During the 46th Karlovy Vary IFF American actor, screenwriter and director John Turturro will receive the Festival President’s Award and, together with his wife, the actress Katherine Borowitz, will present the world premiere of the film Somewhere Tonight.

John Turturro hails from an Italian-American working-class family from Brooklyn. He studied drama at the Yale School of Drama and began his acting career off-Broadway. His film work has involved collaboration with some of the world’s leading directors. The start of his film career saw him appearing – albeit in smaller roles – in the films of Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, 1980; The Color of Money, 1986), Michael Cimino (The Sicilian, 1987), and Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, 1989 and Jungle Fever, 1991). Yet it was the Coen brothers, in particular, who brought him international stardom and critical acclaim. They first worked together on the gangland drama Miller’s Crossing (1990). For his role as a Jewish writer set on becoming a Hollywood scriptwriter in the film Barton Fink, he garnered the Best Actor award at the Cannes IFF in 1991. He later created a truly cult figure in the character of bowler Jesus from the Coen brothers’ film The Big Lebowski (1998), and he teamed up with the directors again for the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).

John Turturro enjoys playing interesting parts in independent films by respected directors such as Spike Lee, and Tom DiCillo (Box of Moon Light, 1996), who has visited Karlovy Vary several times in the past. However, Turturro has also appeared in comedies with big audience appeal such as Mr. Deeds (2002) and Anger Management (2003), the thriller Secret Window (2004) and the Transformers sci-fi trilogy by Michael Bay (2007-2011).

John Turturro received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Robert Redford’s Quiz Show (1994); he holds an Emmy for his guest appearance in the comedy drama series Monk, and his own work as a director has also won awards: his directorial debut, the autobiographical melodrama Mac, took away the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 1992. The films Illuminata (1994) and Romance & Cigarettes (2005) competed respectively at the Cannes and Venice IFFs.
The film Somewhere Tonight, directed by Michael Di Jiacomo, is inspired by the film 06 (1-900) by the Dutch director Theo van Gogh, who tragically died in 2004.