Saldaña will receive the award on Friday, February 7, 2025 at an in-person conversation about her career, leading up to her acclaimed performance this year as Rita Moro Castro in Netflix’s EMILIA PÉREZ. Zoe Saldaña's performance in EMILIA PÉREZ is one of her most transformative roles to date, and adds another unique facet to her already impressive career.

 

“Zoe Saldaña has a fantastic filmography worth celebrating any year, but her commanding and stouthearted performance in EMILIA PÉREZ makes our tribute to her imperative” remarked SBIFF’s Executive Director Roger Durling.

 

Zoe Saldaña has steadily earned a reputation as one of the most versatile and respected powerhouses in the industry with a remarkable career spanning more than 20 years as an actor and producer. As the only actor in history to have starred in four films that have grossed over 2 billion dollars and the top three highest grossing films of all time, AVATAR, AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER and Marvel Studios’ AVENGERS: ENDGAME, Saldaña’s passionate commitment to seeking compelling, indelible roles has remained constant.

Most recently, Saldaña lead and executive produced the independent film THE ABSENCE OF EDEN, directed by Marco Perego in his feature film debut, and currently stars in Taylor Sheridan’s undercover CIA drama series “Lioness” for Paramount+, which she also executive produces with her production company Cinestar Pictures. Saldaña can next be seen starring in the Spanish-language musical crime comedy from Jacques Audiard, EMILIA PÉREZ, which premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and took home the Jury Prize. Saldaña received the festival’s prestigious Best Actress Award alongside the female ensemble and Netflix will release the film in theaters this Fall.

 

From renegade auteur Jacques Audiard comes EMILIA PÉREZ, an audacious fever dream that defies genres and expectations. Through liberating song and dance and bold visuals, this odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self. Written and directed by Audiard (Rust and Bone, A Prophet), the double Cannes-winning film also stars Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Édgar Ramírez.

 

The American Riviera Award was established to recognize actors who have made a significant contribution to American Cinema. Previous recipients include Mark Ruffalo, Brendan Fraser, Kristen Stewart, Delroy Lindo, Renée Zellweger, Viggo Mortenson, Sam Rockwell, Jeff Bridges, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Robert Redford, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Annette Bening, Sandra Bullock, Mickey Rourke, Tommy Lee Jones, Forrest Whitaker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kevin Bacon and Diane Lane.

 

The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will

Bobby Cannavale, Dave Holstein, Meg LeFauve, Margaret Qualley and Kiernan Shipka to Receive Additional NBFF Honors

“The Last Showgirl” Added to Line-up; Cinematographer Panelists Announced

Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) proudly announces additional honorees Bobby Cannavale (“Ezra”) who will be honored with the Artist of Distinction Award and Margaret Qualley (“The Substance”) who will be honored with the Spotlight Award. Both Cannavale and Qualley will be honored at the Festival’s annual Awards brunch taking place on Sunday, October 20. They will be recognized alongside previously announced honorees Nicolas Cage (Icon Award), Joan Chen (Career Achievement Award), Colman Domingo (Maverick Award), Marianne-Jean Baptiste (Artist of Distinction), Sheryl Lee Ralph (Artist of Distinction), George MacKay (Spotlight Award), June Squibb (Lifetime Achievement Award) and Diane Warren (Lifetime Achievement in Music).

 

In addition, the Festival will be honoring actress Kiernan Shipka with the Artist of Distinction Award at the newly added screening of “The Last Showgirl.” Director Gia Coppola and writer Kate Gersten will be in attendance and participate in a Q&A with Skipka following the screening. The film follows a seasoned showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run. The film also stars Pamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, and Billie Lourd. The film will screen on Sunday, October 20 at the Lido Theater.

 

The Festival will also be hosting a special screening of “Inside Out 2” on Saturday, October 19 at 1pm. Following the screening the Festival will honor co- screen writers Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein with the Artist of Distinction Award – Screenwriting. Holstein will accept the award during a conversation about the film. Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new emotions. Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment show up.

