The FITS 2024 Gala brings together great personalities of the cultural world, in a celebration of Theater and Friendship.

FITS 2024 Stars: John Malkovich, Susanne Kennedy, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Theodoros Terzopoulos, Isabelle Adjani, David Esrig, Jon Fosse

Celebrity Gala takes place after the awarding of the stars and brings on stage the personalities awarded with a star on the Alley of Celebrities, being an event dedicated to the public recognition of the merits of the great artists distinguished in Sibiu and an occasion for the celebration of professional activity.

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John Malkovich (born 1963) has become a household name in the world of international film, as confirmed by the numerous awards that have honoured his career. He studied acting at the William Esper Studio, becoming a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 1976 (until 2020), alongside which he appeared in many productions. In 1984 he makes his feature-film debut in Robert Benton’s Places in the Heart, for which he receives an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 1985 he makes his debut on Broadway as Biff in Death of a Salesman, alongside Dustin Hoffman, and wins an Emmy Award for his portrayal. From this moment on, his career grows increasingly impressive as he starts collaborating with directors such as Steven Spielberg, Bernardo Bertolucci, Woody Allen, or Luc Besson. He has worked alongside other important names in the international film scene, such as Glenn Close, Uma Thurman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Daniel Day-Lewis, Alain Delon, or Johnny Depp. For his work he has received many awards and nominations at the most notable theatre and film festivals in the world.

 

 

Susanne Kennedy (born 1977) is among the most important European directors at present. She studied theatre in Germany and France, and in 2005 she earned her degree in directing in Amsterdam. Alongside visual artist Markus Selg, she creates spaces that bring together the atmosphere of video games and psychedelic hallucinations. Her performances are a radical invitation to address the challenges of the present, erasing the line between actors and machines. In her productions, actors wear masks and talk with pre-recorded voices, and in using hypnotic images she calls into question the unequivocal representation of reality. By pushing the limits of theatre and taking it to another level, while also going back to the archaic roots of the ritual, Susanne Kennedy gives a unique insight into the way we understand ourselves and the reasons we have been thrown into the world.

 

 

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (born 1960) studied dancing at Mudra School in Brussels and Tisch School of the Arts in New York and made her choreographic debut in 1980. Two years later, she premiered Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich. In 1983, De Keersmaeker established the dance company Rosas in Brussels, while working on Rosas danst Rosas. Since these breakthrough pieces, her choreography has been grounded in a rigorous and prolific exploration of the relationship between dance and music. Alongside Rosas she has created a wide-ranging body of work engaging the musical structures and scores of several periods, from early music to contemporary and popular idioms. Her choreographic practice also draws its formal principles from geometry, numerical patterns, the natural world, and social structures to offer a unique perspective on the body’s articulation in space and time. In 1995, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker established the school P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) in Brussels in association with De Munt/La Monnaie.

 

 

Theodoros Terzopoulos (born 1947) is a theatre director and chairman of the International Committee of Theatre Olympics. He was also the artistic director of the International Meetings on Ancient Drama in Delphi, director of the Drama School of the National Theatre of Northern Greece, founding member of the International Institute of Mediterranean Theatre and the National Theatre of Northern Greece. He studied at K. Michailidis’ Drama School in Athens and at the Berliner Ensemble under the guidance of Heiner Muller. In 1985 he founded Attis Theatre in Delphi, headquartered in Athens, where he developed his own acting method. In almost 40 years, he has presented 2,200 performances, based on ancient tragedies and other major contemporary plays, at the most important theatres and festivals in the world. He has received many awards and is an Emeritus professor at many famous academies and universities. His work has been discussed in forty published books.

 

 

Isabelle Adjani (born 1955) is without a doubt an artist that has established herself in the world of international film as one of the greatest actresses of all time. Acquainted with film sets from the age of 14, when she starred in Le Petit Bougnat in 1970, Isabelle Adjani’s impressive career has amassed appearances in over thirty film productions. She worked with La Comédie-Française for two years, from the age of 17. Her most iconic film roles include those in Regina Margot (1994, directed by Patrice Chéreau), Camille Claudei (1988, directed by Bruno Nuyten), and Possession (1981, directed by Andrzej Zulawski). She has won five César Awards for Best Actress, being the only artist to accomplish this feat. Moreover, Isabelle Adjani is the only actress to win two Cannes Awards in the same competition slate of the prestigious festival (for her roles in Possession and Quartet, in 1981). She has also received two Oscar nominations. In 2010, she was made Knight of the Legion of Honour.

 

 

David Esrig (born 1935) has established himself as one of the most important Romanian directors of the second half of the 20th century. He studied directing at the Institute of Theatre and Film Arts in Bucharest and obtained his doctorate in 1978. He was the director of the acting studio at the State Jewish Theatre in Bucharest between 1959 and 1961, and then he worked at the Comedy Theatre. After the establishment of the communist regime, he left Romania in 1973 after two of his productions had been banned. He initially moved to France, where he collaborated with Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris, and then relocated in Germany. In 1979 he worked at the University of Theatre in Munich, and in 1995 he founded Athanor Academy. Throughout his career, David Esrig has been granted the title of Emeritus professor at many famous academies and universities, and has received several awards and distinctions, such as the Commander of the Order of Cultural Merit, category D (2021) and the National Prize of Romanian Culture (2003).

 

 

Jon Fosse (born 1959) is one of the most prolific and acclaimed authors of our time. He started his career in 1983 when he made his debut with his first novel, and continued to publish many other novels, short stories, poetry, children’s books, and collections of essays. In 1993 he wrote his first play, And We'll Never Be Parted, and since then has published approximately thirty-six plays, of which the best-known are:  A Summer Day, Winter, and I Am the Wind. His dramatic works have achieved worldwide success since the second half of the 90s, which lead to the production of numerous performances throughout the world. His texts have been translated into over fifty languages, making Jon Fosse one of the most performed contemporary playwrights. Despite his growing interest in theatre, he has continued to author novels and poetry. His most notable novels are Trilogy and Septology, the first two of the latter series having also been published in Romanian with the title of Numele celuilalt. The many literary awards that he has received around the world have culminated in the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2023.