Actor Russell Crowe will receive the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Russell Crowe has appeared in films spanning a variety of genres, from the Musical Les Misérables (2012, dir. Tom Hooper) to the war drama The Water Diviner (2014), which he also directed, the psychological Fathers and Daughters (2015, dir. Gabriele Muccino), the comedy The Nice Guys ( 2016, dir Shane Black) the comic-book adaptation Man of Steel (2012, dir. Zack Snyder), the psycho thriller Unhinged (2020, dir. Derrick Borte).
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, but living in Australia since childhood, in 1989, Russell Crowe started working in Australian films, winning 2 Australian Academy Awards, supporting actor for Proof and Best Actor for Romper Stomper (1992, dir. Geoffrey Wright).
His first appearance in an American film was alongside Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, and Leonardo DiCaprio in Sam Raimi’s 1995 western The Quick and the Dead, and in 2001, Crowe won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the Roman general Maximus in Ridley Scott’s international hit, the historical drama Gladiator (2000). The following year, he earned his third Oscar nomination, won his first Golden Globe, and the Best Actor BAFTA award for his role as the mentally ill mathematical genius John Nash in Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind (2001).
He earned another Golden Globe for playing the lead role in The Loudest Voice (2019), a seven-part miniseries about the founder of Fox News, Roger Ailes. His directorial debut, The Water Diviner (2014) won the Australian Academy award for best film.
In 2022, he directed and starred in the thriller Poker Face. He can currently be seen worldwide in the horror thriller The Pope’s Exorcist (2023, dir. Julius Avery).
Russell Crowe has been performing music since the 1980s, when he recorded his first solo single “I Want To Be Like Marlon Brando.” From 1992, he appeared with the rock band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, with which he released three albums. In 2005, he began working with the Canadian musician Alan Doyle, recording their first single together, followed later by an album My Hand, My Heart in 2006, under the band name, The Ordinary Fear of God. In 2009 Crowe and Doyle started holding Indoor Garden Party concerts. In 2011, they released their third joint album, The Crowe / Doyle Songbook Vol III on iTunes, and in 2017 as Indoor Garden Party, they released the album The Musical which went to #1 briefly, on iTunes and Amazon, twice in the UK. The album is on Spotify.