 

Lastly, the Festival announced the panelists for their brand-new Masters of the Frame panel, highlighting the industry’s leading cinematographers. Confirmed cinematographers include Alice Brooks (“Wicked”) and Lawrence Sher (“Joker: Folie à Deux”). The panel will take place on Saturday, October 19 at 1pm.

 

Bobby Cannavale (Artist of Distinction)

Bobby Cannavale can currently be seen starring in Tony Goldwyn’s “Ezra” which follows divorced stand-up comedian Max Bernal (Cannavale) who embarks on a cross-country road trip with his neurodivergent son, Ezra, that has a transcendent impact on both of their lives. This year, he can also be seen in William Goldenberg’s “Unstoppable” for Amazon alongside Jharrel Jerome, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Peña, and Don Cheadle which premiered at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival. Cannavale will begin production next month on Amazon’s series Scarpetta starring and executive

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is honored to announce that cinema icon Angelina Jolie will receive the Maltin Modern Master Award at the 40th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Jolie will receive the prestigious award on February 5, 2025. Angelina Jolie's career as an actress has been marked by versatility and critical acclaim, with significant impact globally. Angelina Jolie's latest film, “Maria” marks a significant turn in her career, as she portrays the iconic opera singer Maria Callas. Critics have praised Jolie for her transformative performance, particularly her ability to embody Callas’ intensity and grace. Her performance evokes the emotional depth and fragility behind the operatic legend’s public persona. 

 ANGELINA JOLIE TO BE HONORED WITH MALTIN MODERN MASTER AWARD

AT 40TH ANNUAL SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

FEBRUARY 5, 2025

“Angelina Jolie makes bold choices, both as an actress and as a director. She sets the bar high in both disciplines and always comes through. I look forward to reviewing her career with her in Santa Barbara!” remarked Leonard Maltin.

 

Angelina Jolie is an Academy Award-winning actress, director, and producer, with film credits including Walt Disney Pictures’ Maleficent series, Salt, and Girl, Interrupted. Jolie directed, produced and co-wrote the critically acclaimed feature First They Killed My Father and the upcoming Without Blood; additionally, she directed the Oscar®-nominated drama Unbroken. She is a Tony Award-winning producer on the acclaimed new Broadway musical The Outsiders.

 

With over 20 years working as a humanitarian focusing on work with refugees and human rights, Jolie also champions local leadership in environmental conservation and has funded schools, health and education initiatives globally. Additionally, she is founder of the Maddox Foundation, an integrated development program headquartered in Cambodia, with a focus on conservation, agriculture, education and economic development projects in the area.

 

She is the founder of Atelier Jolie, a hub for artists, empowering people to participate in creating their own fashion, with a focus on sustainability. Jolie is also co-author of Know Your Rights and Claim Them, a guide for youth.

 

The Modern Master Award was established in 1995. Created to honor an individual who has enriched our culture through accomplishments in the motion picture industry, it was re-named the Maltin Modern Master Award in 2015 in honor of long-time SBIFF moderator and renowned film critic Leonard Maltin. Past recipients include Academy Award-winning actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, Robert Downey Jr., Denzel Washington, Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, and Christopher Plummer, and acclaimed filmmakers including Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood, and Peter Jackson.

 

The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place LIVE February 4 - February 15, 2025. Official events including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels, and celebrity tributes will be held at SBIFF’s Riviera Theatre and its new Film Center, plus the historic Arlington Theatre. Passes for the 2025 Festival are on sale now at Read more

 Cate Blanchett in San Sebastian

The Australian actress and producer Cate Blanchett received the first Donostia Award of the San Sebastian Festival's 72nd edition this evening at the gala in the Kursaal Centre, where she considered it an "honour" to receive the event's highest accolade and gave an impassioned defence of the "desire to know".

Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, for whom Blanchett has just worked on the miniseries Disclaimer, presented the statuette to the actress, whom he praised for her rigour and virtuosity, while actor George Clooney congratulated her in a video.

 "As an Australian working overseas, I have had the great privilege of crossing many borders and travelling the world. And it is an honour to receive this award in the Basque Country, in this wonderful and vibrant festival that also transcends cultural and cinematographic borders," she began her speech.

