Anniversary edition of KVIFF officially opens with honours for Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Gyllenhaal

The 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has officially been opened.

The traditional opening ceremony began with a rendition of “Happy Birthday”. Accompanied by a live band, Ondřej Havelka, Oskar Hes, Barbora Poláková, Jan Cina, Dan Bárta, and a host of other actors and musicians performed freshly arranged versions of well-known songs, tracing the festival’s journey from its founding in 1946 to the present day. Host Marek Eben then introduced the festival’s new opening trailer, directed by Ivan Zachariáš and starring Stellan Skarsgård. The first-ever KVIFF trailer performed in Swedish is now available to watch on KVIFF.TV.

The ceremony continued with acknowledgements of the festival’s partners, followed by introductions to this year’s programme sections, juries, and distinguished guests, including Harvey Keitel and Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg will receive the Festival President’s Award tomorrow morning. On Friday evening, the honour was presented to American actress, screenwriter, director and producer Maggie Gyllenhaal, a past Crystal Globe winner for her standout performance in the film Sherrybaby. “Even though I wasn’t able to pick up that beautiful award for Sherrybaby, this is the second time I’ve been to Karlovy Vary, because I was here when I was nineteen. I did a semester abroad in Prague, and we took a bus to Karlovy Vary. We ate the wafers and tasted the thermal water,” the New York-born artist recalled.

She went on to reveal that it was during her time in Prague that her desire to step behind the camera first began to take shape. “I sometimes went to a seminar with a section on films and when I saw Loves of a Blonde there, something cracked in me. A voice told me, ‘This is me. This is what I like.’ That’s part of what pushed me to be a director – to express my own view of the world, however strange and challenging.”

Gyllenhaal, who is presenting her second feature as a director, The Bride!, at this year’s festival, concluded with another memory from Prague. “I found a theatre called Na Zábradlí and saw an experimental version of The Seagull that I remember still. And last night they told me that Jiří Bartoška performed in that production. I thank you for the inspiration – and for this beautiful award,” Maggie Gyllenhaal concluded her speech.

The evening concluded with the presentation of the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema to legendary American actor Dustin Hoffman, who was greeted with a prolonged standing ovation in the Grand Hall. “I am honoured and humbled by this award. Decades ago, when I worked with a young Redford, he said to me: ‘You I never think about the body of your work because you’re busy building the body.’ And that’s true. I first fell in love with acting because it was the first time I felt lost in time. It makes me feel alive. If you’re very lucky, one day you get to be an old man like me – I’m turning 89 in a couple of days – and there is your life’s work on screen, staring back at you. It makes me very emotional and very nostalgic, and most of all very grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to do what I love, decade after decade,” said the two-time Academy Award winner.

“I want to thank the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for serving this love of filmmaking. Festivals like this one help to support and inspire all the young actors and filmmakers, and that is what makes it truly meaningful. Thank you for the honour of this award, but more importantly, thank you for caring for this art form with me,” said Dustin Hoffman as he bid farewell to the audience.

The ceremony was followed by the festival’s opening film, The Match, screening at the Thermal. Celebrations continued outside the hotel with a special opening concert curated by DJ and producer NobodyListen, accompanied by an Allwyn drone show. The ceremony was preceded by the traditional red carpet arrivals, with the red carpet itself serving as the central visual motif of this year’s festival. A recording of the red carpet and the opening ceremony will soon be available on KVIFF.TV.