KARLOVY VARY – The 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival kicked off on Friday night, and Hollywood was in the house. The opening ceremony was attended by festival guests Harvey Keitel, Jesse Eisenberg, and Peter Skarsgard, as well as the night’s two honorees receiving the prestigious Crystal Globe statues. The two actors in the spotlight were the legendary Dustin Hoffman and the talented actress and director Maggie Gyllenhaal.
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Accepting the award after a standing ovation so long he jokingly sat down in a chair on stage, Hoffman remarked, “I am honored and humbled by this award. Decades ago, when I worked with a young Robert Redford. He was a young child then of 65, and Redford said to me, ‘You never think of a body of work when you’re making movies because you’re busy building the body.’ And that’s true.”
The two-time Oscar winner continued, “The pleasure of what we do is being engrossed in the work itself and losing track of time. I first fell in love with acting because it was the first time I felt lost in time. I noticed instinctively this is how I wanted to live. I wanted to be lost in time. I wanted to be absorbed in time. Why? Because it made me feel alive. If you’re very lucky, one day you get to be an old man like me. I’m turning 89 in a few weeks. And there it is. Your life’s work on the screen. Starring back at you. It makes me very emotional and very nostalgic and, most of all, very, very grateful to have the opportunity to do what I love decade after decade with so many people who were doing what they loved too.”
Hoffman most recently starred in the Telluride Film Festival world premiere “Tuner” and Andy Garcia’s “Diamond,” which debuted at Cannes this past May. He shot Peter Greenway’s “Tower Stories” two years ago, but it is expected to screen sometime this calendar year.
Gyllenhaal, who will introduce a screening of “The Bride!” this weekend, was very moved by the ceremony’s opening number. A tradition at Karlovy Vary, this year’s number featured musical numbers of popular songs over the past 80 years (yes, the festival is in its 60th edition, but is eight decades old, it’s complicated), and she teared up watching the singers and dancers be so “open.” Gyllenhaal was previously honored with a Best Actress prize for “Sherrybaby” in 2007, but couldn’t attend the festival. It turns out she has been to the Czech Republic enclave, however.
“I was here when I was 19,” Gyllenhaal says, surprising the audience. “I did a semester abroad when I was at Columbia in Prague. And we took a bus to Karlovy Vary, and we ate the wafers, which I f**king love. And tasted the [mineral] water, and that was one of the only activities I participated in when I was on this study abroad. I’m actually a really good student, but when I was studying in Prague, I didn’t really go to any classes at all. [Laughs.]”
The “Lost Daughter” filmmaker has not announced a follow-up to “The Bride!” or any future acting roles as of yet.
The night ended with an electric, packed free concert in front of the festival’s iconic Hotel Thermal, curated by dance artist Nobody Listen and featuring the massively popular Czech hip-hop artist Yzomandias.
Later in the festival, Juliette Binoche and Jeffrey Wright will also receive honorary awards. Eisenberg will be handed his Crystal Globe on Saturday.
The 2026 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival runs from June 4-June 11.
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