Published: July 04, 2015| 08:00 AM

The Official Selection, the East of the West competition, and Six Close Encounters are beginning and Richard Gere will present Pretty Woman.

The second day of the festival offers not just a range of interesting films, but plenty of accompanying events as well! You can enjoy Tea at Three with the director of the Czech-Polish film Journey to Rome, Tomasz Mielnik, and actress Berenika Kohoutová at the Czech Television House. The film, a comedy about an absurd train journey to Rome, will also officially start the competition section East of the West. The world premiere of Journey to Rome will take place at 18:30 in the Karlovy Vary Theatre. You can also watch the world premiere of another entry in this section, the Kyrgyz movie Heavenly Nomadic, from 16:00 in the same theatre.

The first film from the Official Selection is the radical satirical comedy Heil, presented at 17:00 in the Grand Hall. Taking place there at 20:00 is the world premiere of another competition film, Antonia, a Greek-Italian biographical drama about unconventional poet Antonia Pozzi. Also beginning today are Six Close Encounters, in which selected directors present films which influenced their own work. Spanish filmmaker and producer Luis Miñarro, who chaired the Grand Jury at last year’s festival, will present Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil.

The kind-hearted Umrika, which won the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance festival, will be presented at 14:00 in the Grand Hall by director Prashant Nair along with actors Suraj Sharma and Tony Revolori. A star-studded introduction awaits viewers who are in the Grand Hall at 22:30 for the international premiere of the poker road movie Mississippi Grind, which will be personally presented by actor Ben Mendelsohn with director Ryan Fleck. The latest winner of the Crystal Globe, Richard Gere, will greet viewers at the Outdoor Cinema, where the famous love story Pretty Woman will be shown after 23:00.

Also prepared for Saturday is the grand opening of an exhibition of the work of respected typographer, graphic artist and designer Miroslav Pechánek, which will begin at 17:00 at the Karlovy Vary Art Gallery. There will also be many interesting events taking place at the Thermal hotel, Dvořákovy sady, and Sadová kolonáda. You can find the full list of events here.