John Turturro To Receive Karlovy Vary's President's Award

COLOGNE, Germany - Actor/director John Turturro will receive the lifetime achievement honor, the President's Award, at the 46th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival next month. Turturro, who appears in Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon, will attend the Czech festival together with his wife, actress Katherine Borowitz, to present the world premiere of a very different film, the Michael Di Jiacomo-directed  drama Somewhere Tonight. In the film, inspired by 06 (1-900) from late Dutch director Theo van Gogh, Turturro plays Leroy and Borowitz Patti, two lonely hearts who meet via a phone sex line.

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A favorite of independent film markers such as Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever) and Tom DiCillio (Box of Moon Light), Turturro is perhaps most closely associated with the films of Joel and Ethan Coen, with whom he has made four features. After working with the Coens on Miller's Crossing (1990), Turturro had his international breakthrough playing the titular tortured Hollywood screenwriter Barton Fink in 1991, a role that won him the Best Actor's Prize in Cannes. Many other awards followed, including a Golden Globe nomination for his role as brainy Bronx trivia expert Herbie Stempel in Robert Redford's Quiz Show (1994) and an Emmy for his guest appearance as Tony Shalhoub's even more neurotic brother in the USA series Monk.

As a director, Turturro's credits include New York-based dramas Mac (1992) and in Romance & Cigarettes (2005); the theatrical farce Illuminata (1998) and, most recently, Passione (2010), a drama looking at the musical traditions of Naples, Italy and their influence on the world.

The 46h Karlovy Vary International Film Festival runs July 1-9.