Actor Gary Oldman to Be Honored at Santa Barbara Film Festival

Gary Oldman is set to receive the Maltin Modern Master Award at the 33rd annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the festival announced today. Oldman will be honored for his longstanding contributions to the film industry culminating with Focus Features' Darkest Hour. Leonard Maltin, for who the award was recently renamed after, will return for his 27th year to moderate the evening. The award will be presented on Friday, February 2, 2018 at Santa Barbara's historic Arlington Theatre.

"Gary Oldman has dazzled audiences for decades with an array of brilliant performances," stated Leonard Maltin. "With Darkest Hour, he has once again proven that he is a force to be reckoned with, and a true master of his craft.

Darkest Hour takes place during the early days of World War II, as the fate of Western Europe hangs on the newly-appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Oldman), who must decide whether to negotiate with Hitler, or fight on against incredible odds. Directed by Joe Wright from a screenplay by Anthony McCarten, the film also stars Ben Mendelsohn, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James, and Stephen Dillane. Darkest Hour is in theaters November 22, 2017.

The Modern Master Award was established in 1995 and is the highest accolade presented by SBIFF. 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 Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, Bruce Dern, Ben Affleck, Christopher Plummer, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood, Cate Blanchett, Will Smith, George Clooney and Peter Jackson.

The 33rd annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place from Wednesday, January 31st through Saturday, February 10th.

For more information, and to purchase tickets, festival passes and packages, please visit www.sbiff.org.

About the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts and educational organization dedicated to discovering and showcasing the best in independent and international cinema. Over the past 30 years, SBIFF has become one of the leading film festivals in the United States - attracting 90,000 attendees and offering 11 days of 200+ films, tributes and symposiums, fulfilling their mission to engage, enrich, and inspire the Santa Barbara community through film.

SBIFF continues its commitment to education and the community through free programs like its 10-10-10 Student Filmmaking and Screenwriting Competitions, Mike's Field Trip to the Movies, National Film Studies Program, AppleBox Family Films, 3rd Weekend and educational seminars. In June of 2016, SBIFF entered a new era with the acquisition of the historic and beloved Riviera Theatre. The theatre is SBIFF's new home and is the catalyst for program expansion and marks the first time that Santa Barbara has had a 24/7 community center to expand their mission of educational outreach.

About Gary Oldman
An acclaimed presence in motion pictures for 30 years, Gary Oldman is regarded as one of the foremost actors of his generation.

He is known to millions the world over for his iconic characterizations of Sirius Black (Harry Potter's godfather), Commissioner Jim Gordon (Batman/Bruce Wayne's crime-fighting partner), Dracula, Beethoven, Pontius Pilate, Lee Harvey Oswald, Joe Orton, Sid Vicious, and George Smiley. The latter portrayal, in Tomas Alfredson's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, brought him accolades worldwide including BAFTA Award, British Independent Film Award, European Film Award, and Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.

In 2011, he was honored with the EMPIRE Awards' Icon Award for Achievement and with a Career Tribute at the Gotham Independent Film Awards. At the 2014 London Critics' Circle Film Awards, he was honored with the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film.

The UK native has starred in 13 movies that have opened in the #1 position at the box office. As part of the two most successful franchises in movie history, was in HARRY Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, HARRY Potter and the Goblet of Fire, HARRY Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and HARRY Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell, and David Yates, respectively; and Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises.

Mr. Oldman's acting career began in 1979, and for several years he worked exclusively in the theatre; from 1985 through 1989, he alternated film work with stage work at London's Royal Court Theatre. Among his early telefilms were Mike Leigh's Meantime and the late Alan Clarke's The Firm.

His features include Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy; Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears; Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead; Phil Joanou's State of Grace; Oliver Stone's JFK; Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula; Tony Scott's True Romance; Bernard Rose's Immortal Beloved; Luc Besson's The Professional (a.k.a. Leon) and The Fifth Element; Wolfgang Petersen's Air Force One; Ridley Scott's Hannibal; Albert and Allen Hughes' The Book of Eli; Daniel Espinosa's Child 44; and Matt Reeves' Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

With Douglas Urbanski, Mr. Oldman produced the feature Nil by Mouth. The film marked his screenwriting and directing debut, and was selected to world premiere as the opening-night film of the 1997 [50th Anniversary of the] Cannes International Film Festival, at which the film's leading lady Kathy Burke won the Best Actress award. Subsequent honors for Nil by Mouth included the prestigious Channel Four Director's Prize, at the Edinburgh International Film Festival; six British Independent Film Award (BIFA) nominations, and three wins including for Ms. Burke and her fellow actors Ray Winstone and Laila Morse; the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay as well as BAFTA's Alexander Korda Award for the Outstanding British Film of the Year, the latter shared by Mr. Oldman and Mr. Urbanski.

The team's subsequent productions have included Rod Lurie's The Contender, starring Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges. The film received two Academy Award, two Golden Globe Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, including one for Best Supporting Actor (Mr. Oldman); and the ensemble and the writer/director were honored with the Broadcast Film Critics Association's Alan J. Pakula Award.

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