KVIFF to Honor Jeffrey Wright

At this year’s 60th edition, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will present the President’s Award to actor Jeffrey Wright.

American actor Jeffrey Wright is one of the most versatile artists of his generation. The Oscar-nominated actor – recipient of Tony, Emmy, and Golden Globe awards and a recent laureate of a British Academy Games Award – has shown an exceptional ability to fluidly move between Hollywood blockbusters, prestigious indie films, TV dramas, and video games.

Wright began his acting career in theater, where he made a breakthrough in 1993 as the nurse Belize in a Broadway production of Tony Kushner’s award-winning Angels in America. He repeated the role, which earned him a Tony Award, in the play’s HBO adaptation, and in 2003 this performance brought him a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe.

His first big opportunity in film was in the title role of the 1996 biopic Basquiat, which he personally introduced at the KVIFF 32. Wright recently returned to the world of this iconic artist by starring in the upcoming biographical film Samo Lives, written and directed by Julius Onah.

In his on-screen career, Jeffrey Wright has collaborated with a number of distinguished filmmakers. He shot the historical drama Ride with the Devil (1999) with Ang Lee; Jim Jarmusch cast him in the award-winning minimalist Broken Flowers (2005), which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, and the vampire horror Only Lovers Left Alive (2013); and he played Secretary of State Colin Powell in Oliver Stone’s biographical film W. (2008). Wright is also a regular collaborator of Wes Anderson, having appeared in three of the director’s films: The French Dispatch (2021), Asteroid City (2023), and The Phoenician Scheme (2025). Steven Soderbergh cast him in his Netflix-produced comedy drama about tax havens The Laundromat (2019), and he worked with Spike Lee on the thriller Highest 2 Lowest (2025).

Jeffrey Wright portrayed CIA agent Felix Leiter alongside Daniel Craig’s James Bond in three films from the franchise: Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), and No Time to Die (2021).

He also appeared in three parts of the Hunger Games series – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014), and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015).

For his performance in Cord Jefferson’s comic drama American Fiction (2023), a biting satire of the entertainment industry, racial stereotypes, and hypocrisy, Wright was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and an Independent Spirit Award.

Jeffrey Wright also appeared in several seasons of the successful HBO science-fiction series Westworld, where his dual role brought him three nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award. He also appeared in two seasons of another HBO series, Boardwalk Empire, and he lent his voice to the cosmic being known as The Watcher in the Disney+ animated Marvel hit series What If...?  He currently stars in the Paramount+ original series The Agency, which premiered its second season on June 21, 2026.

Most recently, in April 2026, Wright won the British Academy Games Award for Performer in a Supporting Role for his voice performance as the sarcastic mentor to the main character in the globally successful narrative video game Dispatch.

In honor of Jeffrey Wright, the Karlovy Vary IFF will screen the film Basquiat.