Peter Sarsgaard Calls for Unity in a Divided America at Karlovy Vary Film Festival Opening: ‘There Is No Going It Alone’

Actors Peter Sarsgaard and Vicky Krieps were honored at the opening of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival Friday, with Sarsgaard calling for “collective action” in the U.S. in the face of division.

Karlovy Vary presented the KVIFF President’s Award to Sarsgaard, who is the winner of the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival, and a nominee for an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

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Receiving the award, he said: “Making a film is a collective action […] any actor will tell you that good work is only possible in an environment that supports it […] There is no going it alone.”

He continued: “As my country retreats from its global responsibilities and tries to go it alone, it is also being divided into factions from within, factions of politics, gender, sexuality, race, Jews split over the war. But when there’s a common enemy, there is no going it alone. Enemies are the forces that divide us, that individuate us. We all know who they are. Collective action is the only way forward in art and in our happiness. So thank you for this. I couldn’t have done it without all of you. And in the words of [Czech statesman and playwright] Vaclav Havel, one half of a room cannot remain forever warm while the other half is cold.”

In his honor, Karlovy Vary will screen Billy Ray’s 2003 journalism drama “Shattered Glass,” for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Krieps, winner of a European Film Award for best actress for “Corsage,” a performance for which she was similarly recognized at Cannes, also received the KVIFF President’s Award.

Receiving the award, she said: “I would like to say I love film festivals. I think they are just the best thing in the world, together with cinema. And if movies are not misused, they can go across borders and transport the most powerful messages. They don’t ask for your passport or where you’re from or how much money you have, or if you’re cool or not.

“I was never cool. I didn’t finish my studies, but I’m here, and all I did was I believed in the dream. Movies give us the space to dream and hope. I came with nothing, and, when I leave this planet, I will go with nothing. So unfortunately, even the beautiful award will not go with me to where I’m going, but I will take all the memories and all my dreams, and that’s what movies can do. So, we should try and save the movies so they continue to exist, and they continue to spread the word of love and peace and, most importantly, forgiveness.”

Karlovy Vary will show Krieps’ “Love Me Tender,” which premiered in this year’s Cannes.

Other star guests at the festival, which runs July 4-12, include actors Michael Douglas, Stellan Skarsgård and Dakota Johnson.

Douglas will present a newly restored print of Miloš Forman’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and will be joined by Paul Zaentz — nephew of the late Saul Zaentz, who produced the film with Douglas — as well as members of Forman’s family.

Skarsgård will be presented with the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema, and will present his latest film “Sentimental Value,” which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

Johnson will also receive the KVIFF President’s Award. She will present the romantic comedy “Splitsville” and the comedy “Materialists.”