Since playing Ophelia in Hamlet at The Old Vic Theatre over 50 years ago, Judi Dench has garnered wide popular and critical admiration for a career marked by outstanding performances in both classical and contemporary roles. She has won numerous major awards – including an Academy Award, nine BAFTA Awards and three Laurence Olivier Awards – for work which has encompassed stage and screen. In recognition of her many achievements, she received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1970, became a DBE (Dame of the British Empire) in 1988, and in 2005 was awarded a Companion of Honour.

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Her distinguished list of film credits include iconic performances as Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown (1997, dir. John Madden), for which she won a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and was nominated for an Academy Award, and Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare In Love (1998, dir. John Madden), for which she received an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is also known internationally for her role as ‘M’ in the latter Bond films – Tomorrow Never Dies (1997, dir. Roger Spottiswoode), The World Is Not Enough (1999, dir. Michael Apted), Die Another Day (2002, dir. Lee Tamahori), Casino Royale (2006, dir. Martin Campbell), and Quantum of Solace (2008, dir. Marc Forster).

Judi has been Academy Award-nominated for performances in four other films: Lasse Hallstrom’s Chocolat (2000), for which she was also nominated for a Golden Globe; Iris (2001), directed by Richard Eyre, for which she also won a BAFTA Award; Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), directed by Stephen Frears, for which she was further nominated at the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes; and Notes On A Scandal (2006), directed by Richard Eyre, which also brought her BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations.

Her other film credits include: Tea With Mussolini (1999), directed by Franco Zeffirelli; A Room With a View (1985, dir. James Ivory) and A Handful of Dust (1988, dir. Charles Sturridge), both of which brought her BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actress; 84 Charing Cross Road (1987), directed by David Jones; Henry V (1985) and Hamlet (1996), both directed Kenneth Branagh; and Nine (2009), directed by Rob Marshall. Most recently she has filmed Jane Eyre, directed by Cary Fukunaga, My Week with Marilyn, directed by Simon Curtis, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, directed by John Madden, all of which are set for release in 2011.

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Cary Joji Fukunaga studied at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His work as a screenwriter, director and cameraman has taken him all over the world, including the Arctic Circle, Haiti and west Africa.
In 2005 the Sundance festival showcased his directing debut, the short film Victoria para Chino, for which he also wrote the screenplay. The short has picked up more than twenty international awards, including the Student Academy Award and a Special Mention from the Los Angeles branch of the British Film and Television Academy. The director’s first feature film Sin Nombre won the directing and cinematography awards at the Sundance festival in January 2009. Six months later he successfully presented the film in person at the KV IFF.
Cary Fukunaga will attend the screening of Jane Eyre, which opens the 46th KV IFF and stars Judi Dench, this year’s Crystal Globe Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.

Sasson Gabai, a graduate from the University of Tel Aviv, has performed dozens of film, theatre and television roles during his career and is the holder of a number of acting awards, both at home and abroad. He won the European Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Band’s Visit (2007, dir. E. Kolirin). Besides Israeli films, Sasson Gabai has also appeared in movies such as the psychological drama Not Without My Daughter (1991, dir. B. Gilbert) and action films Rambo III (1988) and Delta Force One: The Lost Patrol (1999). Sasson Gabai will accompany the competition film Restoration (Boker Tov, Adon Fidelman) to the 46th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Remo Girone is a well-known Italian film and stage actor. He was born in Eritrea but his family had to return to their homeland for political reasons. As a result, Remo Girone’s life and work are linked mainly to Rome. It was in the Italian capital that he studied acting and first trod the boards in Romeo and Juliet.
His film career started in 1974 with Miklos Jancsó’s Rome Wants Another Caesar. Ten years later he was cast as the Mafia boss Carridi in the cult series The Octopus; he starred in the series for more than ten years. He has had roles in many television films and serials, for example The Cave of the Golden Rose (Princess Fantaghiro) and Pirates – Blood Brothers. He also acted in Jacques Rivette’s Don’t Touch The Axe (The Duchess of Langeais), which was shown at the KV IFF in 2008.

With no exaggeration, this director, producer, and editor can be called one of the most interesting creative talents of the New Hollywood generation. Like his companions Coppola, Scorsese, and Bogdanovich, after graduating from film school Hellman too received inestimable experience as an assistant in Roger Corman’s production company. The “B-film king” himself produced the young adept’s directorial debut, the sci-fi horror Beast from Haunted Cave (1960).

A few years later Hellman left for the Philippines where he made the films Back Door to Hell and Flight to Fury. A pair of WWII dramas marked the beginning of his collaboration with Jack Nicholson, who starred in both and wrote the screenplay for the second. This cooperation continued with the enigmatic westerns Ride in the Whirlwind (1965) and The Shooting (1967).

