CA- Academy Award® and three-time Golden Globe winner Angelina Jolie will be honored on Saturday, February 2, 2008 at the 23rd annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival with the Outstanding Performance of the Year Award for her critically acclaimed performance in “A Mighty Heart”, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. Past recipients include Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger and Helen Mirren for her performance in “The Queen.” Based on the bestselling book b...
Academy Award winning actress Cate Blanchett has been selected to receive the 2008 Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Modern Master Award on Saturday, January 26, 2008, it was announced by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. Blanchett is one of the most gifted performers working today. She possesses an innate intelligence and ability to adapt completely to her characters, making her one of Hollywood’s most respected and revered talents. She developed her talent at a young age,...
Academy Award winning actress Cate Blanchett has been selected to receive the 2008 Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Modern Master Award on Saturday, January 26, 2008, it was announced by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling.Blanchett is one of the most gifted performers working today. She possesses an innate intelligence and ability to adapt completely to her characters, making her one of Hollywood’s most respected and revered talents. She developed her talent at a young age, w...
Off the street customers shelled out sixty bucks a shot ($60 USD) last night to pack the mighty Arlington Theater from wall to wall and stem to stern, for a privileged view and hearing with former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Al Gore, in town with director Davis Guggenheim to present their landmark Global Warning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth". Festival director Roger Durling, barely able to contain his excitement at pulling this off -- (i.e., getting Gore to swing up to...
Film festivals come in various shapes, sizes, formats and orientations. The currently ongoing 22nd installment of the Santa Barbara Film Festival is a bit off-beat in certain aspects. Lasting eleven days and presenting some 200 films it is certainly not small -- more like "medium to large."
In terms of importance, however, while it is not considered to be quite in the same class as the North-American majors, Sundance, Telluride, Chicago, New York, Toronto and Montreal, it can nevertheless ce...
Debuting its slate of local and international films, and welcoming filmmakers and stars to town, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival opened over the weekend to enthusiastic audiences.
Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, and director George Hickenlooper were lauded by a packed house at the Arlington Theatre on Thursday as “Factory Girl,” a film about 1960s “It Girl” Edie Sedgwick, who was born and tragically died in Santa Barbara. Also in attendance were Edie’s brother Jonathan Sedgwi...
The 2007 Santa Barbara International Film Festival announces their slate of films for the 22nd installment. The festival, which welcomes Chrysler and The New Yorker as Premiere Sponsors, takes place over 11 days beginning Thursday, January 25, through Sunday, February 4, and will feature 22 World Premieres, 18 US Premieres, and introduce films from 40 countries. “This is the most ambitious and most diverse line up of events and films the Festival has ever had,” commented SBIFF Director Ro...
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival, January 25 – February 4, will open their 22nd edition with the highly-anticipated film “Factory Girl” starring Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Hayden Christensen and directed by George Hickenlooper, it was announced today by SBIFF director Roger Durling. Opening night will take place at the Arlington Theatre and is sponsored by CafeFx and Studio 7.“Factory Girl” imaginatively unfolds the comet-like rise and fall of 60s “It Girl” Edie Sedg...
Dame Helen Mirren will be honored with a tribute and receive the award for Outstanding Performance of the Year for her role in “The Queen” at the upcoming 22nd annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.Dame Helen Mirren will be honored on Friday, January 26th in recognition of her portrayal of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in this year’s acclaimed film “The Queen,” directed by Stephen Frears. “The Queen” is an intimate behind-the-scenes glimpse at the interaction between H...
SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL SET TO RUN JANUARY 25-FEBURARY 4Will Smith, multifaceted actor, producer and writer, will be this year’s recipient of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Modern Master Award, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling.Smith has the distinction of being a cross-generational draw as well as being able to break through various genres of films. Having first endeared himself as a fresh new artist in TV’s “Fresh Princ...
Opening November 1 and continuing through November 12, The Boston Jewish Film Festival is the arbiter of film trends, especially for viewers in their 20s and 30s. The 18th annual Festival presents the most innovative film programs from around the world on Jewish themes. Films are accentuated by panel discussions; visits by directors, actors, and subjects; and musical events.The Festival is New England’s largest Jewish cultural event, with last year’s record-setting attendance of over 13,60...
Dave Barry Turns Movie Star at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has always been a bit adventurous with its selection of films. Along with the requisite slate of solid international and American independent features, the festival does a great job supporting local films and filmmakers. This year, midway through the 20th edition, more than two thousand people packed the Arlington Theatre for the Centerpiece screening and World Premiere of ...
Kate Winslet’s Eternal Star Shines on Santa BarbaraOn Tuesday night, the 20th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival presented Academy Award nominee Kate Winslet with the Sapphire Inspired Award for Outstanding Performance of the Year.Winslet was chosen based on her exceptional performances in 2004 as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies in “Finding Neverland” and Clementine Kruczynski, the uninhibited girlfriend of Jim Carrey in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” for which she recei...
LEO!!! LEO!!! LEONARDO!!!Gorgeous adolescents screaming, spilling into the street behind the crush.Five rows of Paparazzi outside and inside.Director Martin Scorsese, DiCaprio’s hero-idol-favorite leader, waiting in the wings to present the festival’s highest award to the Oscar nominee for Scorsese's "The Aviator." Roger Durling at the helm of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival has done it again. Just one year later and the SBIFF delivered another homerun festival opening weeken...
Oscar – and Latin Flair - is in the air at Santa Barbara This year’s Santa Barbara Film Festival feels like an Academy Awards kick-off party thanks to appearances by directors, producers and screenwriters associated with Oscar hopefuls from Lord of the Rings to Monster. SBIFF unspooled Friday night with a screening of Argentina’s official Academy Award foreign language submission Valentin. Alejandro Agresti’s comedy, about a little boy who yearns for a mother, did not make it to the Osc...
PETER JACKSON TO RECEIVE MODERN MASTER AWARD AT 19th SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALThe Santa Barbara International Film Festival will present this year's Modern Master Award to the director/producer/writer of the "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy, Peter Jackson, it was announced today by Festival Director, Roger Durling. Says Durling, "When I first came on board, I was asked who would be my choice for Modern Master. I could think of only one name that perfectly exemplified a Modern Master ...
The film line-up was announced today by Artistic Director Roger Durling for the 19th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which takes place January 30 - February 8, 2004. The 10-day festival will feature 3 World Premieres, 5 U.S. Premieres, a North American Premiere, a World Cinema section and a Latin Film Section as well as Sidebars featuring Women in Cinema, Musicals and Cult Classics.Previously announced, the SBIFF will present the Modern Master Award to Peter Jackson. The prog...
