Actor, director and producer Robert De Niro, will be presented with the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema at the 43rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic on July 4, announced JiÅ™í BartoÅ¡ka, festival president.“What Just Happened”, starring De Niro, a Tribeca/Linson Films production from 2929 Productions, will be the opening night film at Karlovy Vary. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and was the closing night picture at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Academy Award® winning Barry Levinson, the film is based on the acclaimed, best-selling memoir by veteran Hollywood producer Art Linson, who wrote the screenplay and produced the film with De Niro and Jane Rosenthal.
De Niro launched his prolific motion picture career in Brian De Palma’s The Wedding Party in 1969. At the beginning of the 1970s, his film career took an auspicious turn in with “Bang the Drum Slowly” (1973) for which he won the New York Film Critics Circle Award and notably “Mean Streets” (1973) the first of his enduring collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. Shortly afterwards De Niro became an international star in Francis Ford Coppola’s second installment of “The Godfather” (1974); De Niro’s incomparable performance in the film garnered him his first Oscar®. The actor’s work with Scorsese, which includes “New York, New York” (1977), the nostalgic tribute to classic musicals to be presented at this year’s Karlovy Vary, currently numbers eight films, two Oscar® nominations – for “Taxi Driver” (1976) and “Cape Fear” (1991) – as well as a second Academy Award® and a Golden Globe for his role as boxing champion Jake LaMotta in the biographical drama “Raging Bull” (1980). In addition, he has earned two other Oscar® nominations, one for his work in Michael Cimino’s “The Deer Hunter” (1978) and another for his performance as the catatonic patient Leonard Lowe in Penny “Marshall’s Awakenings” (1990).
De Niro takes pride in the development of his production company, Tribeca Productions, the Tribeca Film Center, which he founded with Jane Rosenthal in 1988, and the Tribeca Film Festival, which he founded with Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in 2001 as a response to the attacks on the World Trade Center. Now in its seventh year, the Tribeca Film Festival, which was conceived to foster the economic and cultural revitalization of Lower Manhattan through an annual celebration of film, music, and culture continues to accomplish its mission to promote New York City as a major filmmaking center and help filmmakers reach the broadest possible audiences.
Through Tribeca Productions, De Niro develops projects on which he serves in a combination of capacities, including producer, director and actor. The company has produced over 24 films including De Niro’s directorial debut “A Bronx Tale” (1993).
De Niro’s upcoming projects include the crime drama “Righteous Kill”, in which he co-stars with Al Pacino and Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, and Kirk Jones’ Everybody’s Fine, co-starring with Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell.