The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) is back for its 60th edition in what is its 80th year since its foundation. Double anniversary alert!
A deep dive into the long history of the Czech fest can unearth all sorts of special memories and surprises among the winners of its main Crystal Globe award and beyond.
We don’t have time to go through it all. But in honor of the 60th edition of KVIFF, running July 3-11, THR decided to shine a spotlight on six of the hidden, and not-so-hidden, cinematic gems that have won the main festival award.
In 1954, the Hollywood blacklist and Salt of the Earth came to town
In a sign of the Karlovy Vary festival’s early interest in looking beyond Eastern Europe, it programmed Herbert J. Biberman’s drama about Mexican workers at a zinc mine who call a general strike.
During the time of the Eastern Bloc, it surely helped that the movie focuses on social issues. After all, it is all about the solidarity and resolve of the workers and their families. But in fact, the film was made entirely outside the traditional studio system by three blacklisted Hollywood figures, with Biberman joining forces with screenwriter Michael Wilson and producer Paul Jarrico.
The film even won the main award, with the KVIFF website listing it as sharing the Grand Prix with True Friends, directed by Mikhail Kalatozov from the USSR.
In 1970, Ken Loach took Karlovy Vary
‘Kes’ film still, courtesy of KVIFF
British auteur Ken Loach also brought his social lens to the Czech film festival, screening his widely celebrated Kes there.
Young star David Bradley later won a BAFTA Film Award for playing the lead role of a working-class English boy who spends his free time caring for and training his pet kestrel. Colin Welland also earned a best supporting actor BAFTA for his work in the film.
Loach himself got nominated at the BAFTAs but didn’t win. He did, however, leave KVIFF with its top honor for Kes.
In 1978, Jiří Bartoška’s breakthrough film came out on top
‘Shadows of a Hot Summer’ film still, courtesy of KVIFF
For more than 30 years, until his death last May, Jiří Bartoška was known as the president and public face of KVIFF. But Czechs also knew him as an actor for decades.
One visit to Karlovy Vary, long before his fest leadership, led him to being cast by director Frantisek Vlácil in the thriller movie Shadows of a Hot Summer, a project that, as it turned out, launched his film career.
The film also went on to KVIFF and ended up winning its main award, shared with, you guessed it!, a movie from the USSR, namely Stanislav Rostotskiy’s White Bim Black Ear.
In 2001, Karlovy Vary fell in love with Amélie
‘Amélie’
Audrey Tautou is Amélie in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s movie. But you knew that!
Despite being caught in her imaginative world, the titular young waitress decides to help people find happiness, leading her on a journey that may allow her to find true love. But you knew that, too!
What you may not know yet is that Amélie won the Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary in 2001, as listed on its website.
In 2006, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Sherrybaby won big
‘Sherrybaby’ film still, courtesy of KVIFF
Laurie Collyer’s drama Sherrybaby stars Gyllenhaal as a young woman who gets released from prison and is recovering from a heroin addiction. But trying to rebuild her life on the outside, and especially repairing her relationship with her young daughter, is harder than she hoped.
Gyllenhaal travels to KVIFF this year to receive the fest’s President’s Award. But did you know she received a statuette at the Czech festival before?
Her visit this year comes 20 years after Sherrybaby left Karlovy Vary with its Crystal Globe award and Gyllenhaal herself was honored with the best actress award for her work in the film.
In 2007, Icelandic Noir left its mark
‘Jar City’ film still, courtesy of KVIFF
A murder and brain illness feature in Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur‘s Jar City, which he brought to KVIFF.
“A desperate man is trying to locate the genetic origin of his little daughter’s brain illness,” read the ominous synopsis on the fest’s website back in the day. “A solitary detective is investigating the murder of an old eccentric whose eventful past changes this seemingly ordinary case into a bizarre mystery. Both storylines gradually become intertwined in Baltasar Kormákur’s latest film – the biggest Icelandic box-office hit of all time.”
The movie stars Ingvar Sigurdsson (Everest, The Northman) and Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir (Justice League), among others, and it showed the appeal of Nordic noir before it continued its triumphant march around the globe. After all, Jar City won the Crystal Globe at KVIFF in 2007.
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