The Sunday morning edition of the Santa Barbara News-Press was covered with color photos of a happily smiling Forest Whitaker posing with his pretty wife and pressing the flesh on the red carpet at the final gala of the fest, where the tall, heavy-set, shaven-craned Afro-American "actor’s actor" with the drooping left eye was honored with the festival’s American Riviera award for his overall career trajectory, but especially in recognition of his "role of a lifetime" performance as African Dictator Idi Amin in Kevin Macdonald’s "Last Scottish King". This most challenging role, for which the 44 year old Texas born actor had to, among other things, learn Swahili (!), has earned him among numerous other honors, the inside track on the road to the big one – the Best Actor Oscar, which would obviously be the icing on an already bulging cake of awards.

Doing intense research on Amin’s background and the recent history of Uganda, going so far even as to interview many of the dictator’s surviving family members and friends (he apparently had some) Whitaker has elected to give a subtle, fully-fleshed-out portrait of this towering odd-ball African tyrant, rather than portraying him merely as a beefy brutal East-African Hitler, which would of course have been the easy road to take. The result is a subtly shaded portrayal of a most unsubtle man as far as surface behavior (such as mass murder) was concerned, which is almost as certain to earn for Forest that coveted best Actor statuette as Helen Mirren’s “Queen” is preordained to bring her the Best Actress Oscar later this very month.

The News-Press headline over Whitaker’s smiling countenance read “King for a night”, which coupled with the queenliness of Dame Mirren’s first special festival award a week ago, neatly bookends SBIFF’s 22nd -- probably best ever -- installment, with Hollywood royalty at either end and an aura of Oscar inevitability as aces in the hole. The festival will officially close tonight with a gala screening of the light musical comedy "Gray Matters", with debut director Susan Kramer and cast members on hand, which might be fun but can only feel like an anti-clmax after the full-on power of the night before.

All in all this unheralded festival has been a most pleasant surprise for this festival-jaded writer – and one I would definitely like to come back to, not just for the balmy weather and the astounding beauty of the city itself, but for the quality of the film related happenings, the direct pipeline to Hollywood without having to directly endure the smog and smugness of Los Angeles, and the generally benign atmosphere. Finally I would be remiss not to mention the magnificent facilities and the cordial staff of the Fess Parker Two Trees Resort Hotel which looks like it was transplanted bodily from Waikiki Beach in Honolulu and has the best Jacuzzi I’ve ever swirled around in. And now, just in case anybody’s interested, the Stuporbowl is on at the bar …

Alex Castillo Deleon, Santa Barbara,
Superbowl Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007.