Published: April 22, 2024| 05:52 PM

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and Variety magazine have teamed up to honor Francine Maisler, one of the world’s most respected casting directors.

Maisler has worked on more than seventy feature films and is a recipient of fifteen Artios Awards from the Casting Society of America. She has worked with such directors as Denis Villeneuve (Dune: Part Two, Dune, Arrival, Sicario), Terrence Malick (Tree of Life, Knight of Cups), and Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant, Birdman). As part of its homage, the Karlovy Vary festival will hold a special screening of one of the films which Maisler worked on. Maisler will also give a public master class in which she looks back on her career so far.

“We are glad to have begun a new tradition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where every year we honor one important representative from the film industry. One goal of this project is to call attention to film professions that are not immediately visible but that are absolutely vital to a film’s success. After honoring longtime director of Marché du Film Jerôme Paillard and producer Christine Vachon, this year we will pay homage to casting director Francine Maisler. The profession of casting director has gained increasing attention over the past years, as evidenced among other things by the fact that, starting in 2026, the Academy Awards will include an Oscar for casting,” says KVIFF’s executive director Kryštof Mucha.

Francine Maisler is one of the most highly respected casting directors in the industry, having cast over seventy features and numerous television projects. In 2022, she won a Primetime Emmy Award for her work on HBO’s Succession. Her work has been honored by the Casting Society of America’s Artios Awards with fifteen awards (including Marriage Story in 2020 and Don’t Look Up in 2021) and over fifty nominations. In 2023, Francine served on the International Jury at the Berlinale Film Festival – the first casting director to do so. She has also received two Robert Altman Awards from the Independent Spirit Awards. 

Her notable projects include The Revenant and Birdman (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu), The Big Short and Vice (dir. Adam McKay), Creed (dir. Ryan Coogler), Milk (dir. Gus Van Sant), As Good As It Gets (dir. James L. Brooks), The Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick), 12 Years a Slave (dir. Steve McQueen), Captain Phillips (dir. Paul Greengrass), Mud (dir. Jeff Nichols), Ex Machina (dir. Alex Garland), Little Women (dir. Greta Gerwig), Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, and Dune (dir. Denis Villeneuve), and Mickey 17 (dir. Bong Joon-Ho). In 2024, her projects include Dune: Part Two (dir. Denis Villeneuve), The Bikeriders (dir. Jeff Nichols), Challengers (dir. Luca Guadagnino), Civil War (dir. Alex Garland), Joker: Folie à Deux (dir. Todd Phillips), and Mufasa (dir. Barry Jenkins). Francine has also just finished casting an as-yet untitled Ryan Coogler feature (dir. Ryan Coogler), Klara and the Sun (dir. Taika Waititi), and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (dir. Kogonada).