In Prague yesterday, July 9, Puerto Rican actor and director Benicio del Toro, received the Presidential Award at the 56th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which ran July 1-9. The President’s Award is given to actors, directors and producers who have made a fundamental contribution to the development of film and cinema. Australian actor Geoffrey Rush also received the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema. Here are excerpts from El Nuevo Día, followed by excerpts from Variety.

Puerto Rican actor and director Benicio del Toro, winner of the Oscar for best supporting actor in 2000 in “Traffic,” received the Presidential Award of the Karlovy Vary Festival in the Czech Republic for his contribution to the development of cinema.

That interpretation of Del Toro in the drama about drug trafficking between Mexico and the United States marked the rise to fame of the actor, who was part of a cast that included Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Don Cheadle, and Erika Christensen. The artist took up the theme of the drug war in “Sicario” and the sequel “Sicario: The day of the soldier.” Five years later, in Karlovy Vary, Del Toro confirmed to the media that “the war continues,” so he took the opportunity to make a call to “at least avoid violence.”

Variety reports:

[. . .] Del Toro [received] the Festival President’s Award, which is given to actors, directors and producers who have made a fundamental contribution to the development of film and cinema. As an homage to Del Toro, the films “Traffic” and “The Usual Suspects” [were] screened at the festival.

Del Toro has been one of Hollywood’s most frequently cast actors since the 1990s. An important film in his career was Bryan Singer’s “The Usual Suspects” (1995), for which he earned a Film Independent Spirit Award. The following year, he excelled in director Julian Schnabel’s “Basquiat,” which was also shown in Karlovy Vary and which brought him his second Film Independent Spirit Award.

His portrayal of a corrupt cop in Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic” (2000) earned him an Oscar for best supporting actor, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and a Silver Bear at the Berlinale. He shot the gangster comedy “Snatch” (2000) with Guy Ritchie, the mystery thriller “The Pledge” (2001) with Sean Penn, and “21 Grams” (2003) with Alejandro González Iñárritu, earning his second Oscar nomination and an Audience Award at the Venice Film Festival. In 2015, he starred in the Dennis Villeneuve’s thriller “Sicario” (2015), he then reprised the role of the mysterious Alejandro in director Stefano Sollima’s sequel “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” (2018).

Del Toro will next be seen starring in the crime thriller “Reptile,” starring opposite Justin Timberlake, for Netflix.

For full articles, see https://www.elnuevodia.com/entretenimiento/farandula/notas/benicio-del-toro-recibe-el-premio-presidencial-del-festival-de-cine-karlovy-vary/? and https://variety.com/2022/film/global/geoffrey-rush-benicio-del-toro-karlovy-vary-film-festival-12352989