John Turturro to receive Karlovy Vary film fest award

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival will present American actor, screenwriter and director John Turturro with the Festival President’s Award this year. Together with his wife, actress Katherine Borowitz, he will present the world premiere of the film “Somewhere Tonight,” directed by Michael Di Jiacomo, and inspired by the late Dutch director Theo van Gogh’s “06 (1-900).”

The films selected for the program of the 46th Karlovy Vary IFF 2011 have also been announced. The festival will screen 179 feature films, most of which were shot within the past year and will show in the Czech Republic for the first time. In total, 21 films will be presented at Karlovy Vary as world premieres, 24 as international premieres and 17 as European premieres. 54 films are debuts.

Official Selection – Competition of Feature Films
Only films made after January 1, 2010 may be included; the films are presented as world, international or European premieres.
http://www.kviff.com/en/films/program-sections/10-Official-Selection-Competition/

East of the West – Films in Competition
New feature-length films from Central and Eastern Europe.
http://www.kviff.com/en/films/program-sections/9-East-of-the-west/

Documentary Films in Competition
Both short (under 30 minutes) and feature-length (over 30 minutes)
http://www.kviff.com/en/films/program-sections/4-Documentary-films-in-competition/

Forum of Independents
Independent films from around the world compete for the Independent Camera Award presented in association with Czech Television http://www.kviff.com/en/films/program-sections/2-forum-of-independents/

Star attraction

John Turturro studied drama at the Yale School of Drama and began his acting career off-Broadway. Early in his career he appeared — albeit in smaller roles — in the films of Martin Scorsese (“Raging Bull”) and Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing” and“Jungle Fever”).

It was the Coen brothers, in particular, who brought him international stardom and critical acclaim: They first worked together on the gangland drama “Miller’s Crossing.” He garnered the Best Actor award at the Cannes IFF in 1991 for “Barton Fink.” He later created a truly cult figure in the character of bowler Jesus from their film “The Big Lebowski” and teamed up with the directors again for “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”.

Turturro received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Robert Redford’s “Quiz Show”; he holds an Emmy for his guest appearance in the comedy drama series “Monk,” and his own work as a director has also won awards: his directorial debut, the autobiographical melodrama “Mac,” took away the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 1992.

Dressed to the nines

In other news, actor John Malkovich — whose Prague hotel room was burgled earlier this month — will be a guest of this year’s Karlovy Vary festival in order to present another of his creative activities, this time from outside the film world. Malkovich will demonstrate his wide-ranging artistic versatility by means of a collection of nontraditional men’s clothing that he designed for Technobohemian, to be modeled at a fashion show during the festival by top Czech actors.