After thanking Cuarón for his presence, she described as "eclectic and strange" a career that has taken her to many places, although the common thread of her career has been "the desire to know" and to unravel what it means to be human. "A creative life like ours implies doubts and uncertainties. We need to be humble and say: 'I don't know and I'm here to learn", she proclaimed, resisting the desire to find quick answers.

In this sense, she quoted the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, who defended that not knowing has certain advantages and makes the mind a virgin and free territory. "And so everything I don't know begins to be part of me, and in this not knowing I begin to understand everything", she said, before concluding: "I have hope, the journey goes on. There are only small islands of certainty like this one, and I thank San Sebastian for it".

In his congratulatory video, Clooney praised Blanchett as part of a "unique legacy" of performers who elevate acting to an art form, citing Marlon Brando, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Jack Nicholson and the fellow Donostia Award recipients Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro. "I've been lucky enough to direct you and to act with you. And you always make everyone around you feel lucky that we get a chance to work with someone who is so gifted. And I'm proud to call you are a friend", he said.

"I'm excited for you to receive the Donostia Award at the San Sebastian Festival. I wish I was there. I can't be there because I'm in Venice right now and I'm drinking. And also, I'm wearing no pants. But if I was wearing pants and I wasn't drinking, I wasn't in Venice, I'd be there to raise a glass and toast you on this terrific award. Congratulations", he concluded with a touch of humour.

 

Commitment to excellence and risk

The ceremony was presented by the actress from San Sebastian, Marta Etura, who applauded Blanchett as someone who, in her work, "is committed to excellence and risk", and whose stamp is playing "characters who are complicated and send a message, strong and committed women". She has also made her mark as a theatre director and producer of projects connected to feminism, immigration and the Aboriginal people of her native Australia.

Blanchett, who features on the official poster of the Festival's 72nd edition, boasts more than 200 acknowledgements and awards, including two Oscars (with another six nominations), two Volpi Cups from the Venice Festival, four BAFTA awards and four Golden Globes, the Honorary César and the International Goya amassed over a career spanning more than three decades and combining independent movies with crowd pleasers. She h

Cate Blanchett, one of contemporary cinema’s leading actors, will receive a Donostia Award at the San Sebastian Festival’s 72nd edition as well as featuring on the official poster of. The image of the poster is the work of graphic designer José Luis Lanzagorta based on a photograph by Gustavo Papaleo.

Over a career spanning more than three decades, Blanchett has racked up more than 200 acknowledgements and accolades, including two Academy Awards (and another six nominations), two Volpi Cups at the Venice Festival, four Baftas and four Golden Globes, an honorary César and International Goya for lifetime achievement in a career combining cinéma d’auteur with crowd pleasers. The Australian actor and producer has worked with filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, Ridley Scott, Sally Potter, Wes Anderson, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Woody Allen, Gillian Armstrong, Taika Waititi, Peter Jackson, Todd Haynes, Richard Linklater, Jim Jarmusch, Guillermo del Toro, Adam McKay and Todd Field.  

While this will be Blanchett’s first visit to San Sebastian, the Festival has already screened a number of her films: Babel (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Perlak, 2007) and Veronica Guerin (Joel Schumacher, Official Selection, 2003), competing for the Golden Shell.

Cate Blanchett is the second Australian actor to receive the Festival’s highest honorary award after Hugh Jackman (2013).

 

After Hours: My bet is that if it signals anything that it's a tribute for Thelma Schoonmaker.  I'd be surprised but very excited if it were for Martin Scorsese...that's not impossible.  Or maybe it's the two of them together.  At any rate, should either or both be tributed I'd also count on a screening of David Hinton's Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger.  Scorsese is a producer of the doc (which did screen at Tribeca but TFF has presented docs from Tribeca in the past).  Schoonmaker is in the film as herself, the wife of Michael Powell, and she also is a producer.

The Manthan scene in Cannes - a classic restoration of film

By NESTA MORGAN

I spotted this Scorpion!

A Cannes Classic film and song!

A 1st ever crowd funded film “Manthan” - churning through the care of a classic 500 farmer model of Co-operatives, the story of Amul and India’s White Revolution.

