The Santa Barbara International Film Festival continues its tradition of honoring the year’s standout performers by presenting The 2009 Virtuosos Award to Viola Davis, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Melissa Leo and Michael Shannon. The Award presentation will take place Wednesday, January 28 at the 24th edition of the Fest, which runs January 22-February 1, 2009, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling.The Virtuosos Award was created last year to re...

A "Precursor to "The Gotham Awards"Lisa Schwarzbaum, film critic for "Entertainment Weekly" led the panel of up and coming new talent. She began by asking, "Chop Shop" star, Alejandro Polanco, "How did you adjust to making a movie, how did you balance the movie and school?"A.P. ~ "I had to wake up in the morning very early, and we shot during a heat wave, I just did it, got through it, loved it, and now I want to be an actor."L.S. ~ (Addressed to Rosemarie DeWItt from Jonathan Demme's film, "Ra...