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Among Hellman’s best-known films are the existential road movie Two-Lane Blactop (1971), the self-descriptive drama Cockfighter (1974), and a take on the spaghetti western, China 9, Liberty 37 (1978). All three films star Hellman’s much-favoured actor Warren Oates, the frequent collaborator of another cult filmmaker introduced at Karlovy Vary, Sam Peckinpah (tribute at KVIFF 2005).
His latest film Road to Nowhere, a story of a director who has decided to cast an unknown actress and turn her into a star, was applauded by American critics and got much attention at last year’s Venice IFF. Monte Hellman returns to Karlovy Vary after four years, at the 42nd edition of the festival he presented film Two-Lane Blactop.

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Kim Ki-Duk is one of the world’s best-known Asian directors, partly thanks to the Karlovy Vary film festival, which has closely followed his filmmaking career. His creative profile was presented at the festival in 2002. In subsequent years the festival has always featured his latest films, and in 2003 The Coast Guard ( 2002) competed in the official selection. Kim Ki-Duk shoots distinctive films whose visual sophistication is informed by his interest in fine art and his own experiences as a painter. His works are based on multiple confrontations between polar opposites. They mingle a lyrical atmosphere and naturalistic scenes, but all that is subordinated to the goal of using film as a tool for profound deliberation on fundamental questions of the human condition.

Kim Ki-Duk’s directing debut came in 1996, but it was his fourth film The Isle ( 2000) that made a splash at the Venice Film Festival. Thanks to his prolific talent, he sometimes shoots two pictures a year. Consequently, Time (2006), whose world premiere the director personally presented at the 41st KV IFF, was already his thirteenth film. After making Dream (2008), Kim Ki-Duk had a three-year directing hiatus. This year’s Karlovy Vary festival will screen his latest film Arirang. The film premiered at Cannes, winning the Un Certain Regard section ex aequo with Andreas Dresen’s Stopped on Track.


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John Malkovich is among the most expressive acting personalities working today. He solidly launched his film career with his very first role, earning a 1984 Academy Award nomination as blind Mr. Will in the drama Places in the Heart (dir. R. Benton). He then gained international popularity with his powerful portrayal of the scheming Vicomte Valmont in the adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’s Dangerous Liaisons (dir. Stephen Frears). His filmography continued to shine via work with other eminent directors: with Bernardo Bertolucci on the drama Sheltering Sky, Woody Allen on the comic mystery Shadows and Fog, the Coen brothers on the black comedy Burn after Reading, and Gary Sinise, his acting partner and director, on an adaptation of the novel Of Mice and Men. He also appeared as Clint Eastwood’s nemesis in the crime drama In the Line of Fire (dir. Wolgang Petersen), for which he received his second Oscar nomination. Perhaps screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze put the person of John Malkovich to his most original use in the comedy Being John Malkovich, in which the actor, of course, plays himself.

David Morse began as an actor for the Boston Repertory Theatre; he subsequently studied acting in New York. He appeared on stage on Broadway and in Los Angeles and has won a number of theatre awards for his performances. His early screen work is associated primarily with television, where he appeared in TV films and gained popularity particularly with the series set in a hospital environment St. Elsewhere, some of whose episodes he also directed.

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He began appearing regularly in feature films at the beginning of the 1990s. He played the role of the father in the psychological thriller The Good Son (1993, dir. Joseph Ruben), he was cast in the action adventure / crime film The Getaway (1994, dir. Roger Donaldson), and he teamed up with director Terry Gilliam to film the unconventional sci-fi 12 Monkeys (1995). He twice appeared under director Sean Penn – in the films The Indian Runner (1991) and The Crossing Guard (1995).
David Morse creates highly distinctive and memorable tough-guy roles in both action films (The Rock, The Negotiator, The Long Kiss Goodnight), and in dramas, in particular The Green Mile (1999, dir. Frank Darabont). In 2000 he was cast alongside Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe in the thriller Proof of Life (dir. Taylor Hackford), and he also joined Björk in Lars von Trier’s musical drama Dancer in the Dark. During this period he again featured in television series, of which Hack and House M.D. are familiar to Czech audiences as well. His film roles continue to reflect a variety of genres, from the thriller Disturbia (2007, dir. D. J. Caruso) and the Oscar-winning war film The Hurt Locker (2008, dir. Kathryn Bigelow), to the period romantic thriller Shanghai (2010, dir. Mikael Håfström). He is currently a series regular on the HBO critically acclaimed show Treme.

