Skarsgård, Krieps and Sarsgaard to receive Karlovy Vary accolades

Stellan Skarsgård as the stern father and Elle Fanning as a Hollywood starlet in Sentimental Value Photo: Kasper Tuxen/MUBI

Besides special guest Michael Douglas (already announced) more stellar names from the international film arena are lining up to take the waters of the Czech Bohemian spa town of Karlovy Vary during the annual film festival which opens in nine days, running from 4 to 12 July.

Vicky Krieps - Karlovy Vary President’s Award Photo: Film Servis KVIFF)

Sweden’s Stellan Skarsgård has been wooed with the accolade of a Crystal Globe for “outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema” and will present his new film Sentimental Value by Norway’s Joachim Trier, a touching family drama, which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix award in May. It’s the story of two sisters, Nora and Agnes (Renate Reinsve playing opposite Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), their estranged father, Gustav (played by Skarsgård), their dearly departed mother and the entire clan who have gone before them.

Skarsgård has appeared in innumerable international productions including The Unbearable Lightness Of Being and The Hunt For Red October before making his breakthrough in Lars Von Trier’s Breaking the Waves in 1996. He continued his collaboration with Von Trier on Dogville, Dancer In The Dark, Melancholia, Nyphomaniac and the TV series The Kingdom. His portrayal of the Soviet politician Boris Shcherbina in HBO’s miniseries Chernobyl (2019) earned him an Emmy nomination. Subsequently he worked with Dennis Villeneuve on the sci-fi saga [film=39486]Dune[/film] (2021 and 2024) and played one of the main roles in both seasons of the Star Wars series Andor (2022–2025).

For many his portrayal of a professor in Gus Van Sant’s double Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting in 1997 proved one of his most memorable appearances along with his role in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad.

Peter Sarsgaard will also receive a President's Awawrd Photo: Film Servis KVIFF

Actress Vicky Krieps will be honoured with the Festival President’s Award at the event’s opening ceremony. The accolade marks her stand-out performances in such film as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread; Fede Álvarez’s The Girl In The Spider’s Web; and as the Empress Sissi in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage (2022) for which she won a best actress award in Cannes' Un Certain Regard and also in the European Film Awards.

Ahe is set to appear alongside Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver as part of an all-star cast in Jim Jarmusch’s Father, Mother, Sister, Brother later this year.

Other recipients of the President’s Award will be American actor Peter Sarsgaard, who appeared in Tim Fehibaum’s September 5 for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe, as well as the TV series Presumed Innocent.

He will be joined in the roll call of honours by Dakota Johnson, who will present two films in which currently she appears – the romantic comedy Splitsville (2025, dir. Michael Angelo Covino), which she also produced, and the comedy Materialists, an exploration of a somewhat toxic relationship triangle by director Celine Song, and co-starring Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans.

The festival also has announced that the final title in the Crystal Globe Competition will be the Iranian film Bidad by director Soheil Beiraghi. He will be present for the film’s the world premiere, telling the story of the young singer Seti who refuses to accept the fact that women in Iran are not allowed to perform in public. In defiance of her country’s religious laws, she decides to sing in the street. Her performances quickly gain in popularity, and Seti becomes a star for a young generation that no longer wants to be oppressed by the regime.

Dakota Johnson - starring in two films in Karlovy Vary Photo: Film Servis KVIFF

The organisers of the festival delayed any announcement of the film’s inclusion until they were assured that the director and other members of his crew could safely travel out of Iran.

Other guests will include: French actress Camille Cottin for the world premiere of Out Of Love by Nathan Ambrosioni. Hungarian director Bence Fliegauf, winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, will appear for for the world premiere of Jimmy Jaguar. The international premiere of Rebuilding will be presented by American filmmaker Max Walker-Silverman, and The Love That Remains (a story of fading love and the dissolution of a marriage) will be introduced by Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason.

Mexican director Michel Franco returns to Karlovy Vary to present his provocative love story of a Mexican dancer and an American philanthropist, Dreams. The film stars Jessica Chastain in the role of the philanthropist.

Cornish director Mark Jenkin, whose previous film Enys Men was a revelation at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, is coming to Karlovy Vary for the world premiere of his short film I Saw The Face Of God In The Jet Wash, which is being shown in the festival’s Imagina section.