The 57th Karlovy Vary Film Festival is highlighting 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 to feature in this year’s festival trailer.
Crowe will also show off his musical chops at the Czech festival, taking the stage to perform with his band Indoor Garden Party at the Karlovy Vary opening night concert on June 30.
Since his breakthrough performance as an Australian skinhead in Geoffrey Wright’s Romper Stomper in 1992, Crowe has been unavoidable on 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 Insider (1999), as Roman general Maximus in Ridley Scott’s sword-and-sandals epic Gladiator (2000), and as mentally-ill mathematical genius John Nash in Ron Howard’s biopic A Beautiful Mind (2001), secured his place in cinema history. Crowe picked up best actor Oscar nominations for the latter three performances, winning for Gladiator.
More recently, he has stepped behind the camera, directing, as well as starring, in period drama The Water Diviner 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 the Australian rock band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts. After that band broke up, Crowe began a collaboration 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 its tribute to Crowe, Karlovy Vary will present a twenty-year anniversary screening of Peter Weir’s adventure film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, featuring Crowe as British naval captain Captain Jack Aubrey, a role that earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
For opening night, Karlovy Vary will also premiere its new festival trailer which will feature Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp. The Czech festival has been a staunch supporter of the sometimes controversial actor, inviting Depp as its guest of honor in 2021, where he presented two films he produced: The music documentary Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, and Andrew Levitas’ Japanese-set drama Minamata, in which he also stared.
The 57th Karlovy Vary film festival runs June 30 — July 8, 2023.
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