Published: April 19, 2024| 02:00 PM

At the closing ceremony of this year’s 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the President’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to Czech Cinema will be presented to actor Ivan Trojan.

Ivan Trojan is one of the most frequently cast Czech actors in film, television, and theater of the past quarter century.

After graduating from the Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU), Trojan worked with the Realistic Theatre and the Vinohrady Theatre before, in the second half of the 1990s, becoming one of the central figures of the newly established ensemble at Prague’s Dejvice Theatre. In 2000 he earned a Thália Award for the title role in Oblomov, in 2012 he received the Alfréd Radok Award for his performance in the theater’s iconic production of A Blockage in the System, and in 2022 his part in Petr Zelenka’s Fifty earned him the Theater Critics’ Award.

Trojan film career began its meteoric rise at the turn of the millennium. He was first discovered for the big screen by director David Ondříček, who cast him as the neurotic Ondřej in his comedy Loners, a role that brought Trojan his first nomination for a Czech Lion Award. Since then, he has regularly appeared in movies and on lists of nominations for the annual ČFTA film awards. He is a seven-time recipient of a Czech Lion – for the films Seducer (2002, dir. Andrea Sedláčková), The Brats (2002, dir. Zdeněk Tyc), One Hand Can’t Clap (2003, dir. David Ondříček), Václav (2007, dir. Jiří Vejdělek), In the Shadow (2012, dir. David Ondříček), Nowhere in Moravia (2014, dir. Miroslav Krobot), and Charlatan (2021, dir. Agnieszka Holland) – and has received an additional four nominations. Besides Loners, which was based on a screenplay by Petr Zelenka, these were for his roles in two of Zelenka’s directing efforts, Wrong Side Up (2005) and The Karamazovs (2008), and one for the television miniseries Burning Bush (2012, dir. Agnieszka Holland), which also earned him a Golden Nymph Award at the 53rd international television festival in Monte Carlo. He has also appeared in several films directed by his brother, the director and producer Ondřej Trojan: Želary (2003) and The Banger (2020). Želary was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Trojan gained greater popularity thanks to his television roles, in particular his appearances in the series Cops and Robbers and in several detective shows by director Jiří Strach: Satan’s Stratagem (2009), Lost Gate (2012), and The Associate Professor (2023). Along with his acting colleague Jiří Dvořák, Trojan has made regular appearances in Strach’s film and television work, including the wartime drama Operation Silver A (2007), the fairy tale Lucky Loser (2012), and the tragicomedy Wisdom Teeth (2014). Trojan’s most popular films are Angel of the Lord (2005) and its sequel, Angel of the Lord 2 (2016), the latter of which sold more than a million tickets at cinemas.

Ivan Trojan has long lent his acting talents to radio plays and dubbing as well, and he has also tried his hand at directing at his “home” theater, the Dejvice Theatre. He is a patron of the non-profit Club of People with Cystic Fibrosis, whose activities were highlighted at last year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and for which Trojan attends numerous charitable sporting events.