Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 

Festival guests

Many filmmakers (film directors, actors), which are not listed at this site, is coming to Karlovy Vary to introduce their films. You can find their names with the films in catalogue.

Antonio Banderas, USA / Spain

Film and theater actor, director, and producer Antonio Banderas will be a guest at the 44th Karlovy Vary IFF, where he will accept the Festival President’s Award.

Antonio Banderas was born in Málaga, Spain. He wanted to become a professional soccer player but after being injured he decided on an acting career. He graduated from the School of Dramatic Art in his hometown, then moved to Madrid at age 19 and joined the National Theater of Spain, where he worked until 1986. He became one of director Pedro Almodóvar’s key actors, shining in the films Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, 1988) and Tie Me up! Tie Me down! (Atame!, 1990).
As a director he debuted in 1999 with the black comedy Crazy in Alabama, screened in the competition at the Venice IFF, in which he entrusted the lead to his wife, actress Melanie Griffith. In addition to directing, he also produces for Green Moon, a production company he owns with his wife. At the 44th Karlovy Vary IFF Antonio Banderas will present his directorial work Summer Rain (El camino de los ingleses), which took the Europa Cinemas Label Award at the 2007 Berlinale.

More info

Shana Feste, USA

Talented directors from overseas, whose first or second films were showcased primarily at this year’s Sundance festival, will be strongly represented at Karlovy Vary. The 44th KVIFF will open with upcoming director Shana Feste’s remarkable debut The Greatest, which was co-produced by one of the leads in the film, Pierce Brosnan. The famous actor, in this psychological drama about a well-situated family whose tranquil suburban life is suddenly overturned by tragedy, appeared alongside Susan Sarandon and this year’s Berlin “shooting star”, British actress Carey Mulligan.

Cary Fukunaga, USA

The ten directing talents presented at the Sundance festival this January by the film magazine Variety, apart from Shana Feste, also included holder of a student Oscar Cary Fukunaga, whose feature debut Sin nombre was a hit at the independent film mecca, winning awards for direction and cinematography. This realistic drama with thriller undercurrents set in Mexico, whose theme of illegal immigration is captured literally from the top of a train, will be presented to Karlovy Vary audiences by Fukunaga in person as part of the programme for the Horizons section.

Isabelle Huppert, France

The famous French film and theater actress will accept a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at the 44th Karlovy Vary IFF.

One of the most accomplished personalities of European film and the holder of more than 30 acting awards will be present at the premiere screening of the French competition film in which she stars: Villa Amalia by director Benoît Jacquot. In addition, festival viewers will have an opportunity to see an example of Isabelle Huppert’s acting mastery in the intimist drama Gabrielle, to be presented as part of the Tribute to Patrice Chéreau.

Patrice Chéreau, France

The 44th Karlovy Vary IFF will be presenting a special retrospective of films by one of Europe’s most important contemporary directors, Patrice Chéreau; the festival will be attended by the director himself.
French film and stage director, screenwriter, actor, producer and teacher Patrice Chéreau (b. 1944) is universally acknowledged as a child prodigy of French theatre. He began directing drama and opera at the age of nineteen, and his production of the tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung for the Wagner festival in Bayreuth (1976) is considered a landmark of the genre.
The films of Patrice Chéreau are generally always selected for competition at the most important festivals in Europe. This was also the case with the co-production film Intimacy (2001), which garnered three awards at the Berlin Film Festival, including a Golden Bear (it was also screened at the 36th Karlovy Vary IFF). Two years later he was awarded the Silver Bear in Berlin for Best Director for his next film His Brother (Son frère). He rounded off his loose trilogy of intimate original adaptations of literary works with the private marital drama Gabrielle (2005), screened at the Venice festival and featuring Isabelle Huppert in the title role.

More info

John Malkovich, USA

American film and theater actor, director, and producer John Malkovich will accept a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at the 44th Karlovy Vary IFF.
Born to a family with journalistic roots, John Malkovich originally studied ecology but then later switched to dramatic arts. In 1976 in Chicago, he founded the avant-garde Steppenwolf Theatre Company with Gary Sinise and others fellow students. There he provided acting, directing, and art directing services, and took Obie and Joseph Jefferson Awards for his portrayal of Lee in Sam Shepard’s True West.As part of the tribute to John Malkovich, the Karlovy Vary IFF will present two films – the political thriller The Dancer Upstairs and the documentary Which Way Home (dir. by Rebecca Cammisa), for which he earned production credits.

More info

Alan Rudolph, USA

KVIFF’s Forum of Independents pays tribute to one of the most idiosyncratic auteurs working today, the American writer-director Alan Rudolph, a protégé of Robert Altman.
Always attracting top actors, Rudolph’s visual style offers a sort of rapturous expressionism, projecting the characters’ romantic idealism onto the external world through non-realistic lighting, the banishing of context and wonderfully apropos mood music from the likes of Leonard Cohen, Teddy Pendergast, Marianne Faithfull and Alberta Hunter.
Remember My Name (1978), his second feature, is a real rarity, never released on VHS or DVD. Updating the classic woman’s melodrama, it follows a woman (Geraldine Chaplin) released from prison after 12 years who goes in search of her ex-husband (Tony Perkins).

More info

Scott Sanders, USA

Screenwriter, director and Los Angeles DJ Scott Sanders will be bringing to Karlovy Vary his tribute to the blaxploitation genre, the hugely entertaining parody Black Dynamite. The titular hero of one of the anticipated hits of this year’s Midnight Screenings section is a feared master of martial arts and breaker of women’s hearts, determined to wreak vengeance for his brother’s death on a mysterious mafia boss who supplies heroin to the local orphanage.

Paul Schrader, USA

Celebrated French director Patrice Chéreau will be presenting his films in Karlovy Vary during the first weekend of the festival, while distinctive American filmmaker Alan Rudolph will introduce five films during the second half of the festival. Famous screenwriter and director Paul Schrader will also attend the 44th KVIFF with his new film.
Originally a film critic, author of the screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s films Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, he will present his latest film as a director, an adaptation of the controversial novel by Yoram Kaniuk, Adam Resurrected (2008).

More info