John Travolta to receive honourary award at Karlovy Vary

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) has announced that the 2013 recipient of its Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic contribution to World Cinema will be actor John Travolta.

The star of Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction will attend the festival in the Czech Republic to accept the award.

The festival, which runs June 28 to July 6, will also host a gala screening of Travolta’s latest film, Killing Season.

Jiří Bartoška, KVIFF President said: “John Travolta is an artist of incredible versatile talent. Aside from extraordinary popularity, he has gained particular recognition within the industry’s professional circles. His contribution to world cinema is unquestionable and we are incredibly honoured to host him at Karlovy Vary 2013 and premiere his latest film.”

Millennium Films’ Killing Season, which Nu Image is handling worldwide, is an action drama from Ghost Rider director Mark Steven Johnson.

Travolta stars as a former Serbian soldier who looks to exact revenge on a US veteran of the Bosnian war, played by Robert De Niro, who was previously honoured with Karlovy Vary’s Crystal Globe in 2008.

Travolta, who began his acting career in the 1975 TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter,  secured Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations just two years later for his role as dancer Tony Manero in John Badham’s Saturday Night Fever.

He earned a second Globe nomination for his role in Randal Kleiser’s hit musical Grease in 1978.

Other credits include James Bridges’ Urban Cowboy (1980), comedy trilogy Look Who’s Talking (1989, ‘90, ‘93), Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction(1994), Barry Sonnenfeld’s crime comedy Get Shorty (1995), Nora Ephron’s Michael (1996), Jon Turteltaub’s Phenomenon (1996), John Woo’s Broken Arrow (1996) and Face/Off (1997), Costa-Gavras’ drama Mad City (1997), and Dominik Sena’s action thriller Swordfish (2001).

Most recently, he starred in Tony Scott’s crime drama The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3, and Savages (2012) from director Oliver Stone, who will also be honoured with a Crystal Globe at this year’s KVIFF.

Other previous winners of the Karlovy Vary Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema include: Robert Redford, Michael Douglas, Robert de Niro and Miloš Forman.