Santa Barbara Film Fest to Honor LA LA LAND's Emma Stone & Ryan Gosling

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival announced today that Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling will be presented with the 2017 Outstanding Performers of the Year award on Friday, February 3, 2017 for their remarkable performances in DAMIEN Chazelle's dazzling La La Land, from Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment label. This marks the first time Stone has been honored by the festival and will be a return for Gosling who was the inaugural recipient of the Cinema Vanguard Award in 2008.

The tribute, which will take place at Santa Barbara's historic Arlington Theatre, will be moderated by SBIFF's Executive Director Roger Durling. The 32nd annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place from Wednesday, February 1 through Saturday, February 11.

Durling stated, "Ryan and Emma's luminous performances in La La Land remind us of the transformative and magical role of cinema. We are so proud to celebrate them and this incredible film and its nod to the classic love stories of Old Hollywood with a contemporary twist."

Gosling and Stone will join a recognized group of previous Outstanding Performer Award recipients, including Brie Larson and Saoirse Ronan, Steve Carell, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Viola Davis, James Franco, Colin Firth, Penelope Cruz, Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren, Heath Ledger, Kate Winslet and Charlize Theron.

Written and directed by Academy Award® nominee DAMIEN Chazelle, La La Land, set in modern day Los Angeles, tells the story of Mia (Stone), an aspiring actress, and Sebastian (Gosling), a dedicated jazz musician, who are struggling to make ends meet in a city known for crushing hopes and breaking hearts.

The festival announced that Warren Beatty (Rules Don't Apply) will be honored with its Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film and will honor Aaron Taylor Johnson (Nocturnal Animals), Dev Patel (Lion), Janelle Monáe (Hidden Figures, Moonlight), Mahershala Ali (Moonlight), Naomie Harris (Moonlight), Ruth Negga (Loving), Simon Helberg (Florence Foster Jenkins), and Stephen McKinley Henderson (Fences), with the Virtuoso Award among additional, yet to be announced, honorees.

For more information, and to purchase tickets, festival passes and packages, please visit www.sbiff.org.

About the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts and educational organization dedicated to discovering and showcasing the best in independent and international cinema. Over the past 30 years, SBIFF has become one of the leading film festivals in the United States - attracting 90,000 attendees and offering 11 days of 200+ films, tributes and symposiums, fulfilling their mission to engage, enrich, and inspire the Santa Barbara community through film.

SBIFF continues its commitment to education and the community through free programs like its 10-10-10 Student Filmmaking and Screenwriting Competitions, Mike's Field Trip to the Movies, National Film Studies Program, AppleBox Family Films, 3rd Weekend and educational seminars. This past June, SBIFF entered a new era with the acquisition of the historic and beloved Riviera Theatre. The theatre is SBIFF's new home and is the catalyst for program expansion and marks the first time that Santa Barbara has had a 24/7 community center to expand their mission of educational outreach.

About Ryan Gosling
Landing the controversial lead role in the filmThe Believer was a career BREAKTHROUGH for RYAN GOSLING. After his performance garnered rave reviews and industry-wide attention, the film won the Grand Jury prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival®. Gosling also received Best Actor nominations from the Film INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS and the London Film Critics' Circle.

Gosling continued to receive strong critical praise for his follow-up performances in both the independent feature The Slaughter Rule, opposite David Morse, and the psychological thriller Murder by Numbers, opposite Sandra Bullock. Subsequently, he starred in the blockbuster romantic drama The Notebook, and the New Line thriller Fracture, opposite Anthony Hopkins. In 2004, he was lauded as ShoWest's Male Star of Tomorrow.

In 2007, Gosling received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Actor for his role in Half Nelson as 'Dan', a drug-addicted inner city junior high school teacher. He also garnered Best Actor nominations from the Screen Actors Guild™, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Online Film Critics' Society, the Toronto Film Critics Association, and the Satellite Awards. He received the Male BREAKTHROUGH Performance Award from the National Board of Review and won Best Actor Awards from both the Seattle and Stockholm International Film Festivals.

