In Contention

Tag: Santa Barbara Film Festival

  • Diss

    I’m sitting here at the Arlington Theatre awaiting the big Kate Winslet/Montecito Award presentation and they played, I believe, a bit from Thomas Newman’s “Revolutionary Road” score a moment ago, and it got my blood up once again.

    Not to harp on how wrong the Academy got it this year, but Thomas’s work deserved a notice. He should have been a double nominee. I’m the first to admit he can be terribly derivative of his own work, but his “Road” scored soared.

    Anyway, show’s about to begin. More later.

  • Santa Barbara heats up

    The Arlington Theatre in Santa BarbaraThe air smells cleaner.  The sound of waves crashing outside the hotel room is soothing.  The hippies are dancing in the streets.

    It’s nice to get away from the mess of this morning and the frustration of Oscar season in general for eight days.  But the awards circuit isn’t out of sight by any means.  Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Penelope Cruz, Mickey Rourke, Viola Davis, Melissa Leo, all of them set to be feted over the course of the week.  Panels will include Andrew Stanton, Dustin Lance Black and Eric Roth, among others, are set for panels, while festival guest director David Fincher will be the toast of the town throughout, leading to his big to-do on Friday, Jan. 30.

    And yet, it doesn’t feel as stifling as it might.  Sometimes a couple hours drive out of the heart of the beast does a body good.

    With that, one of the season’s casualties drops this evening, Rod Lurie’s “Nothing But the Truth,” which was all but buried when Yari Film Group went under last month.  As festival director Roger Durling has said, the film deserves to be seen and it’s a hell of a gesture on Durling’s part to give the pic some limelight.

    So with that, I’m throwing on the suit and heading out for the evening.  I’ll be here all week catching a number of films I’ve missed over the last couple of months and even a few I’d like to enjoy once more.

    What Oscar nominations?

  • Eastwood to receive yet another accolade, this time at Santa Barbara Fest

    Clint EastwoodThe press release, in part:

    Clint Eastwood has been selected to receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s highest honor, The Modern Master Award, it was announced by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. The Tribute will take place on Thursday, January 29, at the historic Arlington Theatre.

    The Modern Master Award is the highest honor presented by SBIFF. Established in 1995, it was created to honor an individual who has enriched our culture through his/her accomplishments in the motion picture industry. Past Modern Masters recipients include Michael Douglas, Peter Jackson, Jodie Foster, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sean Penn, Jeff Bridges, Diane Keaton, George Clooney, Will Smith, and Cate Blanchett.

    Comments SBIFF Director Roger Durling, “Clint Eastwood is inarguably one of our greatest directors, one of our greatest producers and one of our greatest actors ever – to call him a Modern Master is simply an understatement.”

    We in the press will finally be getting a look at “Gran Torino” in a little over a week, by the way. In fact, Monday screenings of Oscar hopefuls will push the “Off the Carpet” column to Tuesdays for the next two weeks. I’ll post a reminder of that on Monday.

    But with this news in mind, I find myself, more and more, seeing the Best Actor race as Sean Penn vs. Clint Eastwood. Penn’s performance has the power to be his second Oscar, in my view, and Eastwood’s role is going to rip a few hearts to shreds. Mickey Rourke is phenomenal in “The Wrestler,” but I’m beginning to sense that his award will be the nomination. A pat on the back and a “welcome home.”