Robin Wright to Be Honored at Karlovy Vary Festival, ‘Champions’ Set as Closing Film

Actress and director Robin Wright will be honored with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s President’s Award, a lifetime achievement honor, during the event’s closing ceremony next month, organizers said on Tuesday. They also unveiled that Bobby Farrelly’s Champions, starring Woody Harrelson, would close the festival’s 57th edition and that it would pay homage to legendary independent film producer Christine Vachon.

This year’s edition of the Czech festival runs Friday, June 30-Saturday, July 8.

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“Robin Wright is an award-winning actress and philanthropist who is carving an indelible mark in Hollywood,” the festival said. “She recently directed, and starred in, her first feature film, Land, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Shortly after the release of Land, she directed several episodes of the award-winning drama series Ozark and Tell Me Lies. Wright found her love of directing on the hit Netflix series House of Cards, which transformed the industry.”

The Karlovy Vary fest organizers also noted Wright’s roles in such movies as Blade Runner 2049, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Forrest Gump, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Moneyball, Everest, A Most Wanted Man, The Congress, Unbreakable, and Toys, among many others, as well as HBO miniseries Empire Falls. “She will be seen this fall starring opposite Millie Bobby Brown in the fantasy film Damsel and co-starring with Tom Hanks in Here, directed by Robert Zemeckis,” they highlighted.

In her honor, the Karlovy Vary festival will screen Rob Reiner’s classic The Princess Bride.

Organizers on Tuesday also unveiled another celebration. “With You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder, the Karlovy Vary film festival honors one of the most important producers of independent film, Christine Vachon,” they said. “The festival will also show one of her most recent production projects, the romantic drama Past Lives by director Celine Song, which had its world premiere at Sundance and was shown at this year’s Berlinale.”

Lauding Vachon for having helped “bring to life dozens of award-winning films,” the fest highlighted her “many years working with outstanding talents in the field of independent cinema (Todd Haynes, Todd Solondz, Paul Schrader)” and producing the directorial efforts of such stars as Helen Hunt and Ethan Hawke.

“In 1996, she and Pamela Koffler founded Killer Films, which today is one of the most important companies in the field of independent cinema,” the Karlovy Vary fest team noted. “Their very first project, the Todd Haynes drama Poison (1991), won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival. The drama Boys Don’t Cry (1999, director Kimberly Pierce) received an Oscar for best actress, and Haynes’ Far from Heaven (2002) earned four Oscar nominations.”

Among Vachon’s other film production work, the Czech fest mentioned Velvet Goldmine, Happiness and Haynes’ May December, which screened in competition at Cannes this year.

But it also cited Vachon’s TV work, including on the production team that won a 2008 Emmy Award in the category of outstanding nonfiction series for This American Life, on TV movie Mrs. Harris, and on the miniseries Mildred Pierce, directed by Haynes and starring Kate Winslet, which won a five Emmys.

Meanwhile, Champions, a remake of the 2018 Spanish comedy of the same name about a basketball coach, whose career prospects are hampered by his stubbornness and lack of empathy, leading him to have to train a team of disabled players as community service, has been picked as the Karlovy Vary fest’s 2023 closing film.

Said organizers: “Woody Harrelson is one of the most versatile actors around today: he is particularly valued for the formidable complexity of his acting craft, his intelligence and sense of humor.”

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