The following year Gosling was honored again with both a Golden Globe® and Screen Actors Guild™ Actor nomination for his work in Lars and The Real Girl, and once more by the HFPA in 2011 for the drama Blue Valentine, opposite Michelle Williams.

In 2011 Gosling starred alongside Steve Carell and Julianne Moore in the marital crisis comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love. That same year he starred in Drive, an action film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, and George Clooney'sThe Ides of March. Gosling was noticed as "one of the most exciting actors of his generation," by Manohla Dargis, critic for The New York Times.

In 2012, Gosling teamed up again with director Derek Cianfrance in Place Beyond the Pines, alongside Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes. Gosling was also seen in Warner Bros'Gangster Squad, directed by Ruben Fleischer, also starring Emma Stone, Sean Penn and Josh Brolin. He worked with director Nicolas Winding Refn for the second time in Only God Forgives.

Gosling's directorial debut Lost River was released April 2015. Later that year, he starred alongside Christian Bale, Steve Carell and Brad Pitt in the Paramount film The Big Short, written and directed by Adam McKay. Gosling was also seen in the Shane Black directed comedy The Nice Guys, alongside Russell Crowe, which premiered at the 2016 Cannes International Film Festival and will soon be seen in the highly anticipated DAMIEN Chazelle film LaLa Land alongside Emma Stone.

Gosling can be seen next in the Terrence Malick film Weightless. He is currently in production on Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner2049.

About Emma Stone
With her striking beauty and sincere talent, Academy Award® nominated actress, EMMA STONE has claimed her role as one of Hollywood's most sought out actresses.

Stone appeared in FOX Searchlight's critically acclaimed film Birdman, which won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the Screen Actors Guild™ Awards, Best Film at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, and Best Picture at the Academy Awards®. Deadline felt Stone was "luminous" and Rolling Stone said the "never-better Emma Stone is raw and revelatory." Her performance landed her an Academy Award® nomination for Best Supporting Actress as well as a Golden Globe®, Screen Actors Guild™, and Film Independent Spirit nomination.

She recently wrapped production on Battle of the Sexes, in which Stone will play Billie Jean King opposite Steve Carell's Bobby Riggs. Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the film will tell the story of former tennis champ Riggs' faceoff against King in a highly-publicized exhibition match. Battle of the Sexes is due out in 2017.

Stone's additional film credits include: Woody Allen's Irrational Man; Cameron Crowe's film Aloha; Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight ; the superhero franchise The Amazing Spiderman, in which she starred in the first two films; the Academy Award® nominated animated film The Croods for Dreamworks Animation; the period drama Gangster Squad; Easy A, which earned her a Golden Globe® nomination and an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance; the award winning drama The Help; the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love; Screen Gems' Friends with Benefits; the independent drama Paperman; the Twentieth Century FOX animated comedy Marmaduke; Columbia Picture's hit comedy Zombieland; the Warner Brothers romantic comedy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past; the Columbia Pictures/Happy Madison hit comedy The House Bunny; Twentieth Century Fox's The Rocker; and the Judd Apatow comedy Superbad.

Stone recently completed her Broadway run playing the iconic 'Sally Bowles' in Rob Marshall's production of Cabaret. The New York Times said, "Emma Stone is scintillating in an irresistible Broadway debut. Her Sally is wild, fierce and heartbreaking - someone you're unlikely to forget. She provides a very good reason to revisit Cabaret."

When she's not filming, Stone is an advocate for Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), a groundbreaking initiative created to accelerate innovative cancer research that will get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives now. Laura Ziskin, the late producer of The Amazing Spiderman, started the organization and got Stone involved. In addition to SU2C, Stone is also an ambassador for Gilda's Club New York City. Named for the late comedian and original cast member of SNL, Gilda Radner, Gilda's Club offers a place where people dealing with cancer can join together to build social and emotional support. Stone has become an active member in the Gilda's Club community and continues to do so by engaging with their younger departments for children and teens.

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