Karlovy Vary International Film Festival opens with special awards ceremony

The 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival opened with a traditional gala ceremony on Friday night at which the festival’s main prize, the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema, was awarded to the leading Hollywood composer James Newton Howard. This year’s VIP celebrities, actress Uma Thurman, best known for Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill movies, and Casey Affleck, who won the Oscar for Best Actor this year for Manchester by the Sea, both received the President’s Award. The festival, which closes on July 8, will screen over 150 movies, some of which will have their world premiere in the West Bohemian spa town.