Academy Award® and BAFTA nominee Paul Giamatti will receive the Cinema Vanguard Award at the 39th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Giamatti will be honored on February 14, 2024 for his moving portrayal of curmudgeonly prep school teacher Paul Hunham in Focus Features’ THE HOLDOVERS. Earlier this month, Giamatti was awarded both a Golden Globe & Critics Choice Award for his outstanding performance.
“This is a long overdue tribute for an actor’s actor who deserves all the accolades. His work has been exemplary and his collaborations with Alexander Payne are nothing short of perfection. I can’t think of anyone more worthy of this recognition for a performance in a film that so effortlessly navigates the intricate tapestry of human relationships” SBIFF’s Executive Director Roger Durling noted.
Paul Giamatti is one of the most versatile actors of his generation, and his body of work comes to life with a diverse roster of finely etched, award-winning, and critically acclaimed performances across film and television. Giamatti currently stars in Focus Features’ heartwarming period drama, The Holdovers. He has received several accolades for his moving performance, including the Golden Globe® Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, the Critics Choice Award and the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor, The Palm Springs International Film Festival “Icon Award”, and was recently nominated for the SAG, BAFTA and Academy Award ® for Best Actor.
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Written and directed by Mikko Mäkelä (A Moment in the Reeds), the queer drama had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2024 on January 21, 2023 at 6:30PM at The Library Center Theater, Park City, under the World Cinema Dramatic Competition on Sunday. 
DIG! XX is the 20th anniversary expanded, remastered and reimagined edition of the rock doc DIG!, which looks at the collision of art and commerce through the eyes of two dueling rock bands — The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre — now over 27 years on, which adds new narration by The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Joel Gion and features 40+ minutes of never-before-seen footage.
Today the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the filmmakers selected to receive the 2024 Merata Mita Fellowship and the inaugural Graton Fellowship for Artists from California-Based Tribes. The Merata Mita Fellowship is an annual fellowship named in honor of the late Māori filmmaker Merata Mita (1942–2010) to support Indigenous women-identified artists endeavoring to direct their first feature film. This year’s Merata Mita Fellowship will go to Libby Hakaraia (Ngati Kapu, Ngati Raukawa au ki te tonga). The recently announced Graton Fellowship, created to support Indigenous artists from California-based tribes, both federally and non federally recognized, will go to Tazbah Rose Chavez (Dinè, Nüümü, San Carlos Apache). Both fellows were recognized at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Native Forum Celebration Presented by NBCUniversal Launch and Nia Tero at The Park in Park City, Utah.