With a resume of some of the funniest movie and television characters of the last 15 years, Steve Carell’s appearance at the Arlington Theatre last night was a treat for the fans.
The evening had sold out long before the Santa Barbara International Film Festival started.
Tomorrow will be the last day of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and the closing night film is set to inspire and warm hearts in a story set in the San Joaquin Valley. Kevin Costner and director Niki Caro will be in attendance.
“McFarland, USA” tells the true story of coach Jim White (Kevin Costner), who accepts a job at a high school in McFarland, a tiny farming community, mostly Latino, and not only creates their first cross-country running team, but then takes them to Nationals.
Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette have amassed such a body of work individually that either actor could have been the subject of Thursday night’s American Riviera Award at the Arlington Theatre, the penultimate tribute of this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
But after last year’s stunning “Boyhood,” in which they play parents to the lead character Mason (Ellar Coltrane), it only made sense to honor both at the same time.
Tomorrow will be the last day of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and the closing night film is set to inspire and warm hearts in a story set in the San Joaquin Valley. Kevin Costner and director Niki Caro will be in attendance.
“McFarland, USA” tells the true story of coach Jim White (Kevin Costner), who accepts a job at a high school in McFarland, a tiny farming community, mostly Latino, and not only creates their first cross-country running team, but then takes them to Nationals.
The film is both an uplifting sports film designed to bring maximum feelgoodness to a wide audience (it opens nationwide Feb. 20) and a chance to explore the economic underclass of California, where kids work in the fields alongside their parents and then go to high school later in the day. Theirs is a poor future that will either lead to work or prison (the high school rooms look across at the latter).
Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette have amassed such a body of work individually that either actor could have been the subject of Thursday night’s American Riviera Award at the Arlington Theatre, the penultimate tribute of this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
But after last year’s stunning “Boyhood,” in which they play parents to the lead character Mason (Ellar Coltrane), it only made sense to honor both at the same time.
Moderated by Roger Durling, executive director of the film festival, the evening was a sit-down interview with the two, while viewing clips from particular years of both their careers – a parallel progress report.
For years, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival has honored actors, directors, writers and producers, the big names that film buffs know and follow.
But so many more jobs happen behind the scenes of a movie, essential ones that only really get talked about come Oscar season.
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival brought in the big names Saturday at the Lobero Theatre for its well-attended Screenwriters Panel, “It Starts with a Script.” And for the seven screenwriters in attendance, their scripts ended with award-winning films and Oscar nominations.
Moderated by Anne Thompson of Indiewire, the panel consisted of Graham Moore (“The Imitation Game”), Anthony McCarten (“The Theory of Everything”), Jason Hall (“American Sniper”), Dan Gilroy (“Nightcrawler”), Max Frye (“Foxcatcher”), Alex Dinelaris (“Birdman”) and Damien Chazelle (“Whiplash”).
Santa Barbara film lovers packed the Lobero Theatre Saturday for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Producers Panel. Although one of the speakers joked about having to explain to Mom what a producer actually does, the audience seemed to know, as attendees sat rapt listening to the often-entertaining stories of the struggle of movie-making. Despite large budgets and years of industry experience, things sometimes go wrong, and sometimes ingenuity is the best weapon.
Los Angeles Times film writer Glenn Whipp sat down with six producers of this year’s Best Picture Oscar nominees: Cathleen Sutherland (“Boyhood”), Teddy Schwarzman (“The Imitation Game”), Robert Lorenz (“American Sniper”), John Lesher (“Birdman”), Jeremy Dawson (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”) and Lisa Bruce (“The Theory of Everything”). Jon Kilik of “Foxcatcher,” also on the panel, didn’t get a Best Picture nomination this year but took his “snub” with great humor. (He was nominated in 2007 for a Best Picture Oscar for “Babel,” so he’s in the club.)
Seven of 2014’s most memorable actors received honors on Sunday night at the Arlington in a modestly attended but exuberant evening for the SBIFF. The Virtuosos Award at the Fest traditionally gathers together a group of breakout actors, rising stars, and veteran actors just now getting their due for a night of short interviews moderated by Dave Karger of Fandango. In previous years, SBIFF has had a problem at locking down some guests, with one year featuring four of the seven actors advertised. But to the Fest’s credit this year, all seven were on hand to talk about their exciting year.
The group was made up of Chadwick Boseman, who inhabited the role of soul music legend James Brown to an uncanny degree in “Get On Up”; Ellar Coltrane, the boy of “Boyhood” who audiences watched grow up on film over the course of its 12-year shoot; Logan Lerman, the child actor who grew up to hold his own against Brad Pitt on screen in “Fury”; David Oyelowo, the British actor who brought Martin Luther King Jr. to life in “Selma”; Rosamund Pike, another British actor who gave us the very American, very Machiavellian wife in “Gone Girl”; J.K. Simmons, the veteran actor who tossed aside many years of lovable fatherly supporting characters to bring viewers the intense and sadistic jazz teacher in “Whiplash”; and former SNL member Jenny Slate, who plays the comic and complex lead role in “The Obvious Child.”
For many movie fans, Michael Keaton’s Oscar-nominated role in “Birdman” was so good people wondered where the star had been for so many years.
But as Leonard Maltin, moderator for SBIFF’s Modern Master Award, pointed out on Saturday night at the Arlington Theatre, “He’s never gone away. But it’s been a little while since we’ve seen a performance that’s been able to showcase his talent as fully and richly as ‘Birdman’ does.”