Johnny Depp Pokes Fun at Himself in New Karlovy Vary Film Festival Trailer

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival premiered a new trailer featuring Johnny Depp at the opening ceremony of its 2023 festival, which took place on Friday evening in the spa town outside Prague in the Czech Republic.

The trailer, along with other KVIFF trailers, can be viewed in full here.

One of the most distinctive features of the Karlovy Vary festival is its trailers, which often feature KVIFF honorees putting a playful spin on the festival’s top award, the Crystal Globe. Depp has not yet been recognized with such an award — a fact that he pokes fun at in the nearly three-minute clip when an interviewer asks the actor, “Literally everyone who goes gets an award, but you didn’t.”

Depp stares. “I didn’t?” he says.

“Two years ago, Johnny Depp received an immensely warm welcome from audiences and fans, thanks to which he has become a great supporter of ours,” KVIFF’s executive director Kryštof Mucha said in a statement. “And so he agreed to film a trailer even though we were limited by his packed schedule. The trailer turned out great, and I am convinced that Johnny Depp will one day return to Vary in person.”

Since they began making the trailers in 2008, the festival trailers have seen John Malkovich griping to a cab driver about how a lifetime achievement award doesn’t mean his career is over, Jude Law using his as a hood ornament, Harvey Keitel hobbled because somebody dropped the heavy statuette on his foot, Andy Garcia using his to break into his house and Helen Mirren bewildered at how hers keeps moving around of its own accord. Other participants in the trailers have included Mel Gibson, Casey Affleck and Czech directors Milos Forman and Jiri Menzel.

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Depp was a special guest at the festival in 2021, when he presented the documentary “Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane McGowan” and the drama “Minimata,” both of which he appeared in and produced.

His trailer was directed by Ivan Zachariáš, who has done many of the KVIFF trailers, and shot at the Hotel Gellért in Budapest. While a script was written for Depp, the actor insisted upon improvising his lines during the two-and-a-half hour shoot.

Also at the ceremony, Russell Crowe and Alicia Vikander are scheduled to receive awards, with the Karim Ainouz period drama “Firebrand,” starring Vikander, serving as the opening night screening. Crowe is scheduled to perform the opening-night concert with his band.

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