The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) celebrates its 80th anniversary and 60th edition this year. In addition to Hollywood celebrities, top Czech stars have long been celebrated and honored.
This year, KVIFF will award its President’s Award to a famous Slovak actress who has become an ambassador and a respected voice in political life.
“By presenting an award to Magda Vasaryová, the festival aims not only to express its respect to the performance of one of the greatest Slovak actresses of all time, but also to remember the unique artistic relationship between Czech and Slovak directors who shaped the shared cinematic history of our two countries,” the organizers said. Slovakia and the Czech Republic became independent countries again at the beginning of 1993, after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
Karel Ochs, KVIFF’s artistic director, says Vasaryova “has always stood out, including in terms of her intelligence in choosing her parts and her ability to use her intellectual and emotional depth in her characters.” THR. “For her, it’s a bit like with Eric Cantona, who, when he was 30, decided that enough was enough and so he stopped playing football to do other things. [, including acting]. Every now and then, you have a great Renaissance figure, like Ms. Vasaryova, who becomes a highly respected politician.
Praising her intelligence, ability to express complex connections, and “a beautiful sense of humor and sense of Central European irony, it is a great pleasure to… [honor] “I can’t wait for you to join the festival and accept the award,” Och concludes. “On this double anniversary, when we often look back to the past and to the heritage of the festival, we have been striving to honor someone special, who connects the world of cinema to other worlds outside of culture.”
Vasaryová, 77, may be well known in Czechia and Slovakia, but in case you need a primer, THR She’s compiled a few things to know about her here.
Breakthrough movie
Vášáryov had her breakthrough role in František Vláčil’s historical drama Marketa Lazarova in 1967. “In 1998, local film critics and journalists voted this cinematic masterpiece the most important work in our hundred-year cinematic history,” KVIFF highlighted in unveiling its plans to honor it. “The film was digitally restored in 2011, and the restored version had its world premiere at the 46th KVIFF Film Festival.”
The actress, who was only 20 years old at the time, plays the titular character in the film.
What is the epic of the Czechoslovak New Wave, based on the 1931 novel by Vladislav Vančura? Set in the 13th century amid the transition from paganism to Christianity in Central Europe, the film tells the story of the virgin daughter of a feudal lord who is kidnapped by robbers before joining a convent.
She didn’t always have her eye on the arts
Vasaryova became a famous actress, but originally she did not focus on the arts. Instead, she attended a school that focused on mathematics and physics. But the international success of Marketa Lazarova Bring more acting offers. As KVIFF highlighted: “Vasaryova said she did not originally dream of becoming an actress.”
Fortunately for fans, things ended differently, and she acted in more films and began performing at the Divadlo Na korze Theater in Bratislava, which was famous for its absurdist drama, political satire and avant-garde productions.
She starred in a Jules Verne film
In fact, to be more precise, she starred in Karel Zeman’s 1970 film adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel. Off on the cometdeserved On the comet.
You play Angelica, who rescues Captain Hector Cervadac, a cartographer for the French army in a French colony in North Africa, when he falls overboard while mapping the region. The young woman is fleeing from Spanish kidnappers.
Star turned ambassador
After the Velvet Revolution led to the fall of communism, Vasaryova accepted an offer from President Vaclav Havel to be Czechoslovakia’s ambassador to Austria (1990–1993). Later, from 2000 to 2005, she served as Slovakia’s ambassador to Poland. “I have since continued to engage in politics and public life,” KVIFF explained.
It stated: “In February 2026, I obtained a doctorate in historical sociology from the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University [in Prague]. She has written several books, including a collection of interviews conducted last year There is nothing (Before I disappear), where she speaks frankly about current issues.
Out of the past, and into the future
During this year’s 60th edition of KVIFF, fans can see Vášáryová star in a film featured on the Out of the Past Classics program, Juraj Jakubisko’s 1969 film Birds, orphans and fools“, which will be personally presented by the legendary actress Magda Vasaryova,” highlights the festival. “This ‘banned’ cult was not shown until more than 20 years after it was filmed, on KVIFF in 1990.”
Why is it banned, you ask? Here’s the film’s synopsis: “Three people, all orphaned by political violence, live in an indeterminate time and place and face a cruel and violent world. In order to survive, they adopt a childlike way of life, living in blissful denial.”
