Kate Winslet to receive Santa Barbara Film Festival Montecito Award
In other Kate Winslet news…
The 2009 Santa Barbara Film Festival has announced that Kate Winslet will be handed its Montecito Award, honoring “a performer who has given a series of classic and standout performances in his/her career.”
The Winslet tribute will be held on Friday, Jan. 23, at Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre.
Why (not) Kate Winslet?
Now, for how long has Kate Winslet been around?
However prestigious, her film career has yet to reach the two-decade mark. In fact, it has yet to reach the 15-year mark.
But see, Winslet is one of the frontrunners for the 2009 Academy Awards for both The Reader and Revolutionary Road.
When it comes to awards season festival honors in Southern California, that’s (nearly) all that matters.
And really, if local film festivals are going to be honoring someone who hasn’t enjoyed a truly lengthy career, why not five-time Oscar nominee Kate Winslet?
In the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan writes:
It is Kate Winslet’s face and Kate Winslet’s face alone that looks out from the cover of the new ‘now a major motion picture’ paperback edition of Bernhard Schlink’s exceptional novel, The Reader, and that’s as it should be.
For though The Reader costars the gifted Ralph Fiennes and gives a lot of screen time to a young actor named David Kross, it is Winslet’s haunting performance that gives the film what success it has.
Penélope Cruz & Kristin Scott Thomas + Clint Eastwood: Santa Barbara Film Festival
Awards and honorees at the 2009 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, to be held in the Southern California coastal town between Jan. 22–Feb. 1, include the Modern Master Award for Clint Eastwood (on Thursday, Jan. 29, at the historic Arlington Theatre); the American Riviera Award for Mickey Rourke (on Friday, Jan. 30); the Cinema Vanguard Award for Kristin Scott Thomas (on Tuesday, Jan. 27, at the Lobero Theater); and the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award for Penélope Cruz (on Saturday, Jan. 31, at the Arlington Theatre). This year’s Kirk Douglas Award, handed out a few weeks ago, went to Ed Harris.
Past Modern Master Award winners include Michael Douglas, Peter Jackson, Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges, Diane Keaton, George Clooney, Will Smith, and Cate Blanchett.
Tickets are on sale at the Lobero Theater box office – (805) 963-0761 – and the Arlington Theater box office – (805) 963-4408 – at a 20 percent discount until Dec. 20.
The Downfall of Berlin: Anonyma / A Woman in Berlin with Nina Hoss. Directed by Max Färberböck, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Catharina Schuchmann, The Downfall of Berlin: Anonyma is based on a(n anonymous) journalist’s diary first published in Switzerland in 1959, and in which the author discussed the mass rapes of German women perpetrated by Soviet forces. Färberböck is no stranger to the plight of women during World War II, as can be attested by his 1999 lesbian romantic drama Aimee & Jaguar, toplining Maria Schrader and Juliane Köhler.
At the Santa Barbara Film Festival, the Best International Film Award went to Max Färberböck’s The Downfall of Berlin: Anonyma / A Woman in Berlin / Anonyma – Eine Frau in Berlin, the tale of a nameless woman (Nina Hoss) attempting to survive in Berlin in the aftermath of the Soviet occupation of that city.
Santa Barbara Film Festival Awards 2009
Best International Film Award: The Downfall of Berlin: Anonyma / A Woman in Berlin
Best Spanish-Language Film: Amar a morir – Dir.: Fernando Lebrija
Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema: Poppy Shakespeare – Dir.: Benjamin Ross
Best Eastern Bloc Cinema Award: Tulpan – Dir.: Sergei Dvortsevoy
Best Documentary Award: Yes Madam, Sir – Dir.: Megan Doneman
Best Live Action Short Film Under 30 Minutes: Love You More – Dir.: Sam Taylor-Wood
Best Animation Short Film: This Way Up – Dir.: Adam Foulkes & Alan Smith
The Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice Award: Yes Madam, Sir
Audience Award: Skin – Dir.: Anthony Fabian
“Santa Barbara Film Festival 2009” notes
Santa Barbara Film Festival website
Kate Winslet headshot via the Santa Barbara Film Festival.
Nina Hoss The Downfall of Berlin: Anonyma image: Constantin Film.