Apr 2, 2012
Festival
The San Francisco Film Society announced today that Judy Davis, one of cinema’s great performers, will be the recipient of the 2012 Peter J. Owens Award at the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19-May 3). The award will be presented to Davis at Film Society Awards Night, Thursday, April 26 at the historic Warfield Theatre.
The Film Society and its highly regarded Youth Education program will be the beneficiary of the star-studded fundraiser honoring Davis; Kenneth Branagh, the previously announced recipient of the Founder’s Directing Award, given to a master of world cinema; and David Webb Peoples, recipient of the Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting. Susie and Pat McBaine and Katie and Todd Traina are chairs of this year’s Film Society Awards Night gala, and Melanie and Larry Blum are the honorary chairs.
“We are elated to present the Peter J. Owens Award to Judy Davis, a consummate talent with a strikingly original onscreen presence,” said Melanie Blum, the San Francisco Film Society’s interim executive director. “From her attention-catching performance in Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant Career (1979) through myriad roles as strong-willed heroines, she has created truly memorable onscreen characters with intelligence, wit and a touch of unpredictability.”
Davis will also be honored at An Evening with Judy Davis at the Castro Theatre, Wednesday, April 25, 7:30 pm. An onstage interview and a selection of clips from her extraordinary career will be followed by a screening of Fred Schepisi’s The Eye of the Storm (Australia 2011). A wide-ranging portrait of a family in decline, this adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Patrick White’s 1973 novel features a triumvirate of tremendous performances in a story about a formerly wealthy matron and her two financially dependent grown children. With Judy Davis, Geoffrey Rush, Charlotte Rampling. Written by Judy Morris. Photographed by Ian Baker. 114 min.
Judy Davis is a leading light of international cinema, renowned for the sublime subtlety and fearless intensity of her work. Davis came to the attention of American audiences in several influential Australian films of the 1980s, beginning with My Brilliant Career (1979). In 1985 came her indelible, Oscar-nominated performance as Adela Quested in David Lean’s A Passage to India (1984). She has twice been nominated for the Oscar and won three Emmys and two Golden Globes. Davis has brought real-world personalities like Judy Garland, Nancy Reagan and George Sand to vivid life, while tackling with equal enthusiasm the edgy fictional creations she’s delivered for directors including Woody Allen (Alice, Celebrity, Deconstructing Harry,Husbands and Wives and the upcoming To Rome with Love), the Coen brothers (Barton Fink) and David Cronenberg (Naked Lunch). Davis is the consummate actor of the modern age.
Named for the longtime San Francisco benefactor of arts and charitable organizations, Peter J. Owens (1936-1991), this award honors an actor whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity.
Previous recipients of the Film Society’s Peter J. Owens Award are Terence Stamp (2011), Robert Duvall (2010), Robert Redford (2009), Maria Bello (2008), Robin Williams (2007), Ed Harris (2006), Joan Allen (2005), Chris Cooper (2004), Dustin Hoffman (2003), Kevin Spacey (2002), Stockard Channing (2001), Winona Ryder (2000), Sean Penn (1999), Nicolas Cage (1998), Annette Bening (1997) and Harvey Keitel (1996). The Peter J. Owens Award is made possible through a grant from the Peter J. Owens Trust at the San Francisco Foundation.
For tickets and information for Film Society Awards Night only call 415-561-5049 or email menglish@sffs.org.
Tickets An Evening with Judy Davis $24 for SFFS members, $30 for the general public. Box office now open online at festival.sffs.org and in person at SF Film Society Cinema (1746 Post Street, Webster/Buchanan). Festival Premier Package now on sale, visit festival.sffs.org for details.
For more information visit festival.sffs.org.
To request interviews or screeners contact your SFIFF publicist.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
55th San Francisco International Film Festival
The 55th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 19-May 3 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre, SF Film Society Cinema and SFMOMA in San Francisco and the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities, featuring 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards and $70,000 in cash prizes, upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests and diverse and engaged audiences with more than 70,000 people in attendance.