Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey, Black Mess, Suspiria) got feted on the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) on Saturday because the audience for one among her latest movies showered the Hollywood star with enthusiastic applause and love, and she or he received one among the Czech fest’s honors.
On a summer-y and warm evening of day three of the 59th edition of the festival within the spa town, its streets were filled with activity, with people rushing to and from movie screenings, grooving along to concert events, and eating and drinking in outdoor restaurants and bars.
Meanwhile, inside a cinema within the Grandhotel Pupp, which James Bond fans may remember because the Montenegro hotel featured in Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s first outing because the famous spy (with Craig’s Bond and Eva Green’s Vesper also having a late dinner on the hotel’s restaurant), Johnson was called on stage to get the KVIFF President’s Award. She obliged ahead of a screening of her recent film Materialists, which was directed by Celine Song and in addition stars Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans.
The audience showered her in applause and appreciation, with photos being snapped and videos being recorded by most within the auditorium.
Johnson was then lauded with the award statuette, to a different round of raucous applause. In her temporary thanks speech, the star lauded Materialists author and director Celine Song as “probably the perfect filmmaker of our time.”
When Johnson left the stage to more cheers and claps from the up-for-it crowd, everyone was ready for Materialists.
It isn’t the one movie that the actress delivered to Karlovy Vary, though. On Saturday evening, Johnson presented the Michael Angelo Covino-directed romantic comedy Splitsville, which she also produced under her TeaTime Pictures banner, launched in 2019 together with her producing partner, Ro Donnelly.
“I hope these are movies that ignite fire in people’s hearts and minds about love and the way we treat one another and what we wish for ourselves,” Johnson said.
Earlier within the festival day, Johnson told reporters that she would likely direct her first feature soon, that desires to proceed telling female-centric stories through her TeaTime Pictures, avoid “toxic sets,” measure the success of films when it comes to viewer impact fairly than box office, and that she would like to play a psychopath.
The star also expressed her gratitude for the invitation to the fest. “This looks like Disneyland. It’s crazy here. It’s so beautiful,” she told reporters concerning the picturesque Karlovy Vary. “And I just couldn’t feel more grateful.”
KVIFF runs through July 12.