Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, A Real Pain, When You Finish Saving the World) will in the coming days receive Polish citizenship and hopes to spend more time making movies in Central Europe because the kind of films he likes to create are more and more difficult to make in Hollywood, he said on Saturday.

The actor, writer and director shared the news as he received a standing ovation and massive collective hug, figuratively speaking, at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) in the Czech Republic on Saturday. The actor, writer and director was honored with the fest’s President’s Award before a screening of The Double, directed by Richard Ayoade, in which Eisenberg plays the lead role. 

Holding the award statuette in the Grand Hall of the Hotel Thermal, the “headquarters” of the Czech festival, Eisenberg said: ”Being here has particular meaning for me right now, because in exactly one week I am receiving my Polish citizenship. I pursued Polish citizenship because of my family’s heritage, but also because I want to spend more time in my life and my career working in Europe, specifically Central Europe.”

Eisenberg continued: “In America, many of the kind of films that I love so much – human scale, strange mid-budget films – have become increasingly difficult to make, but in Europe, those movies are thriving and celebrated.”

He called it “wonderfully strange” to introduce The Double, “a film we made over a decade ago that owes so much to Central European cinema.”

The star is one of many big names in the spotlight during the double anniversary 60th edition in the 80th year of the Czech fest, which runs July 3-11.

During Friday’s opening night ceremony of KVIFF 2026, Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate, Kramer vs. Kramer, Rain Man) was honored with the fest’s Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contributions to World Cinema, while Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Bride!, The Lost Daughter, Secretary, The Honourable Woman) received its President’s Award. Harvey Keitel (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Reservoir Dogs) was also among the famous names walking the expanded red carpet of the festival in the Czech spa town.

Eisenberg’s upcoming film as a writer and director, The Debut, stars Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti. Eisenberg also co-stars in and wrote the music and lyrics for the film’s musical-within-the-movie. The film will be released in the fall by A24.

When KVIFF unveiled a month ago that Eisenberg would be honored this year, it called him “one of the most multifaceted figures in contemporary cinema.” It highlighted: “His first role was in the 2002 film Roger Dodger, which earned him an award for most promising young actor at the San Diego film festival. His performance in Noah Baumbach’s family drama The Squid and the Whale (2005) earned him nominations for the Independent Spirit Award and the Critics’ Choice Award. The apocalyptic horror comedy Zombieland (2009) was a box office hit. … In 2010, Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, which earned him his first nominations for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA Award.”

Karlovy Vary also noted his work as a filmmaker. “Eisenberg made his screenwriting and directing debut with the feature film When You Finish Saving the World, starring Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard as a mother and son trying to navigate their relationship,” it highlighted. “The film had its premiere at the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals. Eisenberg subsequently aroused great attention with his second film, A Real Pain (2024), in which he and Kieran Culkin play cousins in search of their heritage. Eisenberg was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for best screenplay, and his screenplay won a BAFTA Award, the Waldo Salt Award at the Sundance Film Festival, an Independent Spirit Award, and numerous other prizes. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe for best actor, and Kieran Culkin’s performance garnered an Oscar for best supporting actor.”

If you think that your partner, your co-worker or your neighbor can at times be enigmatic, you haven’t met Jonás yet. After many years away, he returns to the countryside to start work as a stonemason in Against Nature, the feature directorial debut of Mexican filmmaker Axel Bertha that will world premiere in the Proxima competition program of the 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) on Thursday, July 9.

The silent protagonist is as mysterious as the movie that wanders along the cinematic edge between the physical and the spiritual worlds. After all, the KVIFF website tells us, “he opens himself up to something intangible – a force that permeates the landscape, bodies, and time itself.” The man’s enigmatic nature “stems from the dark side of humanity and from his contact with the sacred,” it adds.

Without traditional storytelling but a focus on sound design and a hypnotic visual style, Against Nature promises “an absorbing cinematic experience that explores human cruelty as part of a cycle of destruction from which humanity has yet to find a way out,” as the KVIFF website notes.

Press notes for the film hint at a looming catastrophe. Jonás eventually finds himself “enacting a drama that seems born out of nature itself, hurtling toward a stark unraveling from which humanity, since its origins, has not been able to escape.”

Against Nature, written, directed and produced by Bertha, comes from Mexico-based production companies Domme and Cárcava Cine and U.S.-based Love Song. Fernanda de la Peza of Cárcava is the other producer. The movie was co-produced by The Lift and Carlos Reygadas. Edited by Óscar Enríquez with cinematography by Flavia Martínez and Edson Reyes, Against Nature features music by Ela Minus and Ariel Guzik, with sound by Andrés Silva.

‘The film draws from a police report of a murder that I found in a local newspaper in Mexico,” Bertha explains. “If we observe our recorded history, expansion, dominion of resources and violence are constant forces in the human story. Is human progress taking us away from nature and the world or bringing us closer to it?”

Jonás “navigates a world he feels he does not have access to, haunted by a past that keeps coming back, and an incapacity to communicate his feelings,” the filmmaker adds. “We shot on 35 millimeter on a very limited amount of film, in the surroundings and locations in the area where the real incident happened, under difficult weather conditions and with a cast of local non-actors.”

The writer-director even lived in the location for six months prior to the start of filming, “immersing myself in the landscapes and the rhythms of daily life there,” he shares. With “our markers to understand the world” at risk, “I wanted to make a film that questions and helps us regain our relationship with reality, with each other, and bring us closer to our hearts and dreams.”

THR can now exclusively premiere the trailer for Against Nature. It mentions hatred for the world, alienation, evil and “that black sphere.” After all, Against Nature is all about the unsettling atmosphere and the senses. Watch the haunting trailer below with care.