners
Eurimages co-production development awards
Battalion Records (Rom) dir. Stefan Bitu-Tudoran, prod. Diana Caravia
In Vacuo (Ukr) dir. Yelizaveta Smith, prod. Eugene Rachkovsky
Midpoint & KVIFF development award
History of Illness (Cro) dir. David Gaso, prod. Marta Eva Mecava
Connecting Cottbus award
RadioAmateur (Pol) dir. Tomasz Habowski, prod. Marta Szarzynska
Rotterdam Lab award
Ondrej Lukes, producer of Restless (Czech)
Marche du Film Producers Network award
Michelle Brondum Hauerbach, producer of Soyboy (UK)
Genoveva Petrovits, producer of Democracy: Work in Progress (Hun-Czech-Ger)
KVIFF Talents
Features
Nameless (Czech)
Spirit Moose (Czech-Slovakia)
Burnout (Czech)
Series
Mould (Czech)
Lost Boys (Czech)
Remake (Czech)
Guest project
A Siege (Hun)
Pop Up Series Incubator projects
Angelmaker (Rom)
Erotic Lives Of The Superheroes (Fr)
The Night Of The Beguines (Fr)
The Three Burials Of Irma (Gr)
Therapies (Lith)
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