The 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival highlights two of the biggest stars of the 2000s, announcing Friday that Russell Crowe will receive the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Honor, the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema, and securing Johnny Depp for a role in this year’s film. festival trailer.
Crowe will also be showing off his musical side at the Czech festival, taking the stage to perform with his band Indoor Garden Party at Karlovy Vary’s opening concert on June 30.
Since his breakthrough as an Australian skinhead in Geoffrey Wright’s Romper Stomper in 1992, Crowe has become an integral part of the global film scene. His iconic turns as rough cop Bud White in Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential (1997), as Big Tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand in Michael Mann’s The initiate (1999), as Roman general Maximus in Ridley Scott’s sword-and-sandals epic Gladiator (2000), and as mentally ill math genius John Nash in the Ron Howard biopic A beautiful mind (2001), secured its place in film history. Crowe garnered Best Actor Oscar nominations for the last three performances, winning for Gladiator.
More recently, he stepped behind the camera, directing and starring in period drama The water fortune teller in 2014, and crime thriller Poker face in 2022. His most recent turn was in Julius Avery’s supernatural horror The Pope’s exorcist.
Crowe has been performing and recording music since the 1980s and has released three albums as the lead singer of Australian rock band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts. After that band broke up, Crowe teamed up with Alan Doyle of the Canadian band Great Big Sea, who recorded and performed together under the name The Ordinary Fear of God. In 2017, Crowe and Doyle formed the musical collective Indoor Garden Party.
As part of his tribute to Crowe, Karlovy Vary will present a 20th anniversary screening of Peter Weir’s adventure film Master and Commander: the other side of the world, starring Crowe as British naval captain Captain Jack Aubrey, a role that earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
Before opening night, Karlovy Vary will also premiere its new festival trailer pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp. A staunch supporter of the sometimes controversial actor, the Czech festival invited Depp as its guest of honor in 2021, showcasing two films he produced: the music documentary Crock of Gold: A few rounds with Shane MacGowan, and Andrew Levitas’ Japanese drama Minamatainto which he also stared.
The 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival will run from June 30 to July 8, 2023.