The Ocean of Milk imagined by Dr Verghese Kurien, the white revolution with nature yellow colour of milk which comes from a beta-carotene source of pigment found in grass which cows feed on.

Naseeruddin Shah and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, are here at Cannes film festival, discussing the restoration of film, and with Shah having experienced living in the village over a month, in a hut, method acting. The first impression was a character who donated all things and a 35mm print, so he thought to hell with acting! With no sound and flicker problems on the green lines, the turning point was when Martin Scorsese wanted to restore the colour, travel and the journey all the way.

He introduced films that should be made, displaying their wares, arrogance, compassion, and sense of humour, with a bit of masculinity. Imagine at 89 years going on Set, a freebie with an Icon in Close-Up, singing like in the Italian, French and Swedish movies.

 

New film stars Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, The Grand Budapest Hotel) Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding, Scream VI), Richard Brake, (Kingsman, Hannibal Rising, Barbarian), Jacob Keohane (Halloween Kills, Condor’s Nest), and Jackson Rathbone (Twilight, The Island)

 

Film Mode Entertainment and Lost Galleon Films are thrilled to announce the new crime-thriller, Laws of Man, and its Cannes World Market Premiere and screening. The newly completed crime/thriller, Laws of Man (fka Without Consequence) stars Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, The Grand Budapest Hotel) Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding, Scream VI), Richard Brake, (Kingsman, Hannibal Rising, Barbarian), Jacob Keohane (Halloween Kills, Condor’s Nest), and Jackson Rathbone (Twilight, The Island). Graham Greene (Wind River, Last of the Mohicans), Keith Carradine (The Power of the Dog, The Duellist), Kelly Lynn Reiter (Deadlock, Maneater), and James Urbaniak (Oppenheimer, The Fabelmans) round out the cast. Laws of Man is written and directed by Phil Blattenberger (Condor’s Nest, Point Man). Producers are Phil Blattenberger, Dan Black, and Jacob Keohane.

 

The film will have its world debut market screening on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 9am local time at Palais B. Film Mode Entertainment has acquired global sales rights for Laws of Man and is presenting the film to buyers in Cannes for the first time.

 

“We’re excited to present this excellently crafted crime/thriller to our distributors. Laws of Man also has some of the most extraordinary shootout scenes in recent history and that’s not easy to accomplish. Film Mode is thrilled that Phil Blattenberger and Brandon Baker have entrusted us with this exciting new film.” Said Epstein.

 

“Laws of Man encapsulates everything we love about thrillers,” says Blattenberger. “Good guys, bad guys, gunfights, burgeoning love. There’s also an intelligence to it, a lot of layers; our hero wrestles with ghosts from World War Two, Harvey Keitel plays a mysterious hippie preacher, Keith Carradine drives a subversive political arc. The story is imbued with pain and vulnerability and love and redemption… and big explosions. It’s a wild ride.”

 

In Laws of Man, two U.S. marshals undertake a dangerous mission to arrest Benjamin Bonney, a notorious outlaw wanted for murder. But when an ambush in the desert throws them into chaos, they discover that Bonney's influence and power make his capture impossible. As the marshals navigate assassination attempts and looming catastrophe, they stumble onto a sinister plot that threatens the very foundations of peace and justice.

 

Film Mode Entertainment has been dedicated to bridging the gap between filmmakers and audiences since its inception. It has been at the forefront of this movement, providing a platform for filmmakers to showcase their work and reach a wider audience. Film Mode Entertainment raises the genre-bar for feature films by nurturing high-quality, engaging commercially viable movies like LAWS OF MAN and bringing them to the global marketplace with great success.  

 

&n

 ROGER CORMAN 1926-2024

Film pioneer and legend Roger Corman died on Saturday.  Among other things, Corman was a Telluride tribute recipient in 2012.  That afforded me the opportunity to meet him and express my appreciation for what he had done for the universe of film.  It was a brief exchange and he graciously accepted my gratitude.  

I'm sure most of the readers of this space are abundantly aware of Corman's legacy in film.  The film Stage listed the following as film folk to whom Corman "helped to launch:

LAST WORD ON CANNES BEFORE IT LAUNCHES