Apr 13, 2016
Festival
San Francisco, CA — The San Francisco Film Society announced today that Tom McCarthy will be the recipient of the 2016 Kanbar Award for excellence in storytelling at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21–May 5), honoring the acclaimed artist’s contributions to cinema. The tribute will acknowledge McCarthy’s exceptional mastery of character-driven plots that bring audiences along on the psychological journeys of his heroes and antiheroes. The award will be presented to McCarthy at Film Society Awards Night, Monday, April 25, at Fort Mason Center – Herbst Pavillion.
The Film Society and its year-round exhibition, education and filmmaker services will benefit from the Film Society Awards Night fundraiser honoring McCarthy. Mira Nair, the previously announced recipient of the Irving M. Levin Directing Award; Peter Coyote, the previously announced recipient of the George Gund III Craft of Cinema Award for outstanding contributions to the craft of cinema; and the soon to be announced recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award for excellence in acting will also be honored. Heidi Castelein and Victoria Raiser are co-chairs of this year’s gala, which is sponsored by NET-A-PORTER.COM.
Tom McCarthy will also be honored at An Evening with Tom McCarthy, Tuesday April 26, 7:00 pm at BAMPFA in Berkeley. An onstage interview and a selection of clips from his notable screenwriting and directing career will be followed by a screening of The Station Agent (2003).
“Spotlight won Best Picture at the Academy Awards this past year for many reasons, but its precise script, filled with perfectly conceived characters, inarguably set the tone and provided the heart and soul of the film,” said Noah Cowan, Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society. “Tom McCarthy shared the Best Original Screenplay award as a result, acknowledging his mastery of dramatic form. But students of the cinema have been aware of his storytelling prowess, from the sublime The Visitor to the irrepressibly clever Up. We are thrilled that he will join us as a 2016 awardee.”
Tom McCarthy is an Oscar®-winning filmmaker—a prolific writer, director, actor and producer. McCarthy’s most recent film Spotlight, which he co-wrote and directed, won the 2016 Oscar for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Spotlight was nominated for six Oscars in total including one for McCarthy for Best Director. For Spotlight, McCarthy received a Directors Guild of American nomination and two Golden Globe nominations (for Best Screenplay and Best Director); and he won the BAFTA award for Best Original Screenplay, as well as a Writer’s Guild of America Award (for Best Original Screenplay). McCarthy’s previous directorial efforts include The Visitor (which received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for its film’s star Richard Jenkins); Win Win, starring Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan; and his acclaimed first feature The Station Agent, starring Michelle Williams, Peter Dinklage and Patricia Clarkson. McCarthy also co-wrote the animated feature Up, for which he received his first of three Oscar nominations (for Best Original Screenplay). As an actor, McCarthy made his screen debut in the 1992 film Crossing the Bridge and went on to appear in such films as Flags of Our Fathers; Syriana; Good Night, and Good Luck; and Meet the Parents; and in the final season of HBO’s critically acclaimed series The Wire.
The Station Agent: Railway enthusiast Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage) looks forward to a life of solitude and endless solo walks along the railroad tracks when he inherits an abandoned train station, only to find himself pulled into a group of new friends, who push back against his boundaries in Tom McCarthy’s witty, bewitching first feature. The Station Agent marked future Oscar® winner McCarthy as a filmmaker in complete control of his art and craft.
Acknowledging the crucial role that storytelling plays in the creation of great art, the Kanbar Award for excellence in storytelling is made possible through the generosity of Maurice Kanbar, longtime member of the SFFS board of directors, film commissioner and philanthropist with a particular interest in supporting independent filmmakers. Kanbar is the creator of New York’s first multiplex theater and, most recently, Blue Angel Vodka.
Previous recipients of the Kanbar Award are Paul Schrader (2015), Stephen Gaghan (2014), Eric Roth (2013), David Webb Peoples (2012), Frank Pierson (2011), James Schamus (2010), James Toback (2009), Robert Towne (2008), Peter Morgan (2007), Jean-Claude Carrière (2006) and Paul Haggis (2005).
For more information about Film Society Awards Night please call 415-561-5028 or email specialevents@sffs.org.
Tickets to Kanbar Storytelling Award: An Evening with Tom McCarthy: The Station Agent are $20 for SFFS members, $25 for the general public. Tickets for this special event are on sale at sffs.org.
For general information visit festival.sffs.org.
To request interviews or screeners, contact your Festival publicist.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/press.
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