Banderas, Huppert to visit Karlovy Vary Film Festival

The festival organisers announced previously that U.S. actor, director and producer John Malkovich would also arrive in Karlovy Vary.

Malkovich, 55, will receive the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at the festival.

As part of the tribute to Malkovich, the Karlovy Vary festival will present two of his films - the political thriller The Dancer Upstairs, Malkovich's debut as a film director, and the documentary Which Way Home, directed by Rebecca Cammisa, which he produced.

Banderas, 48, has become world-famous for his roles in U.S. films Desparado (1995), musical Evita (1996), The Mask of Zorro (1998) and The Legend of Zorro (2005).

He, however, first gained a wide attention in a series of films by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar in the 1980s.

Huppert has appeared in over 80 films. She is highly acclaimed by critics for her playing the parts of complicated, often ambiguous characters.

In 1978 she won the best actress award at the Cannes International Film Festival for the role of a young murderess in the film Violette Noziere. In 2001 she repeated her success in Cannes with the main role in The Pianist directed by Michael Haneke and based on the controversial novel by Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek.

Huppert, who chaired the Cannes festival's grand jury this year, will be given the award for a life contribution to world cinema, along with Jan Svankmajer, 74, renowned Czech artist, film-maker and animator.

A Well Paid Walk, a film directed by Czech-born U.S. director Milos Forman after the Czech opera buffa of the same name, will have its world premiere at the festival in Karlovy Vary.

Forman, along with his sons, staged the opera in the National Theatre in Prague as well.

The festival tune will this year show the Oscar-winning Czech director Jiri Menzel in an unusual role, along with Hollywood actor, director and producer Andy Garcia who visited the festival in 2006.

Forman as well as U.S. actors Danny DeVito and Harvey Keitel, and Czech film-maker Vera Chytilova were featuring in last year's festival tune.

Author: ČTK
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