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Jerzy Stuhr originally studied literature, but after that he also graduated from the acting faculty in Krakow and soon attracted attention at Krakow’s Stary Teatr (Old Theatre), where in the 1970s and 80s he performed in a series of outstanding productions under leading Polish theatre directors.
His first film appearance came in 1971 in Andrzeje Źulawski’s successful drama The Third Part of the Night, but soon after his film career became linked to two eminent Polish directors Krzysztof Kieslowski and Juliusz Machulski. His work with the former director, who cast him in his early film The Scar (1976), was particularly important for the young actor’s artistic development. But it was the famous film Camera Buff that first gave Stuhr’s layered acting skills a chance to shine; that was followed by roles in later works by the director who became his friend and whom Stuhr regards as his mentor. These films were Blind Chance (1981), The Decalogue (1989) and Three Colours: White (1994).

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Stuhr’s links to the “cinema of moral anxiety”, which included roles in films like The Dance Leader (directed by Feliks Falk, 1978), also brought his performances to the attention of Polish and international critics, but it was his roles in comedies by Julius Machulski, above all Sexmission (1984) and King Size (1988), that won him widespread popularity.
He soon added directing work to his acting achievements. In 1995 he brought his first film List of Lovers to Karlovy Vary and in 2000 he won the festival’s Special Jury Prize ex aequo for his film Big Animal. Other films by Jerzy Stuhr have picked up a number of awards at international film festivals: Love Stories (1997, inter alia the Venice FIPRESCI prize); A Week in the Life of a Man (1999, the Venice OCIC prize); Tomorrow’s Weather (2003); and Twists of Fate (2007).
Besides being an actor, dramatist, screenwriter and director, Jerzy Stuhr is also a professor at the Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Krakow, where he has held the post of rector for several separate terms.
His knowledge of Italian has allowed Jerzy Stuhr to work with eminent Italian filmmakers, both as an actor and as an author: for example, he had an important role in Nanni Moretti’s film Caiman (2006). His film Habeas Papam will be screened in the Horizons section of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

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John Turturro hails from an Italian-American working-class family from Brooklyn. He studied drama at the Yale School of Drama and began his acting career off-Broadway. His film work has involved collaboration with some of the world’s leading directors. The start of his film career saw him appearing – albeit in smaller roles – in the films of Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, 1980; The Color of Money, 1986), Michael Cimino (The Sicilian, 1987), and Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, 1989 and Jungle Fever, 1991). Yet it was the Coen brothers, in particular, who brought him international stardom and critical acclaim. They first worked together on the gangland drama Miller’s Crossing (1990). For his role as a Jewish writer set on becoming a Hollywood scriptwriter in the film Barton Fink, he garnered the Best Actor award at the Cannes IFF in 1991. He later created a truly cult figure in the character of bowler Jesus from the Coen brothers’ film The Big Lebowski (1998), and he teamed up with the directors again for the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).

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John Turturro enjoys playing interesting parts in independent films by respected directors such as Spike Lee, and Tom DiCillo (Box of Moon Light, 1996), who has visited Karlovy Vary several times in the past. However, Turturro has also appeared in comedies with big audience appeal such as Mr. Deeds (2002) and Anger Management (2003), the thriller Secret Window (2004) and the Transformers sci-fi trilogy by Michael Bay (2007-2011).

John Turturro received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Robert Redford’s Quiz Show (1994); he holds an Emmy for his guest appearance in the comedy drama series Monk, and his own work as a director has also won awards: his directorial debut, the autobiographical melodrama Mac, took away the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 1992. The films Illuminata (1994) and Romance & Cigarettes (2005) competed respectively at the Cannes and Venice IFFs.
The film Somewhere Tonight, directed by Michael Di Jiacomo, is inspired by the film 06 (1-900) by the Dutch director Theo van Gogh, who tragically died in 2004.



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Burt Young’s enduring career as an American film actor began pretty much by chance. A friend asked him to help him prepare for his entrance exams at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, the upshot of which was that Young, himself, was accepted to the school. His Italian-American origins more or less predestined him for criminal roles. The defining moment, however, came in 1976, when he first worked with Sylvester Stallone on the film Rocky, playing Rocky’s future brother-in-law Paulie. The role, which brought him an Oscar nomination, ultimately became part of his destiny: Burt Young subsequently appeared with Stallone in all the sequels of the saga about the unshakable boxer.
Young has remained faithful to the bad-guy and gangster image – we might mention the titles Once Upon a Time in America by Sergio Leone (1984), the TV series The Sopranos, and the gangster comedy Mickey Blue Eyes (1999). In his career to date, Burt Young has created more than 120 roles in films of varying genres.