Angelina Jolie will receive the Maltin Modern Master Award at the 40th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the festival announced on Wednesday. Her latest film, “Maria,” which was directed by Pablo Larraín and in which she plays famed opera singer Maria Callas, will be released in select theaters on Nov. 27 before streaming on Netflix on Dec. 11.
The Maltin Modern Master Award is named after film critic Leonard Maltin, who has been a moderator at the Santa Barbara film festival for many years, and it recognizes an “individual who has enriched our culture through accomplishments in the motion picture industry,” according to the festival. “Angelina Jolie makes bold choices, both as an actress and as a director,” Maltin said via statement. “She sets the bar high in both disciplines and always comes through.”
In addition to “Maria,” which premiered at the 2024 Venice film festival to positive reviews, Jolie debuted her latest directorial effort, “Without Blood,” at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Also written and co-produced by Jolie, the film stars Salma Hayek and Demián Bechir. Last month, Jolie, Hayek and Bechir stopped by TheWrap’s studio in Toronto to discuss the film.
Over the course of her long career, Jolie won an Oscar (for “Girl, Interrupted” in 2000) and has been a globally famous action heroine (the “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” movies, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “Salt”), serious dramatic actress (“A Mighty Heart,” “The Changeling”) and anchoring force in big-budget IP franchises (the “Kung Fu Panda” and “Maleficent” films, “Eternals”). In 2011, she made her feature directorial debut with the Bosnian war drama “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” which she followed with “Unbroken” in 2014, “By the Sea” in 2015 and “First They Killed My Father” in 2017. By that time, she had been devoting herself primarily to her humanitarian work focused on refugees, human rights, environmental conservation, health and education with the United Nations and other organizations.
Previous recipients of the Maltin Modern Master Award include Jamie Lee Curtis, Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, Robert Downey Jr., Denzel Washington, Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, Christopher Plummer, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood and Peter Jackson.
The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place Feb. 4 to Feb. 15, 2025. The lineup of films and the schedule will be announced in January.
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