Santa Barbara Film Festival to Honor Isabelle Huppert with Montecito Award

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival announced today that Isabelle Huppert will receive their prestigious Montecito Award for her critically acclaimed role in Paul Verhoeven's Elle, a Sony Pictures Classics release. Given to a person in the entertainment industry who has made a great contribution to film, the award will be presented to her at a ceremony on Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at the historic Arlington Theater.

"She's one of the greatest actors ever, and her legacy to cinema is unparalleled," stated SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. "Any film that includes Ms. Huppert is without a doubt immediately worth watching. She elevates any work - she's elevated cinema. It's overdue to celebrate this giant."

Isabelle has appeared in over 100 film and television productions since her debut in 1971's Le Prussien. She rose to prominence after her first César nomination for 1975's Aloïse and after winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for The Lacemaker in 1977. She is the most nominated actress for the César award with a total 15 nominations, winning in 1995 for La Cérémonie. Most recently, Huppert received a Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Actress for her role in Elle.

Huppert's numerous film credits include Rosebud (Otto Preminger), Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino), The Bedroom Window (Curtis Hanson), Going Places (Bertrand Blier), Madame Bovary (Claude Chabrol), I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell) and Amour (Michael Haneke). In addition to her extensive work in film, Huppert has received international acclaim for her stage career. Starting with her work in A Month in the Country, she has been nominated for six Molière Awards, including for her role in this year's Phaedra.

The Montecito Award is named after one of the most beautiful and stylish areas in Santa Barbara. Past recipients include Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey, Daniel Day-Lewis, Geoffrey Rush, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Javier Bardem, Bill Condon, and Naomi Watts.

The festival previously honored Warren Beatty (Rules Don't Apply) with its Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film and has announced that it will honor Denzel Washington (Fences) with its Maltin Modern Master Award; Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone (La La Land) with its Outstanding Performers of the Year Award; and 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.

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