June 19, 2024, 11:11
This year’s 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will host actor-director Viggo Mortensen. At the festival’s opening ceremony, Mortensen will receive the Festival President’s Award and also present his film The Dead Don’t Hurt, which he wrote and directed.
The multifaceted actor began his career in the mid-1980s, when he appeared in, among other things, Peter Weir’s Witness (1985), Renny Harlin’s Prison (1987), and David Anspaugh’s Fresh Horses (1988), as well as in the Los Angeles premiere of Martin Sherman’s play Bent (1987), for which he was awarded the Dramalogue Critics Award. During that decade he also continued to pursue a number of other artistic interests, including poetry, music, painting, and photography. Viggo Mortensen is the author of several books of poetry, and is the founder and editor of Perceval Press, which was founded in 2002.
In 1990 Philip Ridley cast him in The Reflecting Skin, and Sean Penn in his directorial debut The Indian Runner. Through the 1990s Mortensen worked on a number of projects of other respected directors, including Brian de Palma’s Carlito’s Way (1993), Tony Scott’s submarine drama Crimson Tide (1995), Jane Campion’s period romantic drama The Portrait of a Lady (1996), Andrew Davis’s crime thriller A Perfect Murder (1998), a second time for Philip Ridley in The Passion of Darkly Noon (1998), and for Tony Goldwyn in A Walk on the Moon (1999) alongside Diane Lane.
Mortensen gained international fame and the acclaim of the general public thanks to his role as Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s epic saga The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003). The three films in this adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s saga are among the most successful projects in international cinematic history, with the third instalment, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), winning eleven Academy Awards.
In 2005, Viggo Mortensen played the lead role in David Cronenberg’s film noir drama A History of Violence. Their subsequent collaboration, Eastern Promises (2007), earned Mortensen his first nominations for the Academy Awards, the BAFTAs, and the Golden Globes, and brought him the prize for Best Actor at the British Independent Film Awards. In 2009, he starred in an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s acclaimed novel The Road. He received his second Golden Globe nomination for another Cronenberg film, the original biographical drama A Dangerous Method (2011), in which he portrayed Sigmund Freud. He also received Academy Award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations for his role the father of an off-the-grid family in Matt Ross’ Captain Fantastic (2016), and as Tony in the triple Oscar-winning The Green Book (2018). Captain Fantastic won the Audience Award at the 2016 Karlovy Vary IFF. Mortensen has also collaborated with David Oelhoffen as actor and producer for Far From Men (2014), and with Argentine director Lisandro Alonso on two extraordinary projects – Jauja (2014), in which he was involved as an actor, producer, and composer, and Eureka (2023). Both were screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Mortensen’s feature directing debut was 2020‘s Falling, which was inspired by events from his childhood. Besides writing, directing, producing, and acting in the film, he also composed the music.
The Dead Don’t Hurt, which will be screened at the opening ceremony of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, is Viggo Mortensen’s second outing as director. As with his debut, he wrote the screenplay, acted as director and producer, composed the music, and performed one of the lead roles.
“We are excited to bring a truly unique experience to the Czech audiences this year. On July 4th, we will release in theatres across the country the opening film of Karlovy Vary Film Festival –The Dead Don’t Hurt. Just few days after the festival’s opening ceremony that traditionally attracts maximum media attention. We believe that many film lovers in our territory will enjoy the proposition of watching such a great and spotlighted film on their local screens and experience piece of the festival’s best content on their own.“ said the Distribution Company Aerofilms´ CEO Ivo Andrle.
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