‘Lady Bird’ Star Saoirse Ronan to Accept Santa Barbara Award

This year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival (January 31 to February 10) will present “Lady Bird” Golden Globe Comedy winner Saoirse Ronan with its Santa Barbara Award on Sunday, February 4, 2018 at the Arlington Theatre.

Ronan has been delivering strong performances ever since her Oscar-nominated breakout role in Joe Wright’s “Atonement.” Since then she has earned a best Actress nomination for “Brooklyn.” She also starred in Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Joe Wright’s “Hanna,” Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones,” and Peter Weir’s “The Way Back.”

Past recipients of the award include Isabelle Huppert, Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey, Daniel Day-Lewis, Geoffrey Rush, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Javier Bardem, Bill Condon, and Naomi Watts.

So far this awards season the festival has already presented Judi Dench with its Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film; the festival will also give Gary Oldman (“Darkest Hour”) its Maltin Modern Master Award and Willem Dafoe (“The Florida Project”) its Cinema Vanguard Award. This year’s Virtuosos Award recipients are Daniel Kaluuya (“Get Out”), Gal Gadot (“Wonder Woman”), Hong Chau (“Downsizing”), John Boyega (“Detroit”), Kumail Nanjiani (“The Big Sick”), Mary J. Blige (“Mudbound”), and Timothée Chalamet (“Call Me by Your Name”).

Over the past 30 years the SBIFF has become a must-attend for awards contenders on the road to the Oscars. Under director Roger Durling, the festival has attracted some 90,000 attendees over 11 days of over 200 films, tributes and symposia.