The creator of the acclaimed HBO series The Sopranos, seven-time Emmy winner David Chase, will appear at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival as one of the highlights of its Industry Days program. In an exclusive on-stage conversation, Chase will reflect on his decades-long contribution to television and film storytelling, while also discussing the evolution of the audiovisual industry and the creative risks shaping contemporary production.

The discussion will draw on more than 50 years of experience in the industry. After completing graduate studies at Stanford University, Chase moved to Los Angeles, where he worked on series including The Magician and Kolchak: The Night Stalker. He later became a writer and producer on NBC’s The Rockford Files, earning his first Emmy in 1978 for Outstanding Drama Series. In 1980, he received his second Emmy for the television film Off the Minnesota Strip, which also brought him a Writers Guild of America Award.

Chase began directing in the 1980s, including an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He went on to receive additional Emmy nominations for Northern Exposure and I’ll Fly Away, further establishing his reputation as one of American television’s key creative voices.

His defining achievement came in January 1999 with the debut of The Sopranos, widely regarded as one of the most influential works in the history of cable television. The series ran for six seasons between 1999 and 2007, becoming a global cultural phenomenon and earning 21 Emmy Awards, five Golden Globes, and a Peabody Award.

Chase made his feature directorial debut in 2012 with Not Fade Away, a coming-of-age musical drama set in 1960s suburban America, which premiered at the New York Film Festival and was later released by Paramount Pictures.

In 2021, he wrote and produced The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos released by Warner Bros. More recently, his legacy was further highlighted by the 2023 induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame and the release of the documentary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, directed by Alex Gibney.

Chase will join Deadline’s Zac Ntim for a moderated conversation on Wednesday, July 8, as part of the Screen Focus Sessions on the Film Industry Main Stage at the Kaiserbad.

Beyond the headline appearance by Chase, the Karlovy Vary Industry Days program will feature a wide-ranging lineup of leading international film and television professionals, focusing on production, casting, distribution, and the impact of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Among the confirmed guests are Succession cinematographer and director Andrij Parekh, Oscar-winning producers Mollye Asher (Nomadland, The Rider) and Greg Shapiro (The Hurt Locker, Voyagers), and renowned casting director Debbie McWilliams, known for casting the James Bond franchise since For Your Eyes Only (1981).

A key thematic strand of this year’s program will be technological transformation and storytelling in the era of AI. Oscar-winning producer John Lesher and filmmaker Sophie Barthes will also participate in discussions exploring the future of cinematic storytelling and production models.

A highlight panel titled The Cinematic Series: Storytelling in the Age of Streaming will bring together Andrij Parekh and BAFTA-winning writer, actress, and producer Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters, Catastrophe, Divorce). The session will examine the evolution of serialized storytelling in the streaming era.

Polish director Jan Holoubek, known for the Netflix series Heweliusz, will participate in a discussion on audience building strategies titled Marketing Starts in Development: How Great Series Build Their Audience Before They Exist.

Additional Industry Days panels will include a spotlight on Riff Raff Entertainment, the production company founded by Jude Law, represented by producers Ben Jackson and Katie Sinclair, who will discuss recent projects including Black Rabbit and The Order, the latter premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2024.

Producers Mollye Asher and Greg Shapiro will also take part in a session on creative identity and project curation, while filmmaker Michael Frenschkowski will deliver a keynote on navigating change in the global film industry, reflecting on his work across both fiction and documentary production.

Spanish-language cinema producer Juan de Dios Larraín will present new approaches to film distribution alongside curator Steffen Kottkamp in a session titled The Future of Film Distribution Is Already Here: Same Problem – Opposite Directions.

Artificial intelligence will feature prominently throughout the program, including a presentation by Cecilia Shen, CEO of Utopai AI studio in Silicon Valley and former Google X lab member. Her company, valued at an estimated $1 billion, has developed AI-driven production pipelines and is currently working on projects including the historical epic Cortés and an animated series featuring NBA stars James Harden and Carmelo Anthony.

Shen will also contribute to a session titled Production Value Reimagined: How Technology Is Expanding What Producers Can Achieve, followed by a hands-on AI workshop organized in collaboration with Plot Next and the VOD platform Oneplay.

Casting will be another major focus, with sessions organized by the International Casting Directors Association. Actress Aňa Geislerová and casting director Nancy Bishop (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) will join discussions on casting practices and the international perception of Central and Eastern European actors.

Unless otherwise noted, all Industry Days events will take place on the Film Industry Main Stage at the Kaiserbad. The program is supported by the PPF Foundation and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.