Jiří Bartoška, actor and face of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, dies aged 78
Czechia is mourning star of stage and screen Jiří Bartoška, who passed away on May 8th at 78 years of age. Among his many achievements, the charismatic actor is most fondly remembered for reinvigorating the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and ensuring its lasting success.
Born in 1947 in Děčín, at that time in north-west Czechoslovakia, Bartoška learned his craft at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. After graduating, he joined acting companies in Brno and Ústí nad Labem, before eventually ending up in Prague in 1978.
In time he transitioned to acting in front of cameras rather than auditoriums, appearing in both film and television. He is best known for his performances in 1998’s Sekal Has to Die (Je třeba zabít Sekala), All My Loved Ones (Všichni moji blízcí) in 1999, and Tiger Theory (Teorie tygra) in 2016, the second of which earned him a Czech Lion award for best supporting actor. He appeared as God in the popular Angel of the Lord (Anděl Páně) films. He was also politically active; in 1989, he co-founded the Civic Forum movement with Václav Havel.
Perhaps Jiří Bartoška’s greatest legacy lies in the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), of which he was president from 1994. Today the festival is the premier film event in Central and Eastern Europe, but its fortunes have waxed and waned over the years since its founding in 1946.
In the early 1990s, it very nearly ended due to lack of state support and funds. However, together with film critic and journalist Eva Zaoralová, Mr. Bartoška restored the festival to glory, as the man himself described at the 58th edition of KVIFF last year:
“When Eva and I started in 1993 to establish a foundation to save the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, which is the second oldest on the continent, we had no idea that it would last this long – that is, that we would do it this long and that we would see our thirtieth anniversary … The state cancelled the festival because it was not promising. After thirty years, we proved to the state that not all government decisions are logical.”
By working tirelessly to revitalise the festival, Jiří Bartoška attracted big names to Karlovy Vary, including Hollywood stars like Robert De Niro, Richard Gere, Leonardo DiCaprio, Morgan Freeman and Scarlett Johansson. Upon hearing the “sad news” of the festival president’s passing, Russell Crowe recalled on the X platform how he “had the great honor to receive the award for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema from his own hands” in 2023.
Executive Director of KVIFF Kryštof Mucha has called Mr. Bartoška “irreplaceable”, and the citizens of Karlovy Vary have been paying tribute with candles and flowers since the news broke on Thursday. In gratitude to the man who put their city on the international map, a petition has now been launched that proposes to rename Moskevská Street in the city centre to Jiřího Bartošky.
