Crowe singing for his supper in Karlovy Vary

Russell Crowe will receive a Crystal Globe and take part in the Festival’s opening concert Photo: Courtesy of KVIFF

With only four days to go before the opening on Friday (30 June) of the 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the elegant Czech spa town even more stars and industry icons are lining up to attend and take the waters.

Besides the previously announced first weekend salvoes of Ewan McGregor and daughter Clara (for road movie You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder) and Swedish actress Alicia Vikander for the opening film, British costume drama Firebrand, now Russell Crowe and Robin Wright will be putting in appearances.

Crowe will be demonstrating his musical as well as his acting credentials. He will be presented with a Crystal Globe for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema on stage in the Festival’s biggest theatre within the Thermal Hotel and then will perform as part of the opening outdoor concert with his musical collective Indoor Garden Party formed in 2017 with Alan Doyle of the Canadian band Great Big Sea. Crowe who has been performing and recording music since the 1980s, will be joined for the concert by English electronic band Morcheeba and Czech musician and actor Vojtěch Dyk.

As part of the tribute to Crowe, who won a best actor Oscar as Roman general Maximus in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, the festival will present a 20th anniversary screening of Peter Weir’s Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World in which Crowe played a British naval captain Jack Aubrey. Crowe’s most recent acting turn was in Julius Avery’s supernatural horror The Pope’s Exorcist.

Robin Wright will receive Karlovy Vary's President’s Award plus a tribute screening of her debut role in The Princess Bride Photo: Richard Mowe

Actress and director Robin Wright will be honoured with the President’s Award during the Festival’s closing ceremony which will be followed by a screening of Bobby Farrelly’s Champions with Woody Harrelson. The film is a remake of the 2018 Spanish film Campeones (inspired by the real-life story of the Aderes basketball team in Burjassot) with Harrelson playing a basketball coach tasked with training a team with learning disabilities.

Wright who recently directed, and starred in, her first feature film, Land, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, will be seen in the autumn in the fantasy Damsel and also co-starring with Tom Hanks in Here (directed by Robert Zemeckis). Rob Reiner’s classic The Princess Bride, which marked her debut, will be shown in her honour.

Finally ground-breaking independent producer Christine Vachon, who has worked with the likes of Todd Haynes, Todd Solondz and Paul Schrader and on TV with the mini-series Mildred Pierce, will receive a special focus. The Festival will screen one of her most recent productions, the romantic drama Past Lives by director Celine Song.

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival runs from 30 June to 8 July.