At its 60th edition (July 3-11), the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival presents a Crystal Globe Competition featuring twelve world premieres, in which returning auteurs such as Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov with Black Money for White Nights and debutants such as Mads Mengel with The Guest explore themes such as family trauma, migration, and political pressure. Ivan Ostrochovský confronts the audience in Only Beautiful Things to Look At with the forced sterilization of Roma women in Czechoslovakia, while Miroslav Terzić examines bullying and grief following a suicide in 3 Weeks After. The Proxima section embraces hybrid forms, with films like 33 Steps by Anna and Šimon Domček questioning the boundary between fiction and documentary.