The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival took its traditional opening night festivities to the extreme on Friday to celebrate the double anniversary of its 60th edition in the Czech festival’s 80th year with a star-studded room, music and dancing.
Dustin Hoffman (The graduate, Kramer v. Kramer, rain man) was honored with the Crystal Globe Award from KVIFF for her outstanding artistic contributions to world cinema, while Maggie Gyllenhaal was honored (Bride!, Missing daughter, secretary, The honorable woman) He won the Festival President’s Award. They both charmed the adoring audience with their speeches.
Jesse Eisenberg (Social network, Real pain, When you’re done saving the world(And Harvey Keitel)I mean the streets, Taxi driver, Reservoir dogs) were also among the big names in the room after walking the festival’s expansive red carpet in the Czech spa town.
Krzysztof Mucha, Executive Director of the second oldest film festival in the world, and KVIFF’s Artistic Director, Karel Och, were of course present to hand out the awards during the grand opening ceremony of the festival, which was followed by Czech TV presenter Marek Eben.
Hoffman took to the stage where he was given a standing ovation by the large crowd in the legendary grand hall of the brutalist Thermal Hotel. “I am honored and humbled by this award,” the soon-to-be 89-year-old began. “Decades ago, when I worked with Robert Redford when he was a young 65-year-old kid, Redford said to me, ‘You never think about a body of work when you’re making films, because you’re busy building the body.’ And it’s true. The joy of doing what we do is getting lost in the work itself and losing track of time.
Hoffman continued, “I first fell in love with acting because it was the first time I felt lost in time. I knew instinctively that this was the way I wanted to live. I wanted to get lost in time. I wanted to be absorbed in time. Why? Because it made me feel alive.”
The star also shared his feelings as he watched an adorable clip of his work before coming to the stage. “When you’re 89 years old, and there’s your work on the screen, staring at you, it makes me so emotional and so nostalgic, and most of all, so very grateful to have had the opportunity to do what I love decade after decade with so many wonderful people who were doing what they love, too,” Hoffman concluded. “I would like to thank the Karlovy Vary Film Festival for serving this love of filmmaking. Festivals like this help support and inspire all the young actors and filmmakers who pursue this work with passion and love, and that is what makes it truly meaningful. So, thank you for the honor of this award, but more importantly, thank you for joining with me in caring for this art form.”
Before Hoffman, Gyllenhaal also received a big, warm Czech welcome, a year after her husband, Peter Sarsgaard, who was with her, got political on the opening night stage at KVIFF as he was honored with the same award. The festival’s award of the President’s Award to her also came 20 years after Gyllenhaal won a competitive award at KVIFF as Best Actress for her role in the drama Laurie Collier. Cherry BabyIn which she played the role of a young woman who has been released from prison and is recovering from heroin addiction. Cherry Baby She also won a Crystal Globe for Karlovy Vary in 2006. At that time, the actress could not come to the city. But she remembered once that she had visited Karlovy Vary before.
“I was very moved by the whole night, by the beautiful dancing and singing. If you saw my last film, you will know that I love to dance and sing, and I cried a little when I saw everyone being so open, and it touched me. This is actually my second time visiting Karlovy Vary, although I was not able to receive that beautiful award. Cherry Baby. “I was here when I was 19.”
One could hear the audience surprise when she shared how she spent a semester abroad in Prague while at Columbia University, where she visited the spa town. “We ate the chips, which he loved and tasted good [thermal] “This was actually one of the only activities I participated in when I was studying abroad. I’m actually a really good student, but when I was studying in Prague, I didn’t go to any classes at all,” Gyllenhaal joked.
Then she charmed the audience with some Czech words and phrases. She concluded by saying, “I think being here in that semester was one of the first ideas I had about myself as a director, because, as you can see from that, I have done a lot of films as an actress, and so far only two as a director.” “It took me a while to realize that this was a better job for me.”
She also recalled her love for Milos Forman’s film He loves blonde. “I loved that movie, and it was like something cracked inside of me. I went, ‘I loved that. Well, maybe everyone loves it Firefighter ball better. I like this better. That’s my taste, and I started to say, well, yeah, I like Quentin Tarantino, like everybody else, and I also like Jane Campion, and I like Fiddler on the RoofIt turns out that I also love Milos Forman’s mystery films, or one in particular. Gyllenhaal concluded: “This voice says, ‘OK, that’s me!’ That’s what I like! It is part of what prompted me to become a director to express my view of the world, no matter how strange and difficult it is, and no matter how different it is.”
The opening ceremony kicked off, as has become tradition, with the unveiling of the new KVIFF trailer, this year starring Stellan Skarsgard, and a large stage show that gave a cinematic and musical tour through the festival’s history, including Titanic The theme was sung in Czech and composed by MC Hammer Sh Can’t touch this.
Eben quipped that foreign audiences should know that all the singers on stage are big Czech stars. “But if they lived in the United States… they probably wouldn’t be big stars.” Eben also jokingly thanked the Czech national football team for leaving the World Cup early “out of loyalty to the festival.”
A special tribute to Hoffman and Gyllenhaal was followed by the opening film for KVIFF 2026. Kicking off the anniversary during the FIFA World Cup was, fittingly, the 1986 FIFA World Cup documentary. Matchdirected by Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco, chronicles the infamous match between Argentina and England, remembered mostly for Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal.
After the film, the opening night festival audience and the entire city will enjoy a special musical performance created by Czech DJ and producer NobodyListen, which will bring together figures from the contemporary Czech music scene from a range of genres and generations – including many musicians from Karlovy Vary itself.
The opening film and musical show will not be followed by the traditional midnight fireworks displays in Karlovy Vary, but by what organizers described as the largest drone display ever staged in the Czech Republic or Slovakia. The 10-minute air show, titled ‘Stars and Winners in Your Own Story’, will see a fleet of 1,300 synchronized drones transforming the night sky.
