Annette Bening to Receive Inaugural Arlington Award at Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Five-time Academy Award-nominated actress Annette Bening will be honored with the inaugural Arlington Award at the 39th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Bening will receive the award on Friday, February 16, 2024 at an in-person conversation about her career leading up to her acclaimed  performance in this year’s Nyad, directed by Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.

“This is the first award added to our slate in twenty years. It is made to honor an artist who is greatly admired and who has demonstrated an incomparable commitment to film and its craft. Ms. Bening has not only displayed all of those qualities, but is considered by us to be a friend of the film festival. It feels fitting that this award – named after the home of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival – is first given to her,” said Executive Director Roger Durling.

Bening is a celebrated actress across stage and screen. She most recently starred with Jodie Foster in Nyad, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, for which she received her fifth Best Actress Oscar nomination.  Bening also received nominations for American Beauty, The Grifters, The Kids Are All Right and Being Julia, milestones in an impressive 35 year film career that also includes such notable classics as Bugsy, 20th Century Women and The American President.

On stage, Bening was last seen on Broadway in Jack O’Brien’s 2019 revival of Arthur Miller’s classic All My Sons alongside Tracy Letts, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. Past theater credits include: King Lear; Ruth Draper Monologues; The Cherry Orchard; Talking Heads; Hedda Gabler; and Medea. Bening received a Tony Award nomination and won the Clarence Derwent Award for Outstanding Debut Performance of the Season for 1987 Broadway debut in Coastal Disturbances.

Bening joins previously announced honorees Paul Giamatti (Cinema Vanguard Award), Jeffrey Wright (Montecito Award) and the Virtuosos Award recipients are Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, America Ferrera and Andrew Scott.

The 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place live February 7 – February 17, 2024. Official events including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels, and celebrity tributes, will be held throughout the city, including at the historic Arlington Theatre.