Alicia Vikander to receive KVIFF’s President Award

Oscar-winning Swedish actress and producer Alicia Vikander will be a guest at the opening ceremony of the 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where she will be presented the KVIFF President’s Award.

Vikander began her artistic career during her childhood years, training as a ballet dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm.  Alicia appeared in a number of stage productions and Swedish TV series, Andra Avenyn, before being cast in her breakthrough debut film role, in Lisa Lansgeth’s feature Pure (2010). It was for this performance that Vikander went on to win the Shooting Star program for promising young actors at the 2011 Berlinale​.

Alicia then went on to star in A Royal Affair (dir. Nikolaj Arcel) which earned her another breakout moment. Also starring Mads Mikelsen, the historical drama received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film.

The following year, she appeared alongside Keira Knightley and Jude Law in Joe Wright’s adaptation of Anna Karenina).  That same year Vikander was nominated at BAFTA for the Rising Star Award.

2015 was a standout year, Vikander had several films release including, The Man from U.N.C.L.E (dir. Guy Ritchie), and sci-fi psychological thriller, Ex Machina (dir. Alex Garland), Vikander starred as Ava, a female robot.  Vikander earned Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for her performance.  She also starred in acclaimed drama, The Danish Girl (dir. Tom Hooper), and won both a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.  

In 2016, she starred alongside Matt Damon and Tommy Lee Jones in the big-budget action thriller Jason Bourne (2016, dir. Paul Greengrass), and later that year in the romantic drama The Light Between Oceans (2016, dir. Derek Cianfrance). Vikander starred in independent feature, Euphoria, with Eva Green and directed by Lisa Lansgeth. Vikander produced the film through her production company Vikarious. In 2018, Vikander took on the iconic action hero Lara Croft in Warner Bros. action feature, Tomb Raider (dir. Roar Uthaug). In 2020, she starred opposite Julianne Moore in The Glorias (dir. Julie Taymor), a biopic about feminist icon Gloria Steinem, and also The Green Knight (dir. David Lowery) in which she took on two roles.  2021 saw her star in Blue Bayou (dir. Justin Chon) which received its worldwide premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. 

In 2021, Vikander starred and Exec Produced the television adaption of Olivier Assayas’s cult film, Irma Vep.  Produced by HBO/A24, the series was written and directed by Assayas’s and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.  Returning there again this year, Vikander’s latest project to screen there is Firebrand, which was in Official Competition and sees her take on the role of Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII.