Robin Wright to be honored at Karlovy Vary Film Festival, ‘Champions’ set as closing film

Actress-director Robin Wright will be presented with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s President’s Award, a lifetime achievement award, at the event’s closing ceremony next month, organizers said on Tuesday. They also unveiled Bobby Farrelly’s Samplesstarring Woody Harrelson, will close the 57th edition of the festival and pay tribute to the legendary independent film producer Christine Vachon.

This year’s edition of the Czech festival runs from Friday 30 June to Saturday 8 July.

“Robin Wright is an award-winning actress and philanthropist who is making an indelible mark on Hollywood,” the festival said. “She recently directed and starred in her first feature film, Earth, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Shortly after the release of Earth, directed several episodes of the award-winning drama series Ozarks AND Tell me lies. Wright found her love for directing on the hit Netflix series House of cardsthat transformed the industry”.

The organizers of the Karlovy Vary festival also noted Wright’s roles in such films as Blade Runner 2049, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Forrest Gump, The girl with the dragon tattoo, Ball of money, Everest, A most wanted man, The Congress, UnbreakableAND Toysamong many others, as well as the HBO miniseries The Empire falls. “We will see her this fall opposite Millie Bobby Brown in the fantasy film bridesmaid and co-starred with Tom Hanks in Heredirected by Robert Zemeckis,” they highlighted.

In his honour, the Karlovy Vary film festival will screen Rob Reiner’s classic The princess bride.

The organizers also unveiled another celebration on Tuesday. “With You sing louder, I sing louder, the Karlovy Vary Film Festival pays homage to one of the most important producers of independent films, Christine Vachon,” they said. “The festival will also present one of its most recent production projects, the romantic drama Past lives by director Celine Song, which had its world premiere at Sundance and screened at this year’s Berlinale.

Commending Vachon for helping to “bring to life dozens of award-winning films,” the festival highlighted his “many years working with outstanding talent in the field of independent cinema (Todd Haynes, Todd Solondz, Paul Schrader)” and producing the efforts of directed by stars like Helen Hunt and Ethan Hawke.

“In 1996, she and Pamela Koffler founded Killer Films, which today is one of the leading companies in the field of independent cinema,” noted the Karlovy Vary festival team. “Their very first project, the Todd Haynes drama Poison (1991), won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival. The drama Boys do not Cry (1999, director Kimberly Pierce) received an Academy Award for Best Actress, and Haynes’ Far from heaven (2002) garnered four Academy Award nominations.

Among Vachon’s other filmmaking works, he mentioned the Czech festival Velvet Gold Mine, Happiness and by Haynes may decemberscreened this year in competition at Cannes.

But he also cited Vachon’s television work, including the production team winning a 2008 Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Non-Fiction Series for This American lifein the TV movie Mrs. Harrisand on the miniseries Mildred Piercedirected by Haynes and starring Kate Winslet, which won five Emmys.

In the meantime, Samplesremake of the 2018 Spanish comedy of the same name about a basketball coach, whose career prospects are hampered by his stubbornness and lack of empathy, leading him to have to coach a team of disabled players as a service to the community, was cast as The closing film of 2023 of the Karlovy Vary fest.

The organizers said: “Woody Harrelson is one of the most versatile actors around today: he is particularly appreciated for the formidable complexity of his acting craft, his intelligence and his sense of humour”.