Maggie Gyllenhaal (Bride!, Missing daughter, secretary, The honorable woman) shared her happiness about her departure from directing and her transition from acting during an interview with a group of journalists at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Saturday.
Discussing the director’s work, she suggested: “I feel like it’s a lot like being a mother. Becoming a mother—suddenly you’re actually responsible for someone else’s life. And that’s very exciting, and powerful, and very terrifying.”
She concluded: “In terms of responsibility, it’s really important. That’s something that’s really interesting in terms of directing, much more than producing, and also much more than acting.”
Gyllenhaal also shared the joy she experiences as a director in the process of preparing with a cinematographer “thinking about the film in a connected imaginary world,” explaining: “It’s very wonderful, it’s very intense, and there’s a joy for me in being on set with a plan in a common language that we’ve built together.”
She concluded: “It was new to me, and I didn’t know how much I would love it. So sometimes when people ask me if I want to act, I think no, I want to prepare with my cinematographer, and I want to continue learning this language that I got so much pleasure from learning.”
Gyllenhaal also addressed the female directors. “Directing, historically and still is, is mostly a male job,” she said. “I found that when I went to do it, I was treated with a kind of respect that I had never encountered before, just because that’s how one treats a director.”
She traveled to the festival in the Czech spa town, accompanied by her husband, Peter Sarsgaard, to accept the Festival President’s Award at Friday night’s opening ceremony for the double anniversary edition of KVIFF, its 60th festival in its 80th year.
It was also America’s 250th birthday. “It’s the Fourth of July today, so we’re celebrating it here,” Gyllenhaal first said, before continuing: “I’m abstaining from celebrating this year. I’m not celebrating the Fourth of July.”
The director was also asked how her daughter Ramona was doing last year among the people arrested at a Columbia University protest against Israel’s war on Gaza. “My daughter is her woman,” Gyllenhaal replied. “I’m sure you’re not surprised to hear that.”
Gyllenhaal, who also hosts a late Saturday showing of her film Changeling Bride!which was a disappointment at the box office, recently re-teamed with Warner Bros., with the studio optioning Rachel Koechner’s novel Lake of creation For her to write and develop as a means of directing. Gyllenhaal is also set to produce the project.
When asked about the project on Saturday, she said: “It’s at the beginning of the process. I feel like it’s part of the creativity.” [process] This is very personal, private and confidential. I’m so excited about it. I love the author Rachel Kushner. I love the book. I have my own unusual take on the matter, but it’s just starting to boil over.
20 years ago, Gyllenhaal won a competitive award at KVIFF for Best Actress for her role in the drama Lori 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.
In accepting her 2026 honor, she recalled a semester abroad in the Czech Republic, including a visit to Karlovy Vary, which, she said, was “part of what pushed me to be a filmmaker to express my view of the world, no matter how strange and difficult, no matter